Denali National Park--God's Country!

Denali National Park and Preserve is one of those places that you see National Geographic caliber photographs from. To thumb through books about this park does not adequately prepare you for what you will experience first hand. After spending two full days in Denali NP, I think I could spend another two days and still not even scratch the surface.

During our weekend visit, the weather was cooler than average and with quite a bit of drizzle and rain. I don't know what affect the weather had on wildlife sightings, although I must admit that we didn't see nearly as much on the second, rainier day.

During our time visiting Denali, we were blessed by the presence of brown bear (aka grizzlies), moose, caribou, and snowshoe hair. We also saw a quick flash of a fox and a wolf.

Unfortunately, the only real disappointment that we had was not getting to see Mt. McKinley due to cloud cover. The shuttle driver told us to not feel slighted, as only 30% of all park visitors are treated to a full view of the mountain.

Quick Tips:

Be sure to dress warm and in layers. You never really know what to expect regarding the weather. Even within the park, it can change vastly from one end at the park entrance through to the end of the shuttle bus road at Wonder Lake.

Also be sure to take a good quality bug spray as the mosquitoes are thick, big and HUNGRY! Dow Scoggins in his book "Discovering Denali" comments that an average caribou will lose a quart of blood a day to skeeters!

Be sure that you are ready for the photographic opportunities and challenges you will have. The shuttle bus system provided us with decent observations and photo ops, although we had fewer real quality chances during our Tundra Wilderness Tour on the second day. (By the way, we do not recommend it! It is overpriced and shorter as compared with the Wonder Lake Shuttle, the best value!)

Whether you just do the shuttle or a formal bus tour in Denali NP, you will want to be sure to bring plenty of snack type food or even a sandwich . . . and at least two bottles of water.

Best Way To Get Around:

As stated above, the shuttle bus system is the way to go. In fact, it is essentially the only way to go. If you are RV camping in the park, with a reservation, you will be permitted to drive into the park to your campsite. Other than that, however, motor vehicles are not permitted on the park's gravel road beyond the Savage River bridge (approximately 14 miles into the park).

I understand that you can cycle in Denali although I don't recall seeing any bikes in the park during our visits. Probably more to do with the weather than anything else.

If you want to do the shuttle and hike around, you will want to start early. While they promote that you can have unlimited "on and off" rights on the shuttle, you may be disappointed if you start too late in the morning. That was the case for us, starting at 9:15am on the Wonder Lake Shuttle.

If you are planning a trip to Denali NP, you must be prepared to leave your car behind! This national park has done a great job of preserving the natural wonder and beauty of Alaska's Denali National Park (aka: Mt. McKinley).

We ordered our tickets online in December 2005 for this trip. At $33/person, it was well worth it! We got to see a lot of animals, and very close up too. There were several sightings of bears, moose and dall sheep. I have posted additional journals so that I can include more photos than the four attached to this specific journal.

The Alaskan mountains were spectacular!! Still snow capped, the glacier and snow melts were keeping the rivers and creeks flowing. The "braiding" rivers were fascinating to watch as they carve and create their own paths through the valleys of the park.

We only caught a brief glimpse of Mt. McKinley due to the dense clouds and morning rains. They say at only around 30% of all park visitors get to see the full mountain each year.

In theory, the Wonder Lake shuttle allows you on and off privileges throughout the park's 86 mile, 11 hour route. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for our group as we were told that if we were to get off, there was a good possibility that a later bus could be full and unable to take us on. We were disappointed to not have the opportunity to get out and do some day hiking, especially since the weather cleared up nicely during the afternoon ride back from Wonder Lake.

Do not let this personal disappointment keep you away from this "best value" option to see and explore Denali National Park. For the $33 per person, we felt that we did get great value, including a limited narration by our bus driver. They are not expected to give you a "tour" so do not get upset if all you do get is a competent driver. You'll be happy to have that competent driver given the high winding one-lane gravel roads that do not have guardrails or anything to assure that you don't go over the edge.

Be sure to take a good bug repellent with you to Denali NP. In the summer, the mosquitoes can be quite bad. Quoting Dow Scoggins in "Discovering Denali" . . . "Caribou will lose a quart of blood a day to Mosquitoes during the summer months." That speaks to either the sheer number of the buggers or their industrial strength sucking abilities . . . or both!

CAUTION: When considering exploring Denali National Park, buy directly from their official vendor ARAMARK and avoid added mark-up by other local tour companies. There are only one company's buses allowed on the national park road system and it is the official "DENALI" buses from ARAMARK. You should buy your tickets online as soon as you know what your travel plans and dates are: http://www.reservedenali.com/shuttle_bus.php.

If you are planning a trip to Denali NP, you must be prepared to leave your car behind! This national park has done a great job of preserving the natural wonder and beauty of Alaska's Denali National Park (aka: Mt. McKinley).

We were very disappointed with this tour and would not suggest it. It is overpriced ($92 per person) versus the $33 Wonder Lake shuttle, has a cheap "boxed lunch" of a few light snack items, and is short on real value. We especially felt that for the added price, to have a shorter trip into the park made this an especially poor value! The Wonder Lake shuttle goes approximately 86 miles into the park where this tour only went to the Toklat River which is about 54 miles.

The Tundra Wilderness Tour is scheduled for six to eight hours; eight if Mt. McKinley is visible and just six if it is not. Because our weather was rainy and cloudy, you couldn't see the mountain so our trip was cut short.

This guided tour takes place on a modern school bus, packed full with 52 passengers. We were on the morning tour, scheduled as the 15th of 16 bus tours for the AM grouping. (They also offer afternoon tours.)

Wildlife sightings are luck of the draw in general and especially regarding which side of the bus you are seated. For us, on this trip, we were on the quiet side of the bus. What made it worse was the fact that those on the other side of the aisle were not very accommodating to their fellow riders so that we could have access to the windows to take photographs of what few animals were within range of a decent telephoto lens.

Most of the sightings were "white dall dots" on the tops of the mountain ledges or "honey colored bear lumps" on the mountain sides. There were only a couple of decent opportunities to take photographs on this six hour bus ride. I have attached what photos of sleeping bears, a bull moose and a snowshoe hare I did get that were decent.

We ordered our tickets online in December 2005 for this trip. If planning to do this tour, you should buy your tickets as soon as you know what your travel dates are as they do sell out. When we arrived to Denali National Park on Friday, June 30th they were already sold out of the Tundra Wilderness Tour through Sunday afternoon.

CAUTION: There are several tour operators who sell the only tours permitted by Denali National Park for an added mark-up fee. Be sure to buy your tickets directly through the official vendor of the park: http://www.reservedenali.com/.

Denali National Park has a lot to offer anyone who enjoys the outdoors and wildlife. Whether you are primarily into the landscape and mountain scenery, flowers and the flora of Alaska, or the animals and birds, you will find plenty in this vast land of over 6 million acres. (Yes...6 MILLION ACRES!!)

This is a park that requires that all visitors pay a $10 per person admission fee, good for up to 7 days. If you buy a shuttle ticket or a tour in the park, you will have this $10 added to the price of your ticket. As an annual pass holder in the US National Park system, you can obtain a refund of the $10 fee.

We encourage all national park visitors to consider buying an annual pass. For $50, you and your family can enjoy all US National Parks for free. This is a great deal and provides much-needed financial support to these national treasures.

As you drive into the park via the bus system, you will be comfortable and perhaps bored for the first 14 miles, to the Savage River bridge. It is at that point that personal motor vehicles can go no farther. More importantly, perhaps, that is the end of the paved road. Beyond that, the road becomes gravel. And not much farther beyond the point where the road becomes rough, you will soon realize it is just a one-lane road with limited turn-outs for the buses to avoid a head-on collision.

Not to worry, in spite of not having guardrails along the sheer cliff edge of the road, the drivers are competent and able to assure your safety during your journey. If you are a bit squiggy about heights, you may want to avoid the left-hand side of the bus on the way OUT and the other side on the way back. One lady on our bus couldn't look for the entire time we were heading up to and returning from the Polychrome Mountain Pass. Admittedly, it was a straight drop to the valley below.

I have provided journal pages for the major wildlife observed during our 2 days. Please be sure to take a look, especially since I'm pretty proud of the fantastic photos I was able to get during our trips through the park.

The brown bear is also known as the grizzly bear. In Denali National Park, they do not have the salmon and other fish to eat, so they depend primarily on a diet of willows, berries, and the occasional squirrel, hare, or calf (moose and/or caribou). They are smaller than their cousins and lighter in color. They really look like they have bleached-blonde fur, with cubs born dark but lightening in color during their first couple of years.

We were very lucky to see several groups of bears during our time in the park. When looking for them, you typically look for the "haystack" in the brush, although many of our sightings during our Wonder Lake shuttle trip were in open meadows and rather close to the gravel road that traverses the park.

When pulling up to observe these beautiful creatures in their home habitat, the bus driver would get us as close as possible so that everyone could see. Turning off the bus motor helped to keep the bears from being disturbed or distracted. On a couple of our sightings, they were sleeping and would occasionally lift their heads, as though to ask, "Who's here in my bedroom?" They'd look unaffected and lay their head back down.

It was amazing to be that close to these wild animals. It was probably the highlight of my entire Alaskan vacation!!

You may wonder about the black bear. We were told that there are a few black bears in the area, but mostly in forested areas, which isn't really what most of Denali National Park is like. Black bears have been seen down near the Parks Highway entrance to Denali, as well as along the Parks Highway between Cantwell and Healy. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any bears outside of the park.

While were were lucky to see them down around the Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage, there is nothing like seeing the large rams that are the picturesque representation of Denali National Park!

While riding the shuttle or tour buses through the park, if you look up high along the mountain ranges, you may see this faint light white dots traversing across the ledges. With the unaided eye, they really look like white ants crawling high above the valley. Looking through a scope, binoculars, or a telephoto lens, you may be able to make out the dall sheep.

In the summer, the ewes and young ones herd together, while the rams stay together in small groups of two to five. We were able to see a small group of youngsters with the ewes up along a hillside. During the Wonder Lake shuttle ride, we did see two rams making their way through the willow meadows, which was very cool. But the greatest sighting we enjoyed was on our way back from Wonder Lake. As we made the turn just before Polychrome Pass, there were two large rams up high on a peak, not 100 yards from the road. We stayed there for probably 10 or 15 minutes to take photos. While we were all pleased with this special photo-op, imagine our surprise as we proceeded on only to see that there were three more large rams on the backside of that peak!! It was a shame that this corner had become backlogged with four of five tour buses, so we were unable to stop again for another photo session.

All in all, it was a great feeling to see these rams in the wild.

We didn't see as many moose as we expected, but we were treated to a couple of very large and impressive bull moose! Our shuttle driver said that for this early in the year, the one moose had a huge rack. You could still see the light fur coating known as "velvet" covering his antlers. We also saw a much younger male who had just started to grow what may have been his first set.

We did see a female that had a collar, which we were told was placed on her to help track and monitor her throughout the park. Apparently, from the type or color of the collar, our driver could tell that she was approximately three years old.

During our Tundra Wilderness Tour, I was able to snap a photo of a large male that was sitting in a small clearing in a willow meadow that was very near a thicker marsh area. He could be seen chewing and enjoying his lunch.

The park was full of wildlife, large and small. On the first evening that we arrived to the area, we did drive the first 14 miles that private passenger vehicles are permitted to the Savage River crossing. It was late, probably 8:00pm and we saw dozens of snowshoe hares. They were frolicking along the roadside throughout the area.

During our shuttle trip and tour we also saw a caribou (which I did snap a photo of) and a wolf (that was too fast and elusive to the camera). Wolves are throughout the park, but rarely seen. I was very disappointed that I was unable to get a photo of him. I did get a picture of this grey fox but it is a bit blurred as he too was moving pretty quickly.

As for those caribou, we saw them several times in the high meadows but they were too far out of range or in very high willows and not very visible. Photographing them was quite the challenge. We were lucky to see several along the Savage River's edge late in the afternoon/early evening which provided the best photo op during our time in Denali National Park.

The Alaskan Mountain range around Denali are very impressive. Given that we could not really see Mt. McKinley during our three day visit to the Denali area, the mountains that we did see just had to do. Not that we were settling by any means. These mountains are beautiful, especially when you consider the glaciers and streams that make up the landscape around them.

We learned during our Tundra Wilderness Tour that valleys that are "V" shaped were created by rivers while those valleys that are more like a "U" shape have been carved out by glacier movement.

Throughout the park you could see the waterfalls as the snow melted from atop those with snow caps and from the glaciers. On the sunny afternoon, the streams below were flowing much faster (and fuller) than the gloomy, cloudy rain days.

Because of the snow and glacier melt carrying down silt into the water system, there are very few fish in the waters in Denali Park. Places like Wonder Lake have some fish and there is the Fish Creek, where we could see some fish right at the edge of the road, but nothing much to speak of. This lack of fish is partially why the brown bears (aka grizzlies) are smaller and lighter in color, as they must depend more on vegetation for their diet.

With this journal, I've included some of the more beautiful views we were treated to during our long weekend in Denali National Park.

White Moose Lodge is about 15 minutes from the entrance to Denali National Park and conveniently out of the main "tour trap" area that has been build up with resorts, gift shops and a couple of small dining establishments. It is about five to ten minutes north beyond the tourist area.

White Moose Lodge comes recommended by many of the Alaska tour books including Frommers. Listed as a bed & breakfast, we found it disappointing both in terms of the "breakfast" (packaged danish & weak coffee) and the general motel feel about it. In fact there are two signs from the Parks Highway, one that says "White Moose Lodge" and the other "White Moose Motel." Given they are for the same place, to market this place as a B&B is really deceiving!

The nightly rate for this "B&B" was $102 per night (including taxes). While not as spacious as our accommodations at Zoya's, it certainly met our basic sleeping and showering needs while exploring Denali and the surrounding areas. There was no alarm clock in the room and yet there as a TV that only had reception of one local channel which was very snowy.

All and all, this would probably be a 6 on a scale of 10 for the (1) location and (2) price.

This little place just north of the Healy turnoff was a real find!! (Approximately 20 minutes from the entrance to Denali National Park.) We stopped in one night for dinner after a very long day in the park. Unsure what we'd find, we were pleasantly surprised with great friendly local service, outstanding food and high value!!

We enjoyed our dining experience so much that we returned the following night as well as for breakfast 2 days later.

Plan on receiving very large portions. I originally was going to order the three pancake breakfast. At the recommendation our our waitress, I cut it back to the shortstack, and even two was too many!

This comes very highly recommended by us for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

This little place was listed in some of the Alaska tour guides. You would have to know about it to find it, as it is about a mile off the Parks Highway, around milepost 246, and is part of the Black Diamond Golf Club.

We rolled in around 9pm and just had burgers. The meat was top-quality ground round and prepared with an interesting and delicious combination of spices.

Served with a dinner salad, it was the perfect supper after the long road trip up from Anchorage.

We should comment on the full gourmet menu selections, many with an Italian flair. The dessert menu included several specials included a berry tart served warm with ice cream. While we passed on the sweets, the couple at the table next to us seemed to enjoy theirs!

This is a full-service restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a complete wine and beer selection.

Look for the blue sign as you are traveling north on Parks Highway just before the left turn down Otto Road.