On July 4th C needed to work and I hiked the steep 4 mile Savage Alpine Trail. I hadn’t expected the variety of habitats and wildflowers. So many different species were blooming. My labels are a decent guess.

I dawdled, looking at flowers and mountains and hoping to see a pika or marmot. Most of the day I could see rain showers in the distance.

Denali was coy, showing a bit of one shoulder or the other, then briefly both peaks, then completely behind the clouds again. On a rare clear day, there would be views of Denali for much of the hike.

I hiked from Mountain Vista to Savage River then took the bus back. The descent to the river was brutally steep and hard on the knees. Next time I will try it the other direction, but perhaps you have to turn around a lot to look for Denali going that way.

Bring layers! I was quite warm at the lower elevation. But a good chunk of the higher elevation portion is very windy and significantly cooler. I added 3 layers on top of my t-shirt to be comfortable.

I saw many people and many Arctic Ground Squirrels. More on the adorable Ground Squirrels in the next post.