We arrived at the Wilderness Access Center, obtained our permit, bear canister and found the next bus heading to Savage River. I was unaware, but should you be planning a backcountry trip in Denali they require you to have a bear canister for your food. This canister was larger than our food, had no tie-downs or straps, and weighs a bunch. I was less than thrilled having to work this thing into my packing strategy. In addition, make sure that the wilderness unit you will be camping in is not full as they allow only a certain number of campers each night in each unit. Luckily ours was not, but had it been a nice weekend we may have been out of luck.
The green bus gave us a ride to the Savage River bridge. In hindsight, we could have left from the Savage River campground and saved ourselves about 2 miles, but whatever. We repacked with the canister and headed upstream on the banks as thunderstorms approached. Thunder is rare in Anchorage, so the thunderstorm was a treat reminiscent of Michigan. It rained for a brief period and then became scattered, decreasing as we climbed farther up valley. We alternated between caribou trials, game trails, and riverbank walking until we were a draw or two deep in the valley where we set up camp.
The next morning we continued up the valley along the riverbank which carried us most of the way and made for easy walking. The weather was prime with billowy white clouds in sunny sky and a gentle cool breeze that kept us comfortable. We spotted a cow and large bull caribou as well as numerous moose and caribou sheds/skulls. Lunch was on the last bit of the riverbed before we headed up to the pass through grassy fields chuck full of wildflowers.
The pass proper was unremarkable when compared to views and scenery on either side. Still interesting, though, was the spring from the top which flowed down to both East and West. We had an easy descent down into the Sanctuary drainage with the continuously impressive vista of the Sanctuary valley, fields of fireweed, ground squirrels darting and chirping, mountain goats on the ridgeline, and the storm clouds gathering to the north while we still enjoyed sunny ones.
As mentioned the descent was easy and we arrived at the river, rearranged gear, inflated our packrafts and started floating. I was worried there wouldn't be enough water given what the upper Savage looked like and having never seen the Sanctuary, but there was plenty. We didn't drag butt at all and the water level was just right all the way to the bridge(~7ft-ish). We did the float in about 2.5 hours. We started in clear/partly cloudy skies, floated through sprinkles with rain elsewhere, and even saw a rainbow. The rain had enriched the greenery, especially as the river left the valley and into the open. The river was an ideal float in my mind. It was just splashy and curvy enough to not be boring, but just tame enough that I could still look around and enjoy the scenery. It was a good speed and volume with no sweepers or log jams.
The park bus picked us up from the Sanctuary bridge, we rode back to the care in sunshine with good views of the park. At the car we encountered an Idahoan who had floated the same but came in from the Calico Creek side(west) and higher up valley. He said he had been rained on a lot and had poor weather, so I guess we lucked out considering that route was our alternative. Impressively, he had been touring and packrafting all over Canada and Alaska, managing to do all this from a motorcycle and his raft fit in his saddlebags in addition to all his other gear.
Anyway, I would highly recommend this trip. I finally made it to Denali National Park(other than the mountain proper) and it was great. I would go back in a second.
I used the map and route in red from Go Play Outside! blog as a guide but the blue is more like what we actually did. Major differences include our start point and that we went up the West side of the river the entire time.
