We heard the Sanctuary River in Denali National Park was a good Class II river for packrafting novices. And who could turn down a packrafting trip in Denali National Park?? Apparently the traditional route starts in the town of Cantwell, AK, south of the Denali Park entrance, with a hike up the Windy Creek drainage to Windy Pass, then drop into the headwaters of the Sanctuary River in Denali NP, float out to the road, get picked up by a bus, and hitch back to the car in Cantwell from the Denali Visitor Center. However, we found a couple's blog of their float down the Sanctuary River via hiking up the Teklanika River from within the park. It looked like a beautiful trip so we decided to do it.
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| Rainbow over the Sanctuary headwaters |
A friend of mine and her friend were flying into Alaska to do some climbing and skiing on the Pika Glacier in Denali National Park the same weekend we were packrafting. So we spent today picking her up, grabbing groceries, then picking her friend up (she missed her flight so we picked her up later). After everyone and all gear were accounted for (4 people and all their backpacking/packrafting/mountaineering/rockclimbing/skiing gear!) we drove out to Talkeetna for the night. We stayed in a wonderful little hostel called House of Seven Trees. We secured our gear and headed out for dinner at Denali Brewery.
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| Alaska's state flower: wild Forget-Me-Nots |
After our tasty dinner, we wandered around Talkeetna for a while, skipping rocks on the Susitna River, enjoying the long daylight hours. We eventually got back to the hostel where we found three Romanian guys celebrating. They finished an ascent of Denali in which fortunate weather allowed them to do it in 10 days! They were interviewing one of the Denali park rangers who was stationed at the Talkeetna ranger station because he worked as a translator for President Nixon's visit to Romania in 1969. The Romanians were very jubilant and freely offered tasty Romanian treats and booze to everyone. It was fun to get to know them and hear their stories. Now it's time for bed!
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| Teklanika River |
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