SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019
BACKPACKER.COM 17
tumbling down. Several seconds
later, I hear its rumble. The mountain
seems alive.
The next day I clamber across the
moraine of Peters Glacier and up the
adjacent hillside where the hiking
is better. I’m walking atop the same
foothills I’ve seen in every photo-
graph of Denali taken from Wonder
Lake since Ansel Adams, except
now I’m in the picture, noticing tiny
details in the patchwork tundra.
One more hill brings my first
close-up view of the Wickersham
Wall—it rises higher than I think pos-
sible. But, oddly, it isn’t the scale that
awes me; it’s the silence. Having left
the river behind, the quiet adds to the
sense of space. It almost seems unfair
to have it to myself. Almost.
But then, in the other direction, I
see the 20-plus miles I need to hike by
4 p.m. tomorrow to catch the last bus
back to the park entrance. I take one
la st look at Dena li a nd decide it ’s not
unfair to claim a front row seat you’ve
earned. It’s the entire point.
TRAILHEAD McKinley Bar PERMIT
Required; obtain at the Denali Visitor
Center no more than 1 day in advance.
SEASON For experienced packraft-
ers, late June to early September; for
hikers fording the McKinley River,
late August to early September NOTE
Experts only INFO nps.gov/dena
For more than 17,0 0 0 years , humans have
hunted, fi shed, and lived along the swampy
banks of the Ocmulgee River in what is now
Georgia. The lack of development on much
of the land means that hundreds of historic
sites sit undisturbed among the cypress trees
and chalk prairies. This cultural history drove
Congress to quadruple the size of the Ocmulgee
Mounds National Historic Park (formerly a
National Monument) in March, but researchers
at nearby Mercer University say it’s not enough.
In order to protect the ancient burial mounds,
as well as younger sites like Muscogee Native
American settlements and African-American
cemeteries, the researchers propose protect-
ing 50,000 more acres along the river. When
Congress renamed the park, it also gave the
NPS three years to study whether nearby land
was important enough to protect—research-
ers are providing their reports to the Service
to help urge them toward “yes .” To learn more
about the eff ort to protect the historic land, visit
ocmulgeepark.org
SAVE THE OCMULGEE
MOUNDS NATIONAL
HISTORICAL PARK, GA
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