2026-09-13 to 2026-09-26 - A Beautiful End to the Season!
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The final update from my 2026 season in Denali! (Note: we skipped a week due to a beautiful weeklong trip in Washington with friends. I may share some pics from that at some point too)
Thanks to all the friends and family who have kept up with me over the summer! I had an overall amazing summer and found a great community of folks up in Alaska. I'd absolutely recommend trying out that adventurous and cool-sounding job if the opportunity presents itself and you can make it work!
Anyways, read on for the last Denali update.
This place is so darned pretty
I talked about the fall colors in my last blog post, but I hadn't actually seen the FALL COLORS yet. It's a different kind of fall from the deciduous forests of the northeast and midatlantic. However, in Denali, there are stunning, steep mountains whose slopes are painted with broad swaths of yellows and reds below the descending white of the snowline. I must say that such spectacles serve to lend additional splendor to the season.
I was fortunate to have a busy last few weeks filled with time alongside friends and some last little adventures before most people wrapped up their summer seasons!
Fall Colors!
I contributed several pics to this cool little study that they have going on one of our trails. There's a stand setup to line up your phone to take a picture, then you can submit it to help build a timelapse for monitoring forest change, particularly around spruce beetle impacts. This is one especially brightly colored one, but the whole timelapse is quite cool to see.
Views looking out from up the Healy Overlook trail, pleasant little clouds and multicolored slopes!
A grove of quaking aspens glows golden in the morning sunlight! Fun fact these trees grow as one interconnected clonal colony - which means that a grove may form what is technically one enormous living organism.
Looking out towards Sugarloaf across the valley. This picture was taken in the morning, but the evenings were really when the slopes of that mountain would glow.
In a somewhat unfair flex on the other plants, the low-bush blueberry provides delicious berries while also contributing a brilliant red coloration to alpine slopes (see above pictures, that bright red on steep slopes might be blueberry!)
The commute over the season
I walked across the Rock Creek Bridge alongside the park road on my way to work basically everyday (one of the pics on my "walk-to-work tour" from way back in May (2026-05-11 to 2026-05-17 - First Week of Work). I took pics at various points over the season (although they're a bit concentrated at the end due to pretty fall colors + snow combo), and figured it would be fun to make a quick GIF combining them. I fear I was not dedicated enough while taking photos or while making the GIF to actually make the framing line-up (unlike the more professionally organized timelapse I mentioned above), but hopefully it's not too disorienting! See the album if curious for a closer look at the individual pics and for the GIF if it doesn't render properly.
Aurora!
I had never seen the nothern lights before, so when they were out n' about on my second-to-last evening, it was an extra special treat. I missed the strongest and most dazzling display due to being asleep, but I did catch a good period of time before heading off to bed! The long-exposure phone pics bring the contrast out a little bit more than the naked eye, but it was still an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon to see live.
And you could also see stars!
The Big Dipper as seen over C-Camp. It's the thing on the Alaskan flag! It would be clearer - but this was a brilliant, almost full moon lighting up the night enough to cast moonshadows, which makes the stars' brightness pale in comparison.
Final adventures of the season
Wow! Where is this intrepid explorer going?! Fun fact - he's actually heading back down early since the bears (cool to see from a safe distance) further up the mountain turned him and his hiking partner around from climbing up. That's just part of the adventure though! Sometimes the mountain turns you around, sometimes the wildlife turns you around, and sometimes it just doesn't make sense to keep going up. Regardless, part of the joy is in the journey and the time spent moving your body outdoors.
Views from a very windy Savage Alpine trail the morning before heading out!
I also got in a fun final packrafting session of the season on the Nenana and some final trail runs over the last weeks before heading out! All-in-all, I got in some great adventures this summer and have many ideas for future ones if/when I return to Alaska!
The Goodbyes
Bye to people
We'll just briefly mention the bittersweet nature of saying goodbye to friends made over the season before you all go your separate ways. Wherever the next adventure takes you, at least the memories and time spent living and working together in a beautiful place will stick with you. It's all part of the magic and the challenge of seasonal work.
Bye to Manny
Took Manny out for one last run and said bye to him. He stood there stoically as always after a run and accepted my pets. I'd like to think he would be a little more sad if he understood our runs were done for the season though :(. It was super fun helping out with walking/running him this summer though and nice to have a tireless running buddy (as long it was cold enough out...). The Denali Sled Dog Kennels are a great operation!
And away I fly!
On my final day, a very generous friend helped me get the the airport after that last little morning hike! Due to getting a packraft and associated gear over the summer, I had to check an additional duffel bag - meaning my grand total for luggage weight was probably roughly my body weight. This arrangement made for slow moving in the airport, but I was technically able to carry everything and fortunately I didn't have to go too far on either end!