Kantishna Experience Tour at Denali - quick review

[wolfie11]

I recently went on the Kantishna Experience tour at Denali and thought I'd post a quick review as there seems to be some confusion about this tour.

 

This tour is run by Aramark, not one of the lodges. It is a longer version of the TWT with a driver/guide. The bus is the same as the Wonder Lake or Kantishna shuttle bus. The seat was comfortable but not fancy. Lunch was a wrap, chips, cookie, granola bar, mini carrots, water, and juice. I would still bring extra drinks and some snacks.

 

The tour is the same as the TWT except that it goes farther, with a short stop at Eielson on the way out, then a stop at the Wonder Lake Ranger Station to pick up a ranger. We stopped at Wonder Lake and walked down towards the lake with the ranger, who talked about the history of the area. We then proceeded to the end of the road and walked back with the ranger about 1/3 mile to Fanny Quigley's cabin. The ranger pointed out plants and other interesting things along the way. At the historic cabin, we got to go inside and heard more about the history and the people in Kantishna. We got back on the bus and made a couple more stops without getting off the bus and then drove back to Wonder Lake and dropped the ranger off. From there we went back to Eielson, where we had a 1/2 hour stop, then continued back to the park entrance with bathroom stops at all the usual places.

 

The entire trip was around 12 hours. I was on the 6:30 am tour and there was also a 7:30am tour. I really enjoyed getting back to Kantishna and the day was long, but went quite fast. It was warm and sunny and I will admit to falling asleep for part of the way back. We saw moose, wolf, caribou, sheep (up high) and the treat of the day was a mama grizzley nursing two cubs a couple of hundred feet off the road. We also saw a lot of birds between Eielson and Kantishna (including a rare black scoter) but no animals. The mountain was out in the early part of the day.

 

Most of the people on the tour were independent travellers or cruise ship people with two days at Denali. I had a great time on the tour and our driver kept us entertained with lots of funny stories. I was really glad I did it and would probably do it again, but not as often as I take the shuttle as it really is a long day.

[mapleleaves]

Thank you for posting this information. Very useful.