The off-season trip to Alaska wasn’t going great so far. Yes, the RV cost us a fraction of the regular rate, and the flights were free with airmiles, but I was beginning to suspect there was a reason for that. Everywhere we went this April, everything was closed, Alaskans only just beginning to emerge from their effective hibernation.

But that was until we hit Denali.

In the summer, Denali National Park is packed with foreign visitors; prices skyrocket and access to the park is only by ‘loser cruiser’ – the old yellow school buses that help to limit the impact of all that interest. In the winter, the park lies largely untouched, except by the occasional hardy dog team and the rare tourists who can afford to rent a sled. This ‘shoulder season’, the first week of April, turned out to be the perfect time to visit.

We paid $10 per person at the park entrance to the most helpful ranger in America (perhaps he hadn’t seen anyone for a few days – we were the only vehicle on the road for the 200 mile journey here!). And then we got the good news: the park road was open until Mile 30, and we could camp inside the park with the RV. Something that is NEVER supposed to be possible, according to every guide I’d read, including the park’s own website.

We were the only vehicle on the dirt road through the park, spotting caribou, elk, snowshoe hares, timber wolves and arctic foxes with no other traffic to frighten them under cover. It was still too early for bear, so we thought, until we found a grizzly's cache of bones and fur while snapping the scenery, and backed slowly into the truck...

Most impressive was Denali itself. Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, is ‘Denali’ or ‘the Great One’ to Alaska’s native Athabaskans. It is gargantuan, and towers over the park in a way that’s not entirely benign. In fact, the mountain claims several climbers every year with its freak weather and icy crevasses. The mountain range and red-yellow taiga and tundra landscapes are some of the wildest and most beautiful places I’ve seen, and like nowhere south of Alaska.

We slept that night, still without seeing a soul, on an outcrop overlooking that barren lunar landscape. At 2am, after it finally got dark, the Northern lights put on a show of eerie green pillars and flashes. I’d been wondering if they really looked like they do in the photos, because they always look a bit artificial, so I was excited to find that they’re as bizarre and unearthly to the naked eye as you imagine.

I would recommend Denali NP to anyone, at any time of year, but ask around and try to get some solitude if you can. It’s one of those grandiose landscapes that makes you feel deliciously small, like the Sahara or the Grand Canyon, and like nowhere else you’ve been. Yes, it’s a long way from Anchorage, but it’ll be the best $10 you spend in Alaska!