I am planning a trip to Alaska August 13-19. I've been really confused by the many tour buses and hikes available in Denali.

I'll be in the park for 1/2 day on Thursday and all day Friday.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what we should do? Do I need to book ahead?

Thank you!

These were tips I learned on this forum and they worked out well....

Take the park shuttle bus--they are much cheaper. All buses, regardless of who has them, are old school buses. Every tour bus we saw was packed. Ours was half full.

The shuttle bus driver was very willing to stop to watch wildlife and was very informative.

Take plenty of water and snacks. There is no where to get these and you will be on the bus at least 8 hours.

Be prepared to get really dusty. The road is rock and most of the bus windows will be down. I longed for wet wipes.

A lot of people say to get on the first bus of the day to see wildlife but we showed up around noon, got on the bus around 1:00, saw tons of wildlife, including grizzlies, caribou, mousse, sheep. From what I"ve read, the buses later in the day are less crowded than those early buses.

Do we need to make reservations for the park shuttle buses?

Hello,
I also followed the advice on this forum, and had a great time in Denali. We took the early (6 am) shuttle to Wonder Lake. We probably could have gone as far as Eielson (sp?) and have had the same experience. Wonder Lake had too many mosquitos to be enjoyable. Because the wildlife is "wild", it can be elusive, so you don't know where you're going to see it.

We took snacks and water with us. We didn't have the problem with the dust, but I brought wet wipes anyway.

Also, we sat in the first seat behind the driver & were able to get great views of a bear that was in the road right in front of the bus. My picture looks like we were outside because it was taken through the front windsheild & there were no obstructions!

We made reservations about a month in advance, and were told we got the last 2 seats for that bus (it was full when we went - June 23).

Have a great time!

Yes you do need reservations. My recommendation is the shuttle to Eielson, I would never recommend Wonder Lake before end of August, unless strongly prepared for the bugs. I always take the first shuttle out. You need to take all your own food and drink in and out. NONE available in the park. You can get the reservation information from the national park service site- go to Denali park.

If you want to go early in the morning you probably do need reservations.

If you want to go later in the day and make sure the weather is good, based on our experience, you don't need reservations.

I took the 6:45 shuttle last week and there were only 13 people on board. We tried to guess on the previous shuttle which was only half full, but the driver did not let us. Our driver said the shuttle has been packed most of time this year.

Thanks for your advice. We're back and had a great time.

We booked an 8:00 shuttle to Eilison, but needed to travel back to Anchorage that day, so we showed up at 6:00. The nice tour guide helped us trade our tickets with some people that hadn't shown up. We were lucky to get on, I wouldn't recommend trying that.

But we had a great trip, saw several bears (about 4 mother/cub sets), countless caribou, and two wolves! We were very lucky to see the wolves. Unfortunately, Mt. McKinley wasn't in view. But all in all, it was a wonderful trip.