steelfrog wrote:That's kinda what i was looking at--that or chugash or Denali NP. To give you an idea, I love multi-day backpacks in Sequoia Kings Canyon or Yosemite high country. Anything like that up there, where you can get some isolation and get high a little bit?
I can give you the low-down for Denali if you're interested. Just know that Alaska isn't like California, or Colorado, or anything you've experienced before. It's nothing like the 'high country' of the American West. Terrain is usually either rolling boggy tundra/spruce forest, insanely thick alders/willows, or desolate chossy ridgelines. And the lack of trails makes things very slow going. Be prepared for a high of 40 degrees and rain every hour of every single day June, July, and August. If you can survive in those conditions, you're in for the time of your life. If you're out more than a couple nights (and thus will have trouble drying things), don't bring down. Most people use a synthetic sleeping bag rated from 10 - 20 degrees in the summer. A low of 25 degrees in July at 2,000' is common, so it's about 15 degrees at 4,000'.
Also, know that the sun doesn't really set between mid-May and mid-August, so you can hike 24 hours a day.
Treeline is around 3,000. In the interior (Denali, north side of Wrangell) roped glacier skills aren't necessary on the smaller, lower glaciers, that tend to be either melted out or covered in moraine. But the coastal side of the mountains have some big full-on glaciers though.
If you really want an experience, you can get dropped off by aircraft in the more remote parks; Wrangell-St. Elias, Lake Clark, Gates of the Arctic, Noatak, Kobuk, etc.
Isolation is easy to find, even in Denali, which is quite popular.