Denali means “The Great One” in the language of the native Athabascans, who named the mountain around 10,000 years ago. Maybe they meant the Shy One as something like only 30% of the visitors to Denali ever get to see the mountain. Hearing that, we wanted to maximize our chances, so we carved out 3 days to ideally get a glimpse of the tallest mountain in North America (20310’). And despite clouds for 90% of those 3 days, we got our wish and it was magnificent.
We visited Denali in July/August 2019
Getting
There
You can get to Denali from Anchorage (240 miles south) or Fairbanks (125 miles north). Many of the roads in Alaska would destroy the shocks in your typical family car. But the drive up from Anchorage was easy. There are a handful of places to stay just outside the park entrance, several campgrounds inside the park, and a few private lodges inside the park including the Kantishna Lodge at the very end of the park road. We never made it that far, but it’s something to consider. Note that recently, there was severe damage to the park road and currently the buses only go as far as mile 43. They expect to have it repaired with full access by 2026 – just check http://NPS.gov/dena for updates. Anyway, before venturing into the park, we drove to Talkeetna for a flight tour of the mountain, then stayed at the Talkeetna Denali View Lodge & Cabins which was super comfortable. Talkeetna is an awesome little town with at least one terrific micro brewery.
K2 Aviation
The day of our flight started out fairly clear. A couple hours out of Anchorage on our drive, we gasped as the mountain came into view. It’s hard to describe the beauty and scale. Anyway, our excitement faded as we got a call from the flight operator that they expected our flight would be cancelled later that day. They said we could come to their office and get our refund or be ready in case the flight was cleared. Karma was on our side as we waited at the airstrip. We ended up departing pretty close to our original schedule and had to take a slightly different route, but we didn’t really know the difference. As we increased altitude and were passing into the cloud layer, the pilot came over the radio and advised “if you’ve got a wide angle lens, get it ready cuz you’re about to see one of the most massive things in the world.” As we got above the cloud, the peak dominated the view. Just WOW! Rainy captured several great shots of Denali. It just kept getting bigger and bigger. Our flight to and around the mountain, plus a Ruth Glacier landing/break lasted about 90 glorious minutes. When we were out on the glacier, we couldn’t actually see Denali’s peak, but we could see a chalet up on one of the nearby crests. The pilot told us all about the Sheldon Chalet. It’s got a small handful of rooms and is very exclusive and very expensive. We’re lucky to be able to enjoy so many interesting adventures, but unless we hit the lottery, Sheldon Chalet isn’t in play. Anyway, we’re lucky that taking a flight tour around Denali is in play. In all of our travels to date, the K2 Aviation tour, including landing on one of its glaciers, was one of our best experiences ever. If you’re looking at something like this, spend the $ and do it. Eat out less often or skip the Starbucks for a month (or 12). After our air tour, we hit the brewery and had a good night rest at the lodge. The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, we headed toward the park.
The Park Road
Within the park, the main road runs 93 miles to Kantishna Lodge, but visitors can only drive the first 15 or so to Savage River. To go further on the road, you must reserve space on one of the park buses. We support the access restriction as it helps preserve the solitude of the park. We had reserved space on both the second and third days of our visit. When we arrived at the park Visitor Center, we got our passport stamps and inquired about any upcoming Ranger led tours. Most days, they run one or two Discovery Tours (on the “Disco Bus”) where a ranger leads an off trail wilderness adventure somewhere along that 93 mile road. We were fortunate and landed the last two spots on a moderate hike for our third day. After a successful sign up, we drove to Savage River and took a strenuous hike on the Savage Alpine trail. I think we saw 3 people on the entire 4 mile trek. We didn’t see any wildlife and had no visibility to the mountain (even if it were clear, it wouldn’t be in sight), but the fireweed (flowers) was beautiful. The end of the hike was a super steep downhill trek on broken rocks. Not our favorite, but memorable. There was a free shuttle back to our car at Savage River, so it was a good, productive, tiring first day. We stayed just outside the park at the Grande Denali Lodge which was convenient. On hindsight, we probably would have stayed somewhere cheaper since we were in the park from sunrise to past sunset pretty much every day.
On day 2, we had a bus reservation from the Visitor Center to the Eielson Visitor Center, 64 miles down the park road. Those 64 miles take a LONG time. The Green Bus that took us was your typical school bus with no seat belts. The bus was completely full of excited visitors, all on the look out for wildlife. We did stop several times for wildlife. We saw a moose, several caribou, and a couple of grizzlies (some were so far away, I’m not sure they actually count).
Hey Bear!
We woke up early on day 3 and headed to the park visitor center to catch our Disco Bus. That’s short for Discovery and not an homage to a John Travolta movie. It was looking like a dreary day which was just fine for us. A little rain, a little fog, there’s no such thing as bad weather – only bad gear. We were decked out in appropriate clothing and joined maybe a dozen people for a ranger led off trail hike. We stopped about 30 miles out past Savage River, but well short of Eielson and the bus dropped us all off on the side of the road. Our guide/ranger was fun and energetic as she described what we were about to embark upon. We got the standard bear awareness chat and some special instructions that with the thick fog, not only would our vision (and directions) be impaired, but any bears would also be less aware of our presence. As a result, she encouraged us to keep up a regular chorus of “hey bear” to announce our presence as we walked through the hills. After maybe a half an hour, we paused as the ranger looked around for any landmarks to identify our intended path. She pulled out a map, then a compass, looked around, and pointed out our path. My confidence in surviving the day dipped just below 100%. We continued on with the “hey bear” calls as we crossed several small creeks and ventured into thicker fog and mist. We hadn’t heard or seen any indications of any wildlife. The fog seemed to be dampening any sound at all. When the ranger pulled out the compass again and looked around, one of the hikers, a little kid of maybe 10 years pointed and said “I think this is the way.” The ranger agreed and we headed in that direction. Survival meter now hovering about 95%. We had probably gone 2+ miles when the fog lifted a bit and we could see some of the nearby landscape. The ranger pointed off into the distance and said “there’s the road.” All of us silently breathed a sigh of relief. The tundra was fascinating. While the path to the road appeared to be fairly flat, there were frequent holes in the ground that tripped us up. One time I thought Rainy had disappeared, only to have her hop up with a jubilant “here I am!” I think she was just happy to see the road. The tundra was covered in wild blueberries. They were delicious. A few of the hikers including the 10 year old were getting carried away with their blueberry consumption and nearly missed seeing a herd of caribou that suddenly started running. You could feel the ground shaking and as they shifted direction like a flock of birds. It was reminiscent of a scene from Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs did the same thing. Cool! We made it back to the road and the ranger said a bus should be by within a half an hour. As long as there was room for us, we’d be on our way back. As we stood there, waiting in the light rain, we noticed a mama grizzly and a cub come out of the hilly area where we had hiked not too long ago. We figure that our “hey bear” chants effectively alerted them. They were a least a half a mile off, but headed our way. As some did the math in their heads whether they’d reach us before the bus, I was figuring that the bears would eat the slowest hikers who had overindulged on blueberries, while Rainy and I scooted away. Needless to say, the bus came and the bears veered off for different delicacies. Great experience!
Where To Stay
We stayed at the Grande View Lodge just outside the park. There are numerous places and some look pretty spectacular. The best place really depends on what you plan to do while there. As I wrote earlier, since we were in the park all day, every day, we probably should have just picked a comfortable place to sleep and not a fancy lodge. I’d love to someday stay all the way out at the end of the road at the Kantishna Lodge.
Regardless of where you stay, make it long enough to increase your odds of seeing the mountain. Get your bus reservations early and consider trying for a disco hike. And save room for blueberries.
