Denali National Park, Alaska
Denali National Park is pure magic !!!!!!!!!
This report is based on these assumptions (yours may be radically different):
This report is based on these assumptions (yours may be radically different):
- this trip was specific to flying to Alaska to just visit Denali
- I wanted to stay in a motel and not camp
- I wanted to hike and get out of the bus
- I do not like eating out by myself, so anytime I get to just buy something and eat at the motel, that is what I will do (Subway ....)
How to get there ...............
'Two ways, you can fly to Fairbanks and drive less than 2 hours south or you can drive from Anchorage, but that is about 250 miles away, I think.
Rental Cars: rent the smaller car that you can. You will need it to drive to the park and that is it. Transportation within the park is in buses. Yes, the first 15 miles are open to traffic, but that is a well paved road. Unless you go in winter, I guess, there is no need for 4WD cars.
One note about rental cars: the companies are national companies but the car lot for rentals is small, so you could find yourself with no cars if you don't make reservations in advance. Something that I noticed is that they offer windshield insurance, never got around to ask why but I would recommend you google why that is. The rental cars (I am talking Avis) are not super clean, but who cares.
Airport: the airport has 6 gates, that is it. Upper level for the gates and lower level for baggage pick up and check in to United, Delta, and Alaska. I took United on the way back since it was a red eye. I took Alaska on the way there and it was not a direct flight, but either you stop in Seattle or in Anchorage. United and Delta are very limited; I got the impression that there is only one flight into/out of Fairbanks for United.
No matter, you can see below that you just stop at the rental counter, get off the airport and drive to the marked rental parking lot. They will tell you which row and slot the car is in (like A10). You return the car to that row when returning the car, write down the odometer, go to the counter and give the keys and the odometer reading. There is not a Avis or Hertz building, all of them share a lot and each one gets rows.
Rental Cars: rent the smaller car that you can. You will need it to drive to the park and that is it. Transportation within the park is in buses. Yes, the first 15 miles are open to traffic, but that is a well paved road. Unless you go in winter, I guess, there is no need for 4WD cars.
One note about rental cars: the companies are national companies but the car lot for rentals is small, so you could find yourself with no cars if you don't make reservations in advance. Something that I noticed is that they offer windshield insurance, never got around to ask why but I would recommend you google why that is. The rental cars (I am talking Avis) are not super clean, but who cares.
Airport: the airport has 6 gates, that is it. Upper level for the gates and lower level for baggage pick up and check in to United, Delta, and Alaska. I took United on the way back since it was a red eye. I took Alaska on the way there and it was not a direct flight, but either you stop in Seattle or in Anchorage. United and Delta are very limited; I got the impression that there is only one flight into/out of Fairbanks for United.
No matter, you can see below that you just stop at the rental counter, get off the airport and drive to the marked rental parking lot. They will tell you which row and slot the car is in (like A10). You return the car to that row when returning the car, write down the odometer, go to the counter and give the keys and the odometer reading. There is not a Avis or Hertz building, all of them share a lot and each one gets rows.
Where I stayed ...............
Ok, take a look below:
These are the hotels that are one mile away from the entrance to the park .......... DO NOT STAY THERE UNLESS YOU ARE RICH. I looked at lodging and those prices were RIDICULOUS; you can even notice the hotel that the Princess Cruise uses (it is a ripoff, they take you in company buses into the park for a few miles, I think until Toklat river, maybe Stony Hill (since that is the best viewpoint of Denali when it is out), you don't get to get off the bus.
But, look below:
But, look below:
Ten miles ............ TEN MINUTES ......... you can see the town of Healy. There is a great motel called Denali Park Hotel, spacious rooms, all kinds of satellite tv, internet (not fast enough to stream netflix, who cares). That motel is HALF the price of the ones one mile from the entrance. It is still pricey, you can look in Expedia and see the difference. It is a ten minute drive to the park !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those pricey hotels .......... there is a small half mile strip of a mall (seasonal), that has a photo shop (if you need supplies), souvenirs, an ice cream shop, liquor store (YEAH), and a Subway (they mentioned that they were open 24 hours) that you can get a sandwich for your day in Denali. There is a general store inside the entrance to the park (didnt go there). There is a small market in Healy (shop locally).
Are there more accommodations on other nearby towns ? Probably, google it.
Those pricey hotels .......... there is a small half mile strip of a mall (seasonal), that has a photo shop (if you need supplies), souvenirs, an ice cream shop, liquor store (YEAH), and a Subway (they mentioned that they were open 24 hours) that you can get a sandwich for your day in Denali. There is a general store inside the entrance to the park (didnt go there). There is a small market in Healy (shop locally).
Are there more accommodations on other nearby towns ? Probably, google it.
Buses, the only way in the park .......................
First, you can drive your car into the part for free until mile 15, the Savage river bridge. On that drive you can run into moose on the side of the road, but it is a wooded area, so you can miss them.
In the Savage River there are two trails, a short one that hugs the shore, crosses it and comes back. There a second one that is hard, takes a long elevation rise in a short amount of time and it takes you to a nice rise area where you can survey the area.
People have seen grizzlies in that area ........ so bear spray is necessary if you leave your car. The last day before going back to the airport I was stalking a wolverine in the brush next to the river and a couple of women on bikes warned me that a grizzly had recently crossed the road.
Now the buses: you want to make reservations for the GREEN transport buses to Eielson (takes 3 hours to get there), or the ones going to Wonder Lake (a 5 hour one way ride, but that will force you never to get off to hike). There are narrated buses, forget about those. If you get a good driver on the green buses, he/she will tell you good stories. I took the 6:30 am and 7 am buses. Don't take buses later than that, the critter are early risers and those early buses will do the trick. As you can see below, go to the Wilderness Access Center (NOT the Visitor Center) to get on the bus:
In the Savage River there are two trails, a short one that hugs the shore, crosses it and comes back. There a second one that is hard, takes a long elevation rise in a short amount of time and it takes you to a nice rise area where you can survey the area.
People have seen grizzlies in that area ........ so bear spray is necessary if you leave your car. The last day before going back to the airport I was stalking a wolverine in the brush next to the river and a couple of women on bikes warned me that a grizzly had recently crossed the road.
Now the buses: you want to make reservations for the GREEN transport buses to Eielson (takes 3 hours to get there), or the ones going to Wonder Lake (a 5 hour one way ride, but that will force you never to get off to hike). There are narrated buses, forget about those. If you get a good driver on the green buses, he/she will tell you good stories. I took the 6:30 am and 7 am buses. Don't take buses later than that, the critter are early risers and those early buses will do the trick. As you can see below, go to the Wilderness Access Center (NOT the Visitor Center) to get on the bus:
- park on the back
- to to the counter and tell the attendant your destination and time. He/she will print you a ticket.
- get there early so you can be first in line and enter the bus fast and pick a side. I recommend get there when the PREVIOUS bus is leaving and then once they leave, sit your ass next to the bus sign (Eielson is to the immediate right when you leave the front doors, Wonder Lake to the left). Dont wait for the attendant to give a 15 minutes call, just stand next to the sign and start a line.
- if you have bear spray, put it inside your backpack ....... there have been accidents inside the bus.
REMEMBER !!! There is no guarantee that you will see animals, but here are some hints:
- take the LEFT side of the bus on the way in, that is where most animals will show up.
- yell STOP if you see an animal, the bus driver will stop. Dont yell 'bear'.
- animals are far from the bus, unless you are lucky. Based on what I saw, it is better to take binoculars and enjoy the animals. The bus stops for animals and give people plenty of time to take pictures, but you are not a tripod and you will have to be in perfect focus to get a good pic. If the animals are close (and that happens well into the park, then good pictures can be taken).
- the park prefers that you eat inside the bus and not outside (bears will smell it).
- there is a 30% chance you will see Denali, and ony a 1/3 of othat 30% that you will see it completely. I was lucky on my fourth day.
- wolves: those are the ones that you will not see, unless you are super lucky.
- you may see foxes.
- you will see bears from a long distance. It is the luck of the draw, someone saw 21 bears one day, another person never saw one. I saw bear eating a caribou carcass ........ SUPER LUCKY.
- probably see caribou at Thorofare Pass, or the Toklat river, or close to Polychrome Pass.
- take a bus itinerary with you, why ? Even if you dont plan to hike, this is what you can EASILY do: take the bus to Eielson, return on that same bus (unless you want to take nice hike in the Thorofare hill next to it) and then ask the bus driver to let you off in an area that you have scoped on the way in. Hike next to the road, get in a bit, the place is so huge in some part that you will NOT lose track of the road. I will detail hikes that I did and will do next time I go later in this page, but for now I can recommend: stop at Thorofare Pass (3 miles from Eielson) and hike towards a nice hill and admire the view, get off at Highway Pass, get off at Stony Ridge Overlook, get off close to Toklat river ............ note: there are CLOSURE areas where you can only hike on the road so please check the park website for details. One is Sable Closure, which covers 5 miles of the road, and that is a PRIME area to see bears from the road (bear spray). That is a PERMANENT closure, do NOT leave the road. So, the bus itinerary, the last bus leaves Eielson at 6:30 pm and under normal days a green bus will pass you by every 30 minutes. There are OTHER buses, those will NOT pick you up (the Princess cruise, the narrative ones).
This is a good description of the road: The 91 miles of Park Road is the travel corridor of Denali National Park. Beginning at the entrance area, the road quickly leaves services of civilization behind. The road is paved for the first 14 miles.
Passing through moose habitat, by mile 9 in clear weather this can be the first view of The Mountain, Mt. McKinley, or Denali. The Park Road passes Savage River Campground, Savage River loop hike with a parking lot, as far as most vehicles can go without a special permit. The Savage River loop trail is a 2 mile stroll across a bridge, a great spot to see a hoary marmot. Look for dall sheep above on cliffs. A ranger checkpoint station is on the Savage River Bridge, mile 15.
From here the road turns to gravel, with Primrose Ridge running to the north. Next is the Sanctuary River, and a tiny wilderness campground. The Sanctuary River Bridge is mile 23. Next is the magnificent Teklanika River, with the Teklanika Campground, a drive-in campground for those willing to stay for 3 days. Keep an eye on the brush for lynx who are after all the snowshoe hare. There is also the Teklanika rest stop with toilets and a viewing deck overlooking the river, a great place to scope for wildlife along the river braids below.The Teklanika Bridge is at mile 31.
Soon after, the road enters Igloo Forest. At mile 34 is Igloo Mountain, a great spot to view dall sheep. Igloo Campground is another tiny wilderness campground for tent campers only. After Igloo Creek bridge, the road enters Igloo Canyon with majestic Cathedral Mountain on the south of the road. Dall Sheep often dot the peaks of Cathedral.
Tatler Creek and Sable Mountain as the road begins to climb are great areas for brown bears. Beginning about MIle 38, Sable Pass grizzly bear closure is a five mile stretch over Sable Pass that can be accessed only from the road, via vehicle or foot. After Sable Pass the Park Road drops to the East Fork River, also known as the East Fork of the Tolkat River, mile 43. Look for the cabin of wolf researcher Adolph Murie and eyes peeled for wolves.
Next is the glorious colors of Polychrome Pass, around mile 46. Across the 5 mile wide Polychrome Pass look for dall rams above and caribou herds down in the Plain of Murie below. This is also a great place to see soaring eagles or even a gerefalcon. Mile 53 takes one to the Tolklat River, another braided river, with Divide Mountain separating the East Branch from the West Branch. A ranger tent with bookstore and restrooms are at the rest stop. This is a great spot to get off the bus, stretch your legs with a hike, and pick up a later bus to continue the trip west. Watch for wolves!
Next is the breathtaking Highway Pass, at Mile 58. Where are those caribou? Welcome to the high tundra of Denali. Many brown bear sightings are between here and Eielson. Stony Dome, Stony Hill, Stony Creek, Stony Overlook, mile 62 ..... awesome views of The Mountain from here. Check out all the beautiful wildflowers. Thorofare Pass area around Mile 64 is a haven for bears, bears, and more bears. Also watch for the long tail jaeger hover hunting.
Then the big stop- Eielson Visitor Center- mile 66. Watch a movie of the climbers, look at exhibits, enjoy flush toilets and running water. This is a prime spot to get off the bus and catch another one by simply talking to the smiling, friendly bus dispatchers. Take the traditional trail up Mount Thoro or down to the Thorofare River, so set off on your own hike. Go for the ranger-led tundra flower walk. Sit at a picnic table & stare at The Mountain. From Eielson, the Park Road goes over Grassy Pass drops down to beaver ponds and the close-up view of the Alaskan Range and awe-inspiring Mt. McKinley, Muldrow Glacier with the gigantic McKinley River looming in the distance. Look for waterfowl including loons, grebes and megansers as well as moose.
At Mile 85 is Wonder Lake with its campground and Denali-view! Onward past Wonder Lake the road wash-boards along to Kantishna, Mile 91, the Moose Creek valley. Whew! Made it! How many mosquitoes can you count at Kantishna before the ride back to the entrance? 1,2, 3.....!
So there, get to Eielson, check out an area, get off on the way back (tell the bus driver of your plan on the rest stop before that and he/she will remember), hike for one hour, two hours, return to the road and get on a return bus (dont wait for the last one). PLEASE DO THAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is nothing like it. Oh yes, bring a second pair of socks because you will get your feet wet (lots of patches of water and tundra is pretty soft and wet). The feeling of stepping on tundra is special. Or pick two areas, get off, take pics and stroll, get back on the next bus and tell the drive to stop at another place, get off, more strolling and then get back in the bus. If you have a LARGE group of people, the bus may not be able to accommodate all, so the group will have to get split.
Discovery Hikes ..............
I was curious about them but you have to go to the Visitor Center early to check them out and that basically ruins the day.
The road ............
Main Areas:
- Wilderness Access Center: bus leaves
- Park Headquarters: that is where they keep the sled dogs. Quick demonstrations at 10am, 2pm, 4pm, but ............... you can stop at ANY time and pet the dogs. Yes, you can pet most of the dogs while they are lounging next to their mini cabins. DO IT !!!
- Savage River, mile 15: the paved road ends and a park ranger welcomes you to the park.
- Teklanika River Rest Stop: you rest for 10 minutes, watch the river. Up to this point, the area is wooded. Just after leaving the rest stop, keep an eye on the mountains to the left, probably dall sheep will be at the tops.
- Sable Pass: the trees are less and to the left there are places where bears lounge around. That area is closed to hiking. To the right there is a fox den, probably you wont see much unless the parents bring back food for the babies.
- Polychrome Pass: a ten minute rest area with fantastic views of mountains. The road narrows for a mile. If you are scared of heights, oh boy ............ better don't look, especially if your side of the bus is next to the precipice. Just after the rest stop, you may see caribou on the creek to the left of the road (see a pattern ? the LEFT side of the bus). There is a gyro hawk next in the rocks to the left (ask the driver to point that out to you), that rock area is closed for hikers but if you are lucky you can see the hawk chicks learning to fly (I did).
- Toklat River Rest Stop: another rest stop right next to the Toklat River. At the rest stop, look for dall sheep at the top of mountains next to the rest stop. I saw caribou in the river later in the day.
- Highway Pass and Stony Hill: No rest stops but those are prime locations to watch Denali if it is out and also caribou and bears.
- Eielson Visitor Center: final rest stop and turn around point. The bus will stop for 30 minutes. There is a trail across the parking lot that goes up the hill, go ahead and do it. It will take about 30 minutes ............... I forgot, if you miss your bus, you need to go to the dispatcher office (down the stairs) and register your name for the queue for the next buses and when new buses are ready to leave, the dispatcher will start calling names to fill up the next bus going out (its not a free for all :) ).
- Wonder Lake ........... I didn't go there.
My first day .......... Tattler Creek
At the Teklanika river rest stop, I told the driver to drop me off at Tattler Creek. I think it took 10 minutes to get there from the rest stop.
You want to hike on the RIGHT side of the creek, looking at it from the road. There a few places where the trail is too steep and you will end up getting wet on the creek, find a way to get up and come down fast. You can see a social trail for the most part of the hike, sometimes you will loose it but keep looking for it.
At a certain point the creek is intersected by a drainage (a faster flowing creek) from Sable Mountain. That are is rocky and steep, but the rocks are stable and there is no problem to hike.
Based on my GPS (I intended to get to Sable Mountain), I left that drainage after half a mile and took a left turn and went up. That area was mostly tundra, wet and slippery (on the way down it would become tricky).
You want to hike on the RIGHT side of the creek, looking at it from the road. There a few places where the trail is too steep and you will end up getting wet on the creek, find a way to get up and come down fast. You can see a social trail for the most part of the hike, sometimes you will loose it but keep looking for it.
At a certain point the creek is intersected by a drainage (a faster flowing creek) from Sable Mountain. That are is rocky and steep, but the rocks are stable and there is no problem to hike.
Based on my GPS (I intended to get to Sable Mountain), I left that drainage after half a mile and took a left turn and went up. That area was mostly tundra, wet and slippery (on the way down it would become tricky).
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After I left that drainage it was a very step area of tundra to negotiate in order to get close to Sable Mountain (it would be tricky on the way down). I decide to abort that part since it was very cloudy at the top and wanted to get back before the Visitor Center closed, so instead I decided to find an opening over the edge in a couple of gaps and I was rewarded with these views:
My second day .............. all the way to Eielson and hiking the Thorofare switchbacks.
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My second day was mostly the tourist typical day. I decided to ride the bus all the way to Eielson Visitor Center and then hike in the Thorofare Ridge area. I managed to take a pic of a mamma bear with a cub in the Sable Closure Area (always you can see bears in that area).
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The day was mostly cloudy, that is why I took so little pictures. At Eielson, I went up the well maintained Thorofare Ridge trail (anyone doing this will miss his/her return bus .... more on that later) that goes via switchbacks to the top of the ridge. I Iwas planning to hike to the top of Mount Thoro, but visibility was zero. I decided just to hike a social trail going East towards the mountain until I ran into a dall sheep trail that ended on a ridge that made it dangerous (I dont take risks when I am alone, specially off trail).
Something that I saw and plan to do next time is this ......... once you get to the top of the Thorofare Ridge and the maintained trail ends, just keep walking North over a couple of ridges (make sure you know how to turn back) and then the valley behind Thorofare Ridge is revealed. Under cloudy skies it was impressive; I cant tell how beautiful it is when the sun is out. One thing that I read from the Waits book is that you can actually over over the ridge and hike down close to the valley and basically go around Thoro Mountain and get back to the road. I am guessing that you would end up close to Thorofare Pass. That I need to do next time.
On the way back, a couple of caribou were walking along the Toklat River:
Something that I saw and plan to do next time is this ......... once you get to the top of the Thorofare Ridge and the maintained trail ends, just keep walking North over a couple of ridges (make sure you know how to turn back) and then the valley behind Thorofare Ridge is revealed. Under cloudy skies it was impressive; I cant tell how beautiful it is when the sun is out. One thing that I read from the Waits book is that you can actually over over the ridge and hike down close to the valley and basically go around Thoro Mountain and get back to the road. I am guessing that you would end up close to Thorofare Pass. That I need to do next time.
On the way back, a couple of caribou were walking along the Toklat River:
My third day ............. Highway Pass to Stony Overlook
It a sunny day, but still Denali was cloudy all day so I could not see the mountain.
The plan was to start hiking at Highway Pass, into some dry allubial flows and see where it took me. I was not sure how fast I was going (the 1 mile per hour rule is standard in Denali), so I was not expecting to leave the Highway Pass area. My hike ended close to Thorofare Pass, but first of all look at the BEAUTIFUL view from Polychrome Pass !!!!
The plan was to start hiking at Highway Pass, into some dry allubial flows and see where it took me. I was not sure how fast I was going (the 1 mile per hour rule is standard in Denali), so I was not expecting to leave the Highway Pass area. My hike ended close to Thorofare Pass, but first of all look at the BEAUTIFUL view from Polychrome Pass !!!!
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This caribou kill was one mile from Highway Pass, so the bus driver deemed that a mile was safe for me to leave the bus and start hiking. I know the image is blurry, but zoom and you can see the dead caribou being eaten.
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This is the approximate path of my hike:
- Start at Highway Pass
- hike inside the first allubial flow. I ended up at a steep ravine where there was no way to go up.
- Turned around and decided to go up a hill that overlooks both allubial flows.
- Hiked the hill all the way to its closest ridge close to the road.
- Bushwacked (lost my GPS) a lot towards Stony Hill area. Got wet a lot and got bogged down in the tall vegetation.
- Found ridges to avoid vegetation.
- Crossed the creeks in the Stony Hill area.
- and "something" happened.
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Pure Heaven !!!!
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Dude, seriously !!!!!!!!!!
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See something ???? Well, the whole story is here:
https://carlostrujillo.weebly.com/blog/and-then-i-ran-into-a-bear
https://carlostrujillo.weebly.com/blog/and-then-i-ran-into-a-bear
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And that was NOT the highlight on my trip (wait til day four).
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My fourth day ............... exploring Thorofare Pass
And this day the sun shined all over the park ......... ALL OVER.
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As the previous days, bears in the Sable Closure area (get on the LEFT side of the bus) |
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Divide Mountain at the Toklat River rest stop.
The plan was to continue the hike from the previous day and get off the bus at the Thorofare Pass, but "something" happened at the Stony Hill Ridge ........ DENALI CAME OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I got out of the bus right there.
What ? You want more pic of Denali ???
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This is the approximate path that I took ........... I spent about an hour on a hill admiring the Denali view.
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You said one more Denali pic ???
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And then these guys got to within 50 yards of me !!!!!!!!!!!
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Final Thoughts
This vacation was the best one, period. Only Glacier National Park is close. I will come back next year and I am already scouting for 4 locations I can take longer day hikes.
I just can't get this place out of my mind, no trails, tundra, hike ANYWHERE you want.
If you have questions, just make a comment on my blog story about running into the bear and I will reply.
I just can't get this place out of my mind, no trails, tundra, hike ANYWHERE you want.
If you have questions, just make a comment on my blog story about running into the bear and I will reply.