Day 7 • Denali National Park • 112 mi

The wildlife in Denali National Park are quite well adapted to handle the biting, bitter cold of winter. On warm, clear, sunny days in June, it seems they decide that being hot is worse than being hungry, and stay out of sight.

Something else shows up on such days, though...

Denali (Mount McKinley if you're feeling particularly colonial).

To give some sense of perspective, Denali has two peaks, hidden by those two peaks of clouds. Those peaks are two miles apart.

The clouds (and wildfire smoke) wrapping the mountain are capricious—at 20,320 ft, the mountain creates its own weather. Seeing Denali is more luck than anything else... On Day 5 and 6 the mountain was completely shrouded.

We rode the 11-hour bus to Wonder Lake today (although our campsite location lets us pick up the bus one hour in and exit one hour early), but we hopped off ten minutes early to try to get a shot of Denali in Reflection Pond.

Ah well, can't win 'em all.

On the way back we stopped so I could climb one of the few actual trails in the park: the Eielson Alpine trail, a short hike up from the Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66. 1,000 ft of elevation gain really pays off.

Wildlife count: 2 caribou, 4 gyrfalcons, 6 Dall sheep, 2 golden eagle

Total mileage: 72 mi of bus