Denali - what's your favourite thing to do?

[homeofthehound]

Hi, we are on a Princess land tour, so we will be at Denali for a day and half and trying to figure out what we should do for our 'free' day (Aug 10). My research of course has lead me to the Tundra Wilderness Tour or the Park Transit bus. Read quite a few reviews that the tour option has its faults with the length of the tour considering the space available on the bus size (cramped seating etc), limited viewing especially if other passengers are inconsiderate, hard to hear over passenger noise, etc. etc., so we are leaning to just doing the transit option on our own. I would be interested in hearing what other options were favourites among past visitors?

 

The jeep driving tours, photography and Northern Light tours are sold out for our date, we are already doing a helicopter/glacier tour in Juneau, and a bear wildlife tour in Ketchikan. I feel like this really only leaves water rafting tours or the park in Denali but I am sure missing other unique ideas. Any and all suggestions including what tour companies you used would be welcome! TIA 🙂

[Crew News]

On two of my Denali visits, I chose Fly Denali.  The landing in the snow and the takeoff down a slope was fantastic.

 

 

 

[CCJack]

We enjoyed the Wilderness Tour on the park bus.   They stop for wildlife, while I noticed the transit buses did not, or maybe just slow down a bit but did not stop.    We really did not have a problem with inconsiderate passengers.   The bus was not luxury but certainly adequate enough, I thought.

 

For our day off we hiked on our own on a trail that started near our lodge.    It was fun.

 

[oaktreerb]

rafting is fun, hiking, the dog kennels, Jeff King’s Husky Homestead.  The flight over Denali possibly including landing on the mountain would be a #1 choice for those who can afford the adventure.  

[tetleytea]

So the flights to Mt. Denali and Ruth glacier are offered out of Talkeetna AND Denali?   We flew out of Talkeetna.  Is there any particular advantage to flying out of Denali?   Or is this some tour where you van down to Talkeetna and then fly?

 

[Crew News]

Fly Denali departs from Heeley Alaska, about a 10-minute van ride from the Denali McKinley Resort.

[Northern Aurora]

On 7/2/2023 at 8:50 AM, homeofthehound said:

...

 

.... Northern Light tours are sold out for our date,....🙂

 

I am late to this discussion but am curious about this mention of a northern lights tour.  Is the tour operator claiming that there is a possibility of actually viewing an aurora, or is this a discussion/lecture about the aurora.  For Fairbanks, our aurora season is August 21st through April 21st.  Denali is actually south of Fairbanks.

 

Fly Denali is indeed located in Healy, which is a community north of the "glitter gulch" area around the DNP entrance.  Another possible idea for our OP would be the Mountain Vista trail in DNP.

[homeofthehound]

12 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

I am late to this discussion but am curious about this mention of a northern lights tour.  Is the tour operator claiming that there is a possibility of actually viewing an aurora, or is this a discussion/lecture about the aurora.  For Fairbanks, our aurora season is August 21st through April 21st.  Denali is actually south of Fairbanks.

 

 

Ah, that explains it thank you! I was looking at this option, but our days in Denali (Aug 9 & 10 did not have   any booking times available. I assumed that meant it was sold out but now I can see they don't actually start until later in August. Thank you for explaining that. 

 

https://alaskashoreexcursions.com/denali/aurora-quest

[Northern Aurora]

9 hours ago, homeofthehound said:

 

 

Ah, that explains it thank you! I was looking at this option, but our days in Denali (Aug 9 & 10 did not have   any booking times available. I assumed that meant it was sold out but now I can see they don't actually start until later in August. Thank you for explaining that. 

 

https://alaskashoreexcursions.com/denali/aurora-quest

 

And I, in turn, am so happy that you explained that the afore mentioned aurora tours don't start until later in August.  My first thought when I read that you were trying to book an aurora tour for early August that there was some dishonest operator who needed be reported and stopped.