Denali National Park

Once you leave the headquarters area, there aren't established trails, so your plan sounds good. The road may be passable on foot beyond 12.5 mile. Here, to the south – Anchorage, Kenai – we've had very little snow this year.

While the bears usually aren't out yet, this mild winter has seen some of them out of hibernation, so behave much as you would in summer.

Thank you. Last May in my first trip to the park, I went on a mountain bike ride to Polychrome Pass on the Park Road during the shoulder season and had a blast, so I kind of have an idea on what to expect.

Mile 12.5 should be somewhere around the Savage River Campground. With some snow on the ground, I would not expect there to be many excellent trails. However, NPS has some trail cameras up on the trails around the campground, so it's not impossible. Between there and the main entrance area, there are some dayhiking trails, although not long ones for backpacking. Slightly farther out, around the Savage River, it is more open.

–B.G.–

Well, I had a blast in Denali. On Saturday, I parked at the Mountain Vista trailhead (mile 12.5) and followed the sled dog trail west to somewhere to somewhere between the Sanctuary River and Teklanika Campground. I then took the Park Road back for a 25+ mile loop. I came across a dog sled team, four ladies who were cross-country skiing on an 8-day trip from Kantishna and two fat-bikers. The 4 ladies were really happy to see me, as I was probably the first person they had seen since leaving Kantishna 8 days earlier. On Sunday, I stumbled upon a herd of caribou and stalked them for a few hours.

I posted a few photos here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B24JHEMabcAoX3lFUENENTdQZ3M&usp=sharing

Derek

Cool pictures, Derek. Sounds like you had a great trip.

Care to comment on the snow cover/depth? From the pictures it appears pretty sparse. I'm going to be passing through the area in about a month from now. Temperatures are forecasted to be pretty favorable from here on out. Unless April sees a bunch of snow, I'm thinking the snow will be significantly diminished from what's there now.

I'm not quite sure about what the actual snow levels were/are. The dog sled trail was pretty packed and I only postholed a few times when I ventured off-trail. I imagine most of the snow at lower elevations will be gone by the time you get there. I did a mountain bike trip on the Park Road in early May last year and that's pretty much how it was.