This post features student writing.

We all had an amazing night on our first day in the hostel outside Denali. It was hard to wake up at 7:30 but we managed to get in the car at 8:15. We drove to the Denali Education Center, where we met with Allie. She gave us a presentation about Alaskan wildlife and history. When she finished her presentation we prepared our lunch to go hike Mt. Healy.

To hike Mt. Healy we had to follow the Healy Overlook Trail, which was two miles long and five hours in total (out and back).

It was a pretty steep hike but the rain made it really fun. We didn’t see any animals except a rabbit but Allie showed us a big variety of flowers. We even tasted a flower called bluebell that tastes exactly like a cucumber. When we got to the top we had lunch and took some great pictures because we had an amazing view of across Denali National Park.

It started to get really cold so we went down the mountain and back to the hostel. We got back at 3:00 pm and we rested until 5:00, but we got to do laundry and take a shower. Right now is 6:30 and we are having an amazing dinner that Max cooked for us.

— Patricio