NORTHERN EXPOSURE
Denali Park Zipline has overcome a host of hurdles to offer off-the-grid adventure in the Alaskan wilderness.
BY PETER OLIVER
“We choose to go to the moon and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” President John F. Kennedy famously said in 1962. That sentiment might fairly apply to living in backcountry Alaska in general and operating a zip line tour there in particular. When the Davis family decided to create Denali Park Zipline in 2015, the hardness of the project was of Alas- kan proportions. They had chosen a location, at the edge of Denali National Park and more or less out in the middle of nowhere, accessible only via a 3-mile, boulder-strewn road resembling a dry riverbed. The zip-line-tour-to-be would be off the grid—no public electricity. The characteristic constituents of the boreal environment—spongy tundra, stunted tree growth, permafrost—
Clockwise: The adventure begins with a UTV ride up a rugged, 3-mile-long access road; the guide-led tour includes some short hikes through the boreal forest between zip lines; ground school at the off-the-grid, solar-powered welcome center.
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