Denali weekend

Posted by Alaskology

Posted: March 13, 2009 - 5:14 pm

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The sun sets behind the Alaska Range in a view from Byers Lake in Denali State Park.

Destination: Byers Lake cabin No. 1 in Denali State Park.

Goal: Winter recreation and relaxation.

Mission: Accomplished.

If we had written a script and followed it perfectly, we couldn’t have had a better camping trip last weekend.

Gina and Katelyn hang out on the porch of our cool cabin in Denali State Park.

We headed north on Friday after stopping at Snow City Café for a breakfast for the road. A couple hours later, we pulled into the winter parking lot at Denali State Park. We pulled out the skis, backpacks and such and headed down the trail.

First off, skiing with a full backpack can be a bit challenging. And when you fall – which I did – it takes a bit more effort to right yourself. But the unexpected visit with the snow aside, the ski in was great.

We struggled to find the cabin at first. We’ve been to the park before but never in the winter when the main roads and parking lots are closed and covered with several feet of snow.

Gina and Beezil enjoying our ski across Byers Lake. In the distance is Kesugi Ridge, which makes a great hiking destination in the summertime.

Eventually we found the cabin, and it was heavenly. For any who might be contemplating renting the cabin beware: it is a great cabin for winter; it would be awful in the summer. The cabin sits just a few feet away from a parking lot. Since the lot was closed for the winter, it was as if we were in our own private snow-covered wonderland. In the summer, you’d have cars parked no more than a few yards from your “home.” Yuck!

And, according to information inside the cabin, this is the first cabin that was created in the Alaska State Parks system. It is a log cabin with a sod roof. And it was cool. Burls in the logs were creatively used for shelves and seats. The cabin had enough windows to let some light in, which can be a problem in some public-use cabins.

Cabin No. 1 in Denali State Park: Our snow-covered home last weekend.

But the best thing was we were just a short distance from Byers Lake. So we strapped the skis on several times to take to the flat surface of the lake. Of course, there are no groomed trails, but we followed a couple snowmachine trails and made our own trails when we needed to.

The sun was shining, Mount McKinley was out and it was a fabulous time.

-- Steve

Gina breaks trail across the lake with Kiley following closely behind.