After our successful, albeit super wet, sea kayak adventures in Prince William Sound, we packed all our stuff up again and headed north, making a one night stop in Anchorage to do some additional shopping, most importantly a real rain jacket for Jen.
Our destination was Denali State Park, not to be confused with Denali National Park. Denali State Park is located adjacent and just South East from Denali National Park, and is probably one of the best places to actually see Denali (Mt McKinley) and all of its surrounding mountains from.
The hiking plans had a logistical element to it that I was hoping wouldn’t be a problem. Basically we wanted to do a point to point hike which mandated that we had to get our rental car or ourselves moved from one end of the hike to the other. We opted to drop my Dad and all our backpacks off at the start of the hike, while Jen and I drove down to where we would end our hike. We parked the car here and walked back out to the road hoping that somebody would be kind enough to drive us back to where my Dad was waiting. The THIRD car we saw picked us up! It was that easy. We were back with my Dad in no time.
The hike we did follows the Kesugi Ridge Trail from the Little Coal Creek trail head to Byers Lake where we had parked the car. The profile is simplistically a climb up to the ridge, then along the ridge until it drops back down; the hike along and on top of the ridge offering great views into the big mountains within Denali National Park. That is, if the weather had cooperated. The clouds still hang low obscuring any views of the mountains.
As promised, the trail started climbing right off the bat, and we quickly gained altitude. After a while we actually climbed OUT of some of the clouds that were hovering just above the valley floor below us. Getting out of the clouds provided for more pleasant conditions and somewhat of a better view. We kept climbing and shortly hereafter found ourselves above the trees. The trail was getting even steeper. Switch-backs apparently is not a concept the Alaskan trail builders have chosen to incorporate into their trail design. We crossed scree fields that without the heavy packs would have been a breeze, but proved challenging with our recently acquired higher center of gravity.
Only a few miles into our hike, but after a significant amount of climbing, we came across a somewhat sheltered area at the base of the actual Kesugi Ridge that looked for camping. We pitched our tents here and climbed into them as soon as we had finished dinner. It was cold up here, the wind was blowing, and the gray skies provided for no sunlight.
The next morning the weather wasn’t much better to our disappointment. That day was going to be the day we would hike the ridge, and we were anxious to take advantage of being up this high with a direct view of the Alaskan Range including Mt McKinley (aka Denali). But hey, it is what it is, so we packed up camped and started hiking south along the ridge. The trail was easy going now, meandering on top of the ridge, without much climbing or descending. My feet, however, were already feeling the climb from the day before. It wasn’t a surprise, though. I unfortunately always seem to have trouble with my feet when hiking, probably even more so these days where I don’t have to go to an office and wear ‘real’ shoes.
As we were hiking the weather started to clear up! We were provided with small glimpse of the mountains. Not much at first, but it was getting better. The clearer weather also allowed us to spot a local – a giant brown bear that was walking around not that far away from the trail we were hiking. We stopped for a while to inspect this gigantic bear. Glad to actually have been this lucky to see a bear, and also glad that he wasn’t any closer! The bear didn’t seem to have noticed our presence as it simply went about doing its thing which I assume entailed munching on berries, of which there were LOTS in this area.
We continued on the trail, crossing streams here and there, and just simply enjoying the hike and taking more and more photos of the mountains to the west that looked clearer and clearer. We even saw another bear. This time a brown bear. We actually ended up seeing more bears than people on this hike! After 10 miles or so we found a PERFECT spot for camping. While we would have liked to hike a little further to accommodate our schedule, this spot was so ideal that we couldn’t pass it up! It was dry. It had plenty of flat spots for our tents. There was nearby water, and it had THE BEST thinkable view of the Alaska Range if the clouds around the mountains would just lift!
Jen spotted a nice rock to function as a work surface for cooking and later to dine on as a table – she did this every evening. It was great. While Jen cooked yet another fabulous dinner, my Dad and I put up the tents. We joined Jen at the cooking area which as always was a bit away from our sleeping area due to the aforementioned bears that clearly were found in this area.
The dinner was great and this evening was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was showing itself from one of its better sides. We were sipping whiskey after dinner and were simply having a grand time when the evening got even better: We could finally see Mt McKinley. And WOW! The mountains around Mt McKinley are high, but Mt McKinley is about twice that! Towering almost 18,000 ft over the valley floor that too was visible from our location. This was clearly one of the highlights on our trip. What a great day.
The next day the clouds had yet again closed in on us and were obscuring the views of the Alaskan Range. We broke down camp and continued our hike south. After about 2 miles or so we came across a trail intersection that more precisely placed us on the map and revealed that we hadn’t quite hiked as much yesterday as we had hoped, and that this day would be really long. We didn’t have a schedule per se, but we did have to be back in Anchorage before our flights out of there, and we wanted to be back to REI on Sunday in time to return the bear canisters we had rented there. Alas, hike we did. And we did it for a long time. And through difficult terrain as the trail dropped down from the ridge into a overgrown, wet muddy drainage area. The trail only dipped down into this area for a relatively short distance before it climbed back up into the tundra, but it still took quite a bit of time to travel through it, and all the descending and ascending wrecked havoc on my feet.
It was late before we finally decided that we had hiked far enough to allow us to finish up the hike the next day in time to be back in Anchorage before REI closed. All 3 of us were tired from a long day of hiking, and to top it off we had gotten drenched by a shower just the last 20 minutes or so of our hike. Jen went down to the nearby lake to get some water for making dinner, while my Dad and I put up the tents. Getting ready for making dinner we saw yet another bear. This time again a black bear. It wasn’t as big as the brown bear we had seen earlier, but it was still a bear! After a while the bear finally decided to walk away from us and disappeared over a hill. I’m pretty sure he knew we were there.
The plan for the next morning was to get up early to ensure we would be back at our rental car early enough to drive to Anchorage before REI closed, so we sat the alarm and got up early as planned. From here, though, the plans got a little derailed. Yet another black bear decided to make a visit. It was probably the same bear as the one from the night before, but I wasn’t going to ask him to make sure. The bear was heading towards us, more specifically, the area were Jen was on her way to for filtering water. We waited and waited, and the bear finally decided to move away from us. He would go from moving slowing to running. Its simply amazing how quick those big animals can move.
We got on with our plans as soon as the bear were moving away from us. Jen got water. My Dad and I packed up the tents, and we were shortly on our way back to the car. The distance back wasn’t great, but the terrain once again proved to make for slow traveling. The steep descent down in particular was challenging. Somebody should really tell the Alaska trail builders about switchbacks! Even down from the ridge, the trail still seemed to go on and on despite us going at a good clip. We eventually made it back to the car with plenty of time to both share and enjoy the one beer that was left back in the car plus make a stop for lunch in Trapper Creek on our way back to Anchorage.
Back in Anchorage, we got the bear canisters returned to REI. We got checked into a hotel room, got a much needed shower and then headed out for yet another Alaskan fresh fried fish meal and a much deserved beer. It was a great evening, looking back at the past 10 days of adventures. We couldn’t stop talking about all the things we had experienced and, now on the backside of it, how the weather had added to it all in a way you just don’t get had we had nothing but blue skies.
Thanks to both Jen and my Dad for an absolutely amazing vacation. I love you both so much. Thanks for wanting to share this kind of vacation, and for enjoying it! I do know people for who this vacation would had been their worst nightmare…
For more reading, check out Jen’s writeup or my write up from the kayak leg of the trip.
