The Denali NP Experience

We visited Denali National Park on Jun 8^th, 9^th and 10^th. This posting describes the experience.

The Approach

The park entrance is on George Parks Highway (AK-3) at milepost 237. Our campground was 8 miles north of the park.

The highway drops into a majestic Nenana River gorge as we approach the park.

There’s a commercial tourist center about a mile north of the park entrance. It doesn’t have a town name. The locals call it “Glitter Gulch”. Hotels, cabins, excursions, souvenirs, restaurants, groceries, and gas are available there.

The Entrance

There’s a train station inside the park for visitors arriving from Anchorage, Fairbanks and Talkeetna.

There are seven park campgrounds.

The Visitor Center acquaints us with the park and the Wilderness Access Center gets us into the park. They’re near the park entrance, about a mile apart.

We can arrange for shuttle buses, tour buses and make campground reservations at the Wilderness Access Center.

Travel in the Park

We can drive 14.7 miles into the park without restriction. Travel beyond the Savage River Check Station must be by park shuttle or a tour bus. The buses can take us as far as Kantishna (92 miles into the park), but we won’t be taking the 12 hour round trip.

It took over 20 years to build the Park Road to Kantishna.

Our first visit was late in the day, as a way to get a feel for the park. We went to the Wilderness Access Center (it was closed), drove around in Riley Creek Campground, and made a brief stop at Glitter Gulch.

Our second visit was a mid-day, do-it-yourself excursion. We went to the Visitors Center and drove to Savage River. We repeated the Savage River drive at 8:30pm the same day hoping for different views and more animal sightings.

Our fourth visit included a stop at the Wilderness Access Center, a sled dog demonstration and another do-it-yourself excursion to Savage River.

Denali National Park is the only NPS facility (out of 441) that has a sled dog kennel. They currently have 31 sled dogs. The dogs do real work for the park.

Private cabins

It was a hot day for them

Pens for observation

Wildlife

We didn’t see much on the first 14.7 miles of the Park Road. 

Two baby moose wander along the entrance road

There are bigger moose, too.

There's two-legged wildlife.

Landscape

The vistas are extraordinary. They seem to change with every viewing.

A braided river

FAQs

The two questions most frequently asked by Denali visitors seem to be … will we see it and did we see it? We started searching the horizon for it long before we got to the park area.

There are complications. The weather is ever-changing around the mountains. There’s no chance of seeing it on a cloudy day. If that’s not enough of a challenge, Denali is hard to find if you’re not a tour guide. It’s surrounded by a vast array of high peaks and it’s located about 100 miles from the park entrance.

Park people say about 30% of the visitors actually see Denali in one visit. We have no idea how they arrive at the number. We didn’t see Denali even after going into the park four times. We’ve decided you have to take a tour or shuttle bus beyond Savage River to see Denali and/or a variety of wildlife.

Expectations

The fact we didn't see Denali (the Great One) or many wildlife made it quite clear that a successful Denali experience depended on our expectations. We asked ourselves if we came to see the mountain, the mountain range, the wildlife, experience the wilderness, to enjoy the people we met or to dispel the mystique. Any or all worked for us.

Fun Stuff

We were able to connect with the five California families we met in White River, YT by driving through the Riley Creek Campground inside the park. They were camped in the Bear loop.