June 2024 - Alaska - Stop 38 - Mt. McKinley/Denali

We arrived at the Princess McKinley Lodge on Sunday, Jun. 30.  We were supposed to spend 1 night at the McKinley Lodge and then take a bus and a train to the Princess Denali Lodge (for 2 nights) at the entrance to Denali National Park. Unfortunately, there was a wildfire at the Denali National Park entrance on Sunday, so the firefighters shut off all power in the area and nobody went to the Denali Lodge for several days.  We were able to see the "Great Mountain" from the McKinley Lodge and hiked a couple of trails there multiple times.  By the time we left the McKinley Lodge on Wednesday, Jul. 3, there was still no power at Denali, s we were able to see the lodge and smoke from the fire on our way to Fairbanks Wednesday morning.  On our way to the McKinley Lodge, we stopped at Talkeetna, 

Fun fact, the mountain called Denali (from the Indian name for "Great One") used to be called Mt. McKinley.  There is only one big mountain, they are the same.  Denali is the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet.  Also, Mt. Everest is higher, but Denali is actually taller when measured from the base of the mountain.  Mt. Everest is higher because it's base is at a higher elevation than Denali. Here is Denali.

Here are more pictures around Talkeetna.

After Talkeetna, we went to the McKinley Lodge, which ended up being a 3 day stay,  We could also see Denali from the Lodge.

We hiked the Hill Trail up to a treehouse built by Pete Nelson and the Lodge trail. 

We finally rode a motorcoach bus to Fairbanks on Wednesday.  We rode by the Princess Denali Lodge and saw smoke from the wildfire.  

Our next post will features some highlights from Fairbanks.