Denali meaning 'The High One' is the Athabascan Indian name for the highest mountain in North America. In 1896 it was renamed 'Mount McKinley' by the white folk, eventually it regained its original name. Denali Park & Preserve covers 6 million acres, and 2 million of that is designated protected wilderness, that means no one can live there and it should remain as it has been for hundreds of years. We were so looking forward to doing some decent hiking but on arrival I was a little downhearted as it all seemed so difficult. Our English mountains are criss crossed with a multitude of paths that are marked on the map and relatively easy to follow, Scotland has less paths and they aren't always marked on the map, Denali does not have paths! That's not strictly true, there is one road stretching for 92 miles into the park. There are a selection of marked trails leading off from the first 15 miles of the road (which is paved) and you care allowed to drive along. Most of the trails seemed to be low and in the trees and not ascending peaks which is what we wanted. After the 15-mile marker, it's a gravel road and you have to take an official bus in and out, and from here on it is wilderness walking and camping. The area is broken down into sectors and they only allow so many people in each sector at a time. You can camp anywhere so long as you are 1 mile from the road and out of site of the buses. The problems are many, you have to choose a route and obtain a permit for each day for each sector you will be in, numbers are really limited so planning a route is painstakingly difficult as you find that the quota for some sectors is already full. Once you have your permit you have to route find where there are no paths through scrub, bush, open tundra, forest, across rivers and creeks without bridges, up and down steep hillsides, across snow and possibly glaciers. The maps of the park are not easy to navigate with compared to British OS maps. Then there is the wildlife. There are grizzly bears, moose and Caribou to contend with. Food has to be stored outside your tent in bearproof containers. Some go so far as to leave their sweaty walking clothes outside the tent and wear clean to sleep in as bears are attracted to sweat and deodorants. Then there is the chance you might stumble upon a bear whilst walking through thick vegetation. We passed on the wilderness walking option, there were already plenty of people struggling to get permits. We didn't have a map and couldn't find one for sale either. We checked into our RV park and reviewed our options. We arrived in scorching weather and the next day we had more of the same. RV parks seem to be getting more expensive and this one included some are just a yard with camper vans lined up, no trees, no hedges, no privacy. We were shocked to find out a shower token cost 5 Dollars. The showers were separate to the loos and a token lasted 8 minutes which we decided to share between the two of us - speed showering! Second night mine ran out before I had rinsed so Donna was passing me cold water in a soap dish from the sink! We hiked up to the Mount Healy overlook which is a marked trail from the visitor centre. We had great views but couldn't see Denali or any snow-capped mountains as they were too far away. The maintained trail ends at the overlook but we had found out there is a path beyond - great. We walked several more miles and climbed another 300 metres to a narrow rocky ridge. We were still a long way from the summit of Mount Healy and had to turn back from here but it turned out to be a superb day of hiking. You can drive to mile 9 on the park road and see Denali mountain but it is still around 70 miles away - we had to get closer. We took the 7.30am bus into the wilderness. It makes lots of stops for views and wildlife encounters. We had only bought a ticket to mile 66, the Eielson visitor centre - that takes 4 hours one way. If you go to the end of the road mile 92 that's a 12-hour day just on the bus. If you are lucky there will be bears or moose on the road or at the roadside, we weren't. At around mile 60 our bus driver told us to close our eyes, he played some dramatic music and we crawled to the brow of a hill, then before us in all her glory stood Denali at 20310 feet, completely devoid of cloud. Statistically this only happens 2 days in July - we were lucky. At Eielson there was in fact a couple of marked trails. Bears could be seen in the distance coming up from the creek. We took the path going down to the creek to get a closer look - the bears we veering away from us and quite distant, no immediate threats. We spoke with a lady who had a camera and lens nearly as long as my arm. I asked if she got any good shots of the bears, she had stopped taking photos and started shouting at the folk sitting by the creek eating their lunch ignorant of the grizzlies just 30 feet behind them that had come out of the bushes as they could smell food. They spotted the bears and moved just in time. Shortly afterwards we met 2 of the people who had the grizzly close encounter. When they realised there were bears so close they immediately went for their cameras not their bear spray. After exploring the creek path Donna enjoyed the fantastic views from the visitor centre and listened to a ranger talk on bears whilst I hiked up a ridge for even better views. What Donna learnt: Bears are classified as black or Brown - Black are the smaller less dangerous ones but they can also be brown in colour. Brown bears are Grizzly bears but they can be black, brown or blond in colour! Blond baby Grizzlys are actually born black and after their first year they change to blond. In Denali it's mainly Grizzly bears (Brown bears - but maybe black, brown or Blond), there are very few Black bears (which are black or brown) as the bigger more aggressive grizzlies eat black bears! So a black brown grizzly will eat a brown black bear but not the other way round. If you encounter a bear you should assess what type it is and its mood, curious or predatory, so if it attacks you know whether to fight back or play dead - don't run as you will not outrun them. If you climb a tree then bears can climb them as well, but Grizzlies (black, brown or blond) cannot climb as high or well as Black bears (black or brown) - confused? Also bear bells attract grizzly bears, you are advised not to use them here, they really are the dinner bell. We have put our away in our bags (muted) and reverted to singing instead. Bears don't like awful singing! During the bus journey back, we did see bears and Caribou. Most people on the bus were overjoyed with the sightings even though you needed binoculars or a serious size camera lens to view the wildlife. Maybe we were very lucky with our close up roadside bear and moose encounters. Believe it or not after arriving back at Tilly and driving to the RV park we saw a Moose right by the roadside, we along with plenty of others jammed the road whilst we paused for a good close up view. The following day was our 15th wedding anniversary, we had decided to splash out and treat ourselves to a flight around Denali, as we took so many photos and video we will blog that separately. After a fantastic flight we drove into the park for another hike - the Savage Alpine trail. Great views once again but Denali was clouded over. Last day here, Donna wanted to visit the sled dog kennels who give a talk and demonstration. During the talk one of the dogs decided to have a monstrously huge poo! We hadn't run out of marked trails but the remaining ones were lower and tree-ee! We did get mountain views though and I added in a circuit around horseshoe lake which was beautiful. Another scorcher of a day, over 30 Deg C again, we expected it to be cold here. After arriving and being downhearted we left after having 4 superb days. Some more Denali trivia - The visitor centres and buses in the park are only open / operating from mid-May to Mid-September. In the winter the park doesn't see many visitors, you can sled dog or snow shoe here but the temperatures are so cold (down to minus 40 Deg C) that most people don't bother. Denali village exists just for the summer season, once that's over the buildings are boarded up, water systems are drained and blasted out with air and everything shuts. It takes the Park rangers 10 weeks to clear the snow off the 92 miles of road in the park in readiness for opening. The sled dogs earn their keep in the winter and are used to haul timber and materials into the park to repair bridges and buildings in the spring. The dogs are more reliable than machines and more environmentally friendly. Denali was first climbed in 1910 but the expedition went to the North peak which is not the highest. They were so exhausted because they carried a spruce tree to the summit and hadn't the strength left to summit the higher South peak. No one believed their story but in 1913 a party of mountaineers walked 120 miles from Fairbanks then climbed to the south peak then the north peak, found the remains of the spruce tree and verified the 1910 expedition account, then they descended and walked 120 miles Back to Fairbanks - wow! Nowadays most climbs are attempted in May or June and the climbers are flown to one of the closer glaciers making it a 3-week ascent / descent. Around half of the climbs are successful.