Location
Denali National Park, Alaska

At the foot of the icebound Alaska Range and accessible only by air, Denali Backcountry Lodge offers an exclusive immersion in remote wilderness that only a few fortunate travelers to Alaska will get to experience. Guests arrive by helicopter, with an eye-level view on the icy flanks of 20,310-foot Denali, weather permitting. The lodge sits on Moose Creek, deep inside Denali National Park 90 miles from the park entrance. Here, silence and solitude prevail, and wildlife roams the tundra and taiga forest surrounding us.

Settle into rustic luxury in your private cedar cabin, the ideal base for a matchless encounter with the rugged wilds of Interior Alaska. Though our location is far from civilization, you won’t be roughing it. Cabins are appointed with a host of amenities to ensure your comfort, including one king or two extra-long full beds with deluxe pillowtop mattresses, individual temperature controls, and blackout curtains so you can sleep when the sun shines at night. Each cabin has a vaulted ceiling and knotty pine walls, a sofa, and a small table with two chairs. You might not expect that food would be a highlight way out here, but dining at Denali Backcountry Lodge receives accolades, with chef-prepared gourmet home cooking featuring seasonal fresh and local ingredients. There’s even a spa and wellness center where you can take a wood-fired sauna, soak in the hot tub, or book a Swedish or hot stone massage.

But the real prize at Denali Backcountry Lodge is the proximity to nature this setting affords. Most park visitors stay just outside the entrance, along a commercial strip that caters to hundreds of tour buses. In contrast, we experience the inner heart of Denali. Choose from a range of activities, including hiking, gold panning, fishing, kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, riding a mountain bike, touring the historic mining settlement of nearby Kantishna, which saw a short-lived gold rush in the early 1900s, or visiting Wonder Lake to get the iconic postcard shot of Denali rising like a white sentinel behind—and possibly a moose in the foreground!