A collection of travel and adventure stories

Anchorage to Denali Photo Trip

Description and Directions >>

Description:
Alaska is a vast and beautiful state, offering spectacular snow-covered mountain ranges and icy glaciers. Denali National Park features Mount McKinley, which is North America's highest mountain at 20,320 feet. Denali also includes wide open meadows for wildlife viewing and encompasses more than 6 million acres.

Activities:
kayaking, boating, fishing, hiking, camping, picnicking, sightseeing

Directions:
Alaska is not as far as you think! We flew from San Francisco to Seattle and then on to Anchorage International Airport. The total flying time was about 5 hours. From Anchorage, we drove south on Hwy 1 (Seward Hwy) toward the Gulf of Alaska and the town of Seward. This driving trip took about 5 hours round-trip.

The trip to Denali National Park takes about 5 hours one-way from Anchorage. Denali is located approx. 240 miles north of Anchorage. Take Hwy 1 north to Hwy 3, the George Parks Highway, and continue on to Denali. During the winter months, the Denali Park Road is open to public vehicles for many miles. However, during the regular seasion, this road is closed to public vehicles at mile 15, and you can continue by shuttle or foot only.

Story Date 4/22/2006
Publish Date 6/11/2006

Story Perspectives >>

According to Mikala: I have always wanted to visit Alaska. When we heard about a weekend photography class being held in Anchorage, we signed up. The workshop was provided by The Rocky Mountain School of Photography (see http://www.rmsp.com for more details). We attended 2 days of very informative lectures on photography. We were anxious to get out and try our new skills. Although we have much more to learn, we enjoyed photographing the beautiful scenery in Alaska.

For our first photo outing, we drove south from Anchorage along the Seward Highway (Hwy 1). Part of this highway runs along the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. Immediately we saw enormous snow covered mountains reflected in the bay. It was amazing to drive along the bottoms of these mountains and through the pass to Seward.

Our second photo outing took us north on the Parks Highway (Hwy 3) to Denali National Park. The first part of this drive did not provide very many photo opportunities. I saw signs for quite a few small lakes, but we only stopped at one for a quick lunch. Of course, the lake was frozen over and the trees were still bare.

As we neared Denali, the view was magnificent. I was awestruck by the massive snow covered mountain ranges. We decided to stop at almost every turnout to take pictures. As we entered Denali National Park, the views were even better. The land spread out toward the mountain peaks. While we were in the park, we only saw a couple other people. We didn't see any bears or moose on this visit. We were able to drive past mile 15, due to the early season. In the regular season, you can only walk or take a shuttle past this point. It was very peaceful to be the only ones around for miles in this very beautiful place.

That evening, we stayed at Denali Lakeview Inn (see http://www.denalilakeview.com). This inn is located about 10 miles north of Denali and is right on the shore of Otto Lake. Each room has a private deck with views of the lake and mountains. I would highly recommend this place! During out stay, the sunset didn't finish until around 11:00pm...very strange if you are not used to it.

The next day, we drove back to Anchorage and stopped many more times to take pictures, even if our hands felt like they were getting frostbitten. Unfortunately, we had to leave the next day.

The beauty of Alaska is more than I imagined. I plan to definitely come back for a longer visit. I am sure the spring and fall seasons are fantastic, although there is something special about the solitude of the winter season.