Denali National Park

We’re in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska - one of our all-time bucket list destinations. Denali is a rugged sub-arctic wilderness where everything is super-sized from the glaciers that cover the mountainsides to the peaks themselves. We're exploring the wilds of Alaska where massive wildlife roam the wilderness.

Denali is massive - over 6 million acres which is slightly larger than the state of Massachusetts. The park sprawls across Alaska’s range about 240 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. Denali itself is North America’s highest mountain peak at more than 20,000 feet above sea-level.

For more than 100 years, the mountain was named after president William McKinley. To the native Athabascan Indians, it has always been known as Denali meaning - The Great One - so in 2015, the name was officially changed. Many climbers, including ourselves, test their mountaineering and wilderness skills here. On our previous visit, we learned how to rescue ourselves should we fall into one of the hundreds of deep crevasses hidden beneath the snow.

We check out a great introductory hike that starts near the visitors’ center. This is a great starter trail, but at the same time, it gains 1700 feet of elevation. Most people opt to maintain on the main trail to get a good view of Denali.

We then head on our way to meet the Denali sled dogs. Sled dogs are a big part of the history and tradition of Denali. They go across the harsh wilderness and snow and bring goods and people into the backcountry areas in the middle of winter. Alaskan Huskies have been bred and trained to pull sleds and want to run more than anything else for thousands of years.

After hanging out with sled dogs, we go on an off-trail mountain hike up to Primrose Ridge. For a park this big, there’s only a handful of maintained trails. In Denali National Park, visitors are encouraged to get off the beaten path as long as everyone spreads out so as not to create new trails. Primrose Ridge rises about 1500 feet above the park. We’re climbing in alpine tundra which means trees don’t grow here because of the extreme cold and high elevation.

Rock the Park is an Emmy award-winning adventure series seen every Saturday on ABC featuring our national parks and other public lands across America and the world. Now in its 6th season, Jack Steward and Colton Smith go off the beaten path to explore magnificent landscapes, incredible wildlife and all the exciting ways to immerse yourself in and around nature. Whether it’s swimming with sea turtles, climbing to the top of a volcano or repelling into a glacier, Jack and Colton are living life to the fullest and inspiring others to do the same.

Join Jack and Colton every week as they post new episodes and new adventures. Go behind the scenes of their hit TV series with Jack’s YouTube series – The Pursuit is Happiness and tune into helpful hacks and how-to’s to make your outdoor adventures the best they can be. And if there’s a park or wilderness you’d like to see or a question or comment for the guys, just leave it for Jack and Colton.

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