Denali National Park Welcomes Its First (and Last) Luxury Hotel

One of the most luxurious lodges in Alaska, and one of the most remote anywhere, has just opened on a rocky glacier outcropping, or nunatak, smack in the middle of Denali National Park. From its wraparound windows, the resort’s guests—a maximum of 10 at any given time—can watch the aurora borealis dance around the sky or survey an endless horizon of jagged peaks blanketed in untouched snow. The only thing between them and the nearest summit is a sheer vertical rock wall that’s twice the height of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper.

It took more than a decade to secure the final permits to build Sheldon Chalet. Construction took three additional years. In the time it takes to get there from Los Angeles, you could almost fly to Tokyo: Arrival includes a six-hour flight to Anchorage, a two-hour drive to the tiny (but charming) town of Talkeetna, and an hour-long helicopter ride to Don Sheldon Amphitheater, a 35-square-mile valley carved by glacial ice in the shadow of North America’s tallest mountain.