Will be visiting Gods country the week of the forth. We'll be spending a day or so around Denali, however, The thought of taking a tour bus with a bunch of people I don't know is not my idea of seeing wild country. Any recommendations of places to visit in the area?
Thanks in advance

Been on the Denali tour buses twice, both times came away with lots of wildlife seen, a great driver and tour guide, and saw the mountain once. I"ve been lucky as I've seen her quite a few times, but only 50% while in the park.

Hope you get some more input.

Stampede Rd in Healy would be a nice drive. Weather permitting you can see Denali. You could also take a 4wheeler tour out the Stampede Trail or a horseback tundra ride if you were so inclined.

SOB:

The Park Highway tour is a "must see". A visit to Denali Nat'l Park would be incomplete without that. I recommend that you discard your aversion to busses and take the tour. The wildlife viewing, Wonder Lake and the Ranger Cabin are worth the trip even if the weather does not allow viewing of the mountain.

In addition to that you might want to spend a couple of nights at Denali Backcountry Lodge in Kantishna and/or charter a bush plane in Talkeetna for a flightseeing tour of the mountain. These are both expensive adventures but they are alternatives to the bus tour.

If you rent a car, you can drive the Parks Highway to Trapper Creek and then drive the Petersville Road where you might get a look at the south side of the mountain and certainly see some pretty country along the way.

KC

The Stampede Trail, Petersville Rd are both excellent recommendations and i'd also recommend a drive down the Denali highway. You could spend a night at Alpine Creek Lodge, Claude and his wife will take very good care of you. Enjoy your trip to the Greatland.

http://www.alaska.org/detail/byers-lake-trail

I agree with rost and KC, take the bus. It may not be a wilderness adventure where you are out by yourselves with no other humans within lots of miles, but it's a much better way to run a National Park so people can see animals with minimal human disturbance.

Look really hard at taking one of the flight-seeing tours out of Talkeetna, it was definitely worth the cost. Fly up and land on the Ruth Glacier, it's an experience well worth the money.

You don't mention timing but currently I'd expect smoke and limited visibility. Check Anchorage Daily News on-line for some up dates on the hundred+ fires.......evacuating folks near Nenana which is North of Park Entrance.

Lots of smoke ,u have to do the bus,do it be fore 7am and only go to 66 mile ,then hop rite on a bus headed back! U have to do the internet thing to get u a spot ,if u see the my out, then get on line and get a ticket ,sit in the last 2seats of the bus left and right sides ,next best is rite up front oppisdtie the driver , at times....these busses are full of some real winners , u can find some pics from my last trip in 2014 end of June time frame/on here, rember the back 2 seats ,both sides !

Mountain out...add passenger side going out and driver side going back =easy to look up hill /as u can always see down hill !

If you don't take the park shuttle to at least Eielson visitors center then you really have not visited Denali Park.

I've heard they've got new busses. When we did the bus trip it was a bone ratteling ride, but worth doing at least once.

When we did the ride into the park, it was in an old school buse but we still had a great time. Didn't see any bears but we did see quite a few sheep, a wolf and some caribou.

Take the bus tour. I drove the road once in 1971 before they started limiting private vehicles and have taken the bus tour four times since then. Take the bus tour.

I have seen the mountain every time I have been there and have seen about every type of animal except wolves and wolverines.

Take the bus tour.

We also enjoyed a river trip in a jet boat up to a gold panning camp on one trip.

I don't know how you are getting to the park, but you can get better views of the mountain on the highway from Anchorage than you can on the rail road from Anchorage.

Bone rattling... compares to not nearly as bad as most ambulance rides. LOL.

Of course we both rode bus to school about 1.5 hours one way down rough gravel roads, didn't seem any worse. That was circa 95 on our honeymoon.

Like I said …...

This. Denali Hwy and Alpine Creek Lodge is something you don't want to miss!! Second the comment on Claude and Jennifer, great people.

great recos


the only thing I'd add is to possibly take the raft trip through the canyon at Denali


if you've never done it before, it's a hoot!

Wonder lake is worth the trip,,,, I was blessed to live there one summer and miss it every year

I took the Tundra Wilderness Tour(TWT)last week with my wife and 11 year old granddaughter.

I actually really enjoyed it, as did they. We saw grizzly, wolf, caribou, moose, golden eagle, Alaskan Dall sheep, gyrfalcon, and other small critters.

The scenery is stunning and Denali showed its south and north peaks to us briefly.

We took the 1:30 PM trip. It lasted until 9:30PM.

http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/bus-tours.htm

Bring binoculars. So many people did not have binos and they missed a lot.

The tour guide looked at me and said "You hunt". I saw many of the animals first, the average city slicker non hunter does not have a clue.

Jeff King husky homestead.
Lot of dogs, puppies, and a good Idatarod presentation.

Well how was it?