Mount Denali is arguably the most iconic mountain in the United States—it is, after all, the tallest mountain in North America! But seeing its snowy peaks isn’t the easiest—just 30% of visitors that stop in Denali National Park actually see “The Great One.” However, if you happen to be visiting the park on a clear day, one of the best places to see Denali is along the Savage Alpine Trail, a hike that takes you along the ridge line of the peaks of the Alaska Mountain range. Here’s everything you need to know about the Savage Alpine Trail, the best hike in Denali National Park.
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About the Savage Alpine Trail
Seeing Mount Denali is on every Alaska visitor’s bucket list. But, even if you go to Denali National Park, seeing the mountain itself isn’t guaranteed—it’s only visible from certain areas of the park on a clear day.
There’s actually only a few hikes in the national park where you can see Mount Denali, including the Mount Healy Overlook Trail, near the Visitor Center, or the Savage Alpine Trail, located from Mile 13 to Mile 15 along Denali Park Road. In fact, I think this trail is one of the best spots in the entire park to take in the enormous mountains, with gorgeous views of its famously snowy peak dominating the vistas along the trail on any clear day.
Plus, beyond just Denali, the views along the trail are simply gorgeous. My husband, Justin, and I spent several days exploring here and the Savage Alpine Trail was absolutely one of favorite things to do in Denali National Park!
Here are some quick stats about the Savage Alpine Trail:
- Length: 4.3 miles
- Elevation gain: 1,463 feet
- Difficulty: Hard
- Type of trail: Point-to-point, meaning you start the trail in one spot and end it in another. Unless you want to walk the additional three miles between the two starting points of the trail (or retrace your steps along the trail), you’ll need to shuttle between the start and the end of your hike.
- Dog friendly? No, you’ll need to leave your dogs at home for this one.
- Trail map
How to get to the Savage Alpine Trail
The Savage Alpine Trail is located in Denali National Park, located in the interior of Alaska, near the town of Healy. The national park is a little over a four hour drive north of Anchorage or a two hour and 15 minute drive south of Fairbanks.
To enter Denali National Park, each visitor needs to have an entrance pass, which costs $15 per person and is good for seven days. Alternatively, you can use a valid interagency pass, like America the Beautiful, to get into the park.
Once you enter Denali, you have a few options of how to get to the Savage Alpine trailhead.
Parking at the trailhead
Driving around Denali is a bit funky.
Most visitors can only drive about 15 miles down the 92 mile long Denali Park Road, due to a landslide that happened along the road in 2021. But, luckily, the trail’s two endpoints are at Mile 12 and 15 and therefore, accessible to any of the park’s visitors with a car.
You can start the trail at either Mile 12, near the Mountain Vista Picnic Area, or Mile 15, near the Savage River, each of which have parking lots.
Unless you want to walk three miles down Denali Park Road, you’ll need to hop on the park’s free Savage River Shuttle at the end of your hike to head back to where you started. This shuttle, which runs every half an hour, is green or tan-colored, with a sign that says “Savage River Shuttle.”
Here is the operating hours and schedule for the shuttle:
- From May 15 through May 19: 8 AM to 8 PM
- From May 20 through September 7: 6:20 am to 10:10 pm
- From September 8 through September 20: 8:20 am to 8:10 pm
During our hike, we parked at Mountain Vista, hiked along the Savage Alpine and Savage Loop Trails, and then hopped on a shuttle at Savage River back to Mountain Vista. I get super anxious about logistical things like this and was worried that we wouldn’t be able to catch the shuttle for some reason, but these worries were all for naught—it was super straightforward and easy!
While you can park at either of these lots, they’re both on the smaller side and can fill up during busier times, like weekends in the summertime. If you plan on parking at the trailhead, I strongly recommend showing up early to ensure you snag a parking spot.
If you’re not a fan of waking up early or both parking lots are full, you can always consider using the alternative method of getting to the trailhead.
Taking a shuttle to the trailhead
Alternatively, you can park in the Denali’s main visitor parking lot, which is large and rarely fills up. From here, you can walk to the Denali Bus Depot and catch the free Savage River shuttle to either the Mountain Vista Picnic Area at Mile 12 or the Savage River at Mile 15.
As mentioned above, the Savage River Shuttle is usually green (although sometimes tan colored) and runs every half hour. Here is the operating hours and schedule for the shuttle:
- From May 15 through May 19: 8 AM to 8 PM
- From May 20 through September 7: 6:20 am to 10:10 pm
- From September 8 through September 20: 8:20 am to 8:10 pm
From the visitor center, it generally takes about 40 minutes to get on the shuttle to the Mountain Vista Picnic Area or about 45 minutes to get to Savage River.
Should you start the hike at Mile 12 or Mile 15?
You can start the hike at either the trailhead at Mile 12 or at Mile 15, but I’d personally recommend starting at Mile 12, given the climb upwards is much less steep from that direction AND you’ll have in-your-face views of Denali on a clear day. Plus, if you’re still up for a bit more hiking once you finish your hike, there’s a great easy trail along the riverside, the Savage River Loop Trail, where you have a great chance of spotting wildlife and taking in unique vistas of the river.
Starting the hike from Mile 15 means the views of Denali will be towards your back, plus your hike will kick off by climbing up a super steep and rocky section—definitely not the way to go!
What to expect along the Savage Alpine Trail
From the Mountain Vista Picnic area, the first quarter mile or so is through a densely wooded forest.
While most of the trail is exposed (and, therefore, easy to spot bears), this section definitely isn’t. So be sure to stay aware of your surroundings and make noise as you’re walking through this area to ensure that any wildlife around you knows that you’re there.
After about 0.3 miles, you’ll pop out into a boggy, grassy area, with a wooden pathway winding through the tall grass. From here on out, you’ll have nothing but spectacular views of the surrounding Alaska Mountains (and, with any luck, some wildlife, like Dall sheep, moose, pika, or even grizzly bears!).
About half a mile in, the trail starts transitions to a dirt pathway, carved on top of a hillside, that gradually starts climbing upwards. At least, you’ll be distracted from all that climbing by the stunning views around you!
After about a mile more of climbing, the trail curves to the left a bit and, if you’re hiking on a clear day, you’ll be treated to your first glimpse of Denali. Even though the mountain is about 70 miles away from the trail and partly obscured by other mountains, it towers above everything around it, with its snowy peaks dominating the landscape.
And good news—for the next mile and a half of the hike, you’ll be able to enjoy views of Denali!
The trail continues to climb higher and higher, with some rockier sections and scree fields along the way.
After about 2.6 miles, you’ll reach the highest point along the trail.
To be honest, we wouldn’t have even realized we had reached the top of the trail if we weren’t following along our hike on AllTrails—there are higher mountain peaks around us that we assumed the trail would lead to, instead of kind of a random spot along its slope. But there is a bit of a flat clearing at the highest point that can serve as a nice place to have a snack or enjoy more of those views of Denali.
From here, the trail heads downhill and starts curving more to the right, providing a different perspective of Denali and the surrounding mountains in the distance.
During the last mile or so, the trail follows along a narrow ridgeline and through some rock formations, where you have to be a bit more cautious of your footing. After this point, you won’t really be able to see Denali anymore, but you will get views of the Savage River to the west, which is beautiful in its own right.
At the end, you can either opt to hike an additional 2.2 miles along the Savage River Loop trail, as mentioned above, or head straight to the shuttle stop to catch a ride back to where you left your car.
When to hike the Savage Alpine Trail
Technically, the trail is open year-round, but it’s not always easy to access.
Denali National Park gets an average of about 80 inches of snow every year and the park’s road past its visitor center is unmaintained (and, therefore, inaccessible) from October 15 through April.
Accordingly, the best time to hike the trail is from May through September, when the trailhead is easily accessible, the shuttle is running, and the pathway should be mostly snow and ice-free. Still, if you’re visiting towards the beginning or end of this timeframe, I’d suggest bringing along some microspikes and trekking poles as there’s a good chance that you may run into some icy patches along the way.
It’s worth mentioning that part of the road, up to Mountain Vista Campground at Mile 13, typically is plowed and reopened around mid-February. However, the road is closed past Mile 13 and the shuttle doesn’t start running until mid-May, so if you choose to hike the trail during this timeframe, you’ll have to hike the trail as an out-and-back 8.6 mile hike.
Another thing to note is that the best time to hike the Savage Alpine Trail is a clear, sunny day. If there’s any kind of cloud coverage, you might not be able to see Denali (it seems like clouds LOVE to hang around its summit).
Unfortunately, the national park is a pretty rainy place, where heavy cloud coverage is incredibly common, especially in July and August. We actually visited Denali in mid-July and wound up camping outside of the park in our RV while it rained for a week straight, just waiting for a sunny day. So, if you have some flexibility in your schedule while you’re in Alaska, I’d suggest budgeting to hang around Denali for at least a couple of days and keep your fingers crossed you get lucky with some sunny weather!
What to bring on the Savage Alpine Trail
Hiking boots
There are some trails that you can get away with just wearing plain ol’ sneakers, but this isn’t one of them, with some sketchy, narrow sections and rocky, uneven areas.
We didn’t run into too much mud along the trail, but, from looking at others’ reviews on AllTrails, mud patches are quite common, so I’d also recommend wearing waterproof boots.
I’ve used this pair of boots for years and LOVE them and these are the ones that Justin uses.
Water
This trail climbs pretty steeply for a couple of miles and is largely exposed to the sun, so be sure to bring plenty of water. Justin and I each bring one of these comically giant Nalgene bottles with us on our hikes, which should be more than enough water for this kind of hike.
You can fill up at the Denali Visitor Center or you can always filter water from the Savage River or a small creek that follows along the first mile and a half of the trail.
Trekking poles
Trekking poles would definitely come in handy on certain areas of the trail—as mentioned above, parts of the uphill climb are steep and some of the downhill portions along rocky stairs feel straight up treacherous.
We actually didn’t bring our hiking poles on this trek and were kicking ourselves that we left them in the car!
Bear spray
Grizzly and black bears are regularly seen along this trail. Bears generally don’t want anything to do with humans, but can become aggressive if you surprise them or they’re trying to protect their young.
Be sure to stay aware of your surroundings while you’re on the trail, know what to do if you see one along the trail (here’s a guide that the National Park Service put together), and carry bear spray so that, in the unlikely event that one becomes aggressive towards you, you can temporarily deter it long enough for you to get away.
Bugspray
You know that old joke about how the state bird of Alaska is a mosquito?
To be honest, we really didn’t have THAT much of a problem with mosquitoes around Alaska, but Denali was one of the few places that we found to be pretty buggy. So make sure to bring along plenty of bug spray!
Sunscreen
The vast majority of this hike is exposed and, if you’re hiking on a sunny day to get those epic views of Denali, you’re going to get direct sun exposure for at least a few hours as you hike this trail. Bring sunglasses, a hat, and sunscreen to protect yourself.
Layers
It’s not unheard of for the temperature to swing thirty degrees throughout the day here, especially if you start early.
We got to the Mountain Vista trailhead parking lot, right after sunrise, when the temperature was in the lower 40s, and, by the time we finished our hike, the temperature had risen to the mid-70s! So pack along some warm and breezier layers that are easy to take off or put on, depending on whether you’re working up a sweat while climbing up a hill or getting blasted with icy winds along one of the ridgelines.
It’s also not a bad idea to bring along a rainjacket (here’s the one that I use and here’s the one that Justin uses), in case you encounter unpredictable weather. We wound up spending over three months in Alaska and, if we learned one thing from our time there, it’s to be ready for unpredictable rain at pretty much anytime!
I hope you enjoy hiking along the Savage Alpine Trail—it was, by FAR, our favorite hike in Denali National Park! Do you have any questions about hiking this trail? Let us know in the comments below!
