Denali for 4 days - appreciate advice on itinerary
 

My family is spending 13 days in Alaska from Aug 6-18. We fly into Anchorage and are planning 4 days in Denali NP before heading off to Glenallen and then down to the Prince William Sound. We love the outdoors, hiking, wildlife and birding in particular. We have ordered a copy of Ike Waits's Denali hiking book.

Here is our initial cut at a plan for our Denali days:

Day 1 (from Anchorage):
- Early start; drive up Hwy 3 towards Denali
- Stop in Talkeetna
- Reach Denali National Park just before lunchtime
- Hike Mount Healy Overlook near Denali Park Entrance (4.5miles)
- Savage River hike (2 miles)
- Drive to Teknainika Campground (3 day camping stay)

Day 2:
- Hike Tattler Creek/Sable Mtn (5m)
- Hike Cathedral Mountain (3m)
- Back to Campground for Ranger program (7pm)

Day 3:
- Shuttle bus to Eieleson Visitors Center (M66)
- Hike Thorofare Ridge#2 (5m)
- Hike Stony Dome (4m)
- Short walks around Eieleson Visitors Center(if time)

Day 4:
- Hike Polychrome #1 (2.5m)
- Whitewater Rafting on Nenana River (afternoon)

Some questions:
1. We selected the 6 hikes above based on Tripadvisor reviews. Will these give us a good feel for the park or are there others we should consider instead?
2. Can we do these hikes with the Ike Waits book (which I understand has topographic maps) and a compass?
3. We do not make it to Wonder Lake/Reflection Pond. How much of a "miss" would this be?
4. Whitewater Rafting: we are later going down the Seward Highway. How does Nenana River compare with Six Mile Creek for scenery and the rafting experience?
5. Is it worth trying to fit in the dog sled demo?

Have you gotten the Tek pass for the shuttle bus? That's the best thing about staying at Tek. Tek is at mile 29 or 30--really helps shorten your trips to trailheads.

We had hoped to do a Discovery hike with the ranger when we were there but they sold out really quickly.

We are hikers but getting into Denali takes a long time and I didn't plan enough time there. The day we drove in, we spent some time in Talkeetna, stopped at the overlooks--McKinley was out. We booked the shuttle for the next 2 days. McKinley was out all day the first day so we stayed on the bus out to Wonder Lake. I would only go that far if the mountain is out. Otherwise I would turn around at Eielson.

On our cloudy day, we walked around Eielson and did the Thorofare Ridge hike. We really wanted to hike around Polychrome but never did. We did see a lot more wildlife on our cloudy day.

Thanks v much, Linda. Yes we just booked the campground and the Tek Pass. How did you like the Thorofare Ridge hike?

My husband actually did that one. I went in and watched the movie. It's just a climb to the top and I only want to do those when it is clear. It was cloudy that day. There was a cute little marmot??that greeted him at the top.

We did enjoy walking the other trails at Eielson. We walked to the overlook to eat lunch
and watched a bear down below. We then noticed 3 hikers heading right toward the bear. They couldn't see him because of the brush. We started screaming at the hikers along with another group of hikers. They really skedaddled out of there.

Are you going to Seward? We thought the Harding Icefields hike was fabulous.

I also think you have a lot more planned than you can possibly do. Day 1 will never work. We drove in from the Matanuska Glacier and never arrived in Healy until about 8 PM. If you're not going to stop and eat or go sightseeing, you may want to skip Talkeetna--or skip a hike. We did drive to Savage River but we could have skipped that. I would have loved to have done the Mount Healy hike.

Yes i agree, Linda we have changed the beginning so we now take 2 days to get to the campground and stop en route at Chugach State Park for a bit of hiking.

We are planning to go to Seward and do the Harding Icefields.

Would you be able to ask your husband about the Thorofare Ridge hike?

You can see the whole trail from the parking lot. It only took my husband said little over an hour to do the trail. Very nice views of McKinley from the top on a clear day.

He climbed the trail on a cloudy day. It was just a break after sitting on the bus. I would only do this on a clear day. I think Denali has better places to hike. It's an easy trail to get to and it is a maintained trail, as opposed to a lot of other Denali hiking areas.