Denali in a Day - July 2018
 

My husband and I are flying in to Anchorage around noon (from Cincinnati) on Monday, July 2 and driving up to a cabin which is located 20 minutes from the Wilderness Access Center in Denali National Park. What is the best way to see Denali in ONE DAY on Tuesday, July 3? Sitting on a shuttle bus for the entire day doesn't sound like fun to either one of us. We are open to the idea of taking a flight tour and have discounted coupons (via purchased TourSaver app) available for Era Helicopters and K2 Aviation. If we take one of these flight tours how else should we spend our time in the park? We'll be heading south on July 4 and staying in Girdwood next.

Where would your flight (helicopter or small plane) take off from? How much time would the flight be over Denali NP? I'm thinking that 1.5 to 2 hours would be more than a shuttle bus.
In early June 2016 DW and I took the 8 hour shuttle bus tour out to Eilson Visitor Center. The trip out took about 3.5 hours with several stops for bathrooms and for wildlife viewing. We spent nearly an hour at Eilson which was interesting. We made several stops on the way back to see more animals. You are lucky to see the top of Denali either from an aircraft or from the shuttle bus. Much of the time it is fogged in
Compare the cost and decide if you want to see the wildlife closer from the bus or farther away and for a shorter time from an aircraft.
The shuttle buses are not very comfortable (think school bus) with windows that come down.

We did the trip tom fuller mentioned and saw lots of animals and were lucky that Denali was visible and awesome when we were there. The bus is not a wonderful mode of transportation, but if you actually want to see the animals, you have to take it or hike in. Pick up some food/drinks and let it be an experience.

If Denali is in clouds, you won't see it from the helicopter and you won't see animals either.

So let me play this back. You're arriving at noon at ANC having flown most of the way across a continent, with at least one plane change and a four-hour time change, then getting a car and driving almost five hours on mainly two-lane roads so you can spend a night (one that won't get very dark by the way) before either a full day on a school bus, or else chancing good weather for a flightseeing trip, FOLLOWED by a six-hour drive the next day, much of it in holiday traffic. Do I have that right?

You can probably sense my views. Add to this (nuts, IMO) scenario the 50-50 odds (at best) that you'll actually see the mountain, and an unknown likelihood of seeing big animals any closer than a few hundred yards from the bus, plus (depending on how far you go into the park) some serious mosquito action....

Let me ask you this. What happens after Girdwood? Are you spending more time in southcentral Alaska? Heading to Whittier or Seward for a cruise? Exhibiting at the Girdwood Forest Fair that weekend?

Here's an alternative scenario. Land on the 2nd, get a car and go to a hotel or B&B and relax. Walk around downtown, get a good meal, let your body clocks catch up. The next morning, go on a Denali flightseeing trip on a float plane from Lake Hood right in Anchorage. If you have a K2 coupon, contact Rust's flying service in Anchorage - Alaska Flightseeing Tours & Air Taxi Services | Rust's Flying Service - which happens to be K2's owner, and see if you can get a deal on a Rust's trip instead. The benefit of going out of Lake Hood rather than, say, Talkeetna, is that if Denali isn't flyable due to clouds, the Anchorage operators like Rusts have several alternative routes they can fly, all of them wonderful. While the Talkeetna/Denali operators can fly you around the mountain, the Anchorage people can take you over the Chugach range and Knik Glacier, over Prince William Sound and its icefields, or across Cook Inlet to volcano country. Hell, you could swap two nights and a day in the Denali area for a bear watching tour over on the Alaska Peninsula or at Lake Clark. The actual flight might cost more, but the savings in rental car (you could even delay collecting the car for a day or two) and possibly hotel accommodation might help compensate for the additional flight cost. To me, this is an easy choice.

On the 4th, head down to Whittier and take a "26 Glacier Cruise" (or one of the competitors' offerings) and see lots of glaciers, seals, birds, maybe a whale or two, then return and head back to Girdwood for the night. Less road time, more Alaska time.

But do say what your plans are after Girdwood, because there might even be more options.

This is exactly the kind of guidance I'm looking for thank you so much for your reply. This is what we currently have booked:
July 2 - Fly Cincinnati to Anchorage (arrive noon), drive to cabin near Denali.
July 3 - Explore Denali somehow (flight, shuttle bus, ?)
July 4 -Drive to cabin in Girdwood and stay night there
July 5 - Drive to Seward and stay 2 nights at B&B
July 6 - 7.5 hour Kenai-Fjord tour booked through Major Marine
July 7 - Drive to Anchorage and stay night there in hotel
July 8 - Fly home at night

>>July 2 - Fly Cincinnati to Anchorage (arrive noon), drive to cabin near Denali.
July 3 - Explore Denali somehow (flight, shuttle bus, ?)
July 4 -Drive to cabin in Girdwood and stay night there<<

Oh -- PLEASE listen to Gardyloo. the airport to your cabin is a minimum five hour drive. With no guarantee you'll see much on the 3rd sitting in a bus all day long, and then on the 4th driving all the way back through Anchorage to Gridwood - a 6 hour drive, probably longer.

Please listen to Gardyloo and janisj. After flying in from the eastern time zone, landing at noon or after Alaska time, don;'t try to drive any farther from Anchorage than Eagle River or Wasilla.
There is a gas station at the Fred Myer in Eagle River. Fill there and don't drive by a gas station that is open with less than half a tank. There is also a gas station in Anchorage at the Costco if you are a member before you head to the Kenai peninsula.
The sun will be setting sometime after 10 PM in Alaska. With one of our "extra days" in Alaska we saw a couple of things in Fairbanks and went north to see a section of the Alaska pipeline.

Another reason to follow Gardyloo's advice - the drive to Denali is not very scenic. And you might be surprised if you don't follow tomfuller's advice because there is very little in the way of services once you get north of the Wasilla area. The drive south from Anchorage to Girdwood etc is spectacular. And, btw, when we drove in the direction of Denali we were very lucky that the mountain was visible (even in the middle of the night) and I still didn't think the drive was very scenic.

Look: the single best Alaska resource on the community boards is Gardyloo. Ignore him at your peril.

OK based on wonderful recommendations we are in the middle of changing our itinerary up taking Denali out (too far for one week). Please help us fill in the question marks below. We are 44 yrs old, celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, enjoy moderate hiking, beautiful scenery, etc. THANK YOU to every one who takes the time to respond...REALLY appreciate it!!

July 2 - Fly Cincinnati to Anchorage (arrive noon), stay in Anchorage
July 3 - Take Denali flightseeing trip departing from Lake Hood on Rust float plane, what else for day?, remain in Anchorage?
July 4 -??, stay at cabin already reserved in Girdwood
July 5 - Alyeska Aerial Tram, maybe visit Cooper's Landing, Drive to Seward and stay there
July 6 - Take 7.5 hour Kenai Fjord cruise out of Seward on Major Marine, remain in Seward
July 7 - ??
July 8 - ??, 9:45pm - Flight for Cincinnati departs Anchorage

If you don't like the choices for a hotel in Anchorage, consider the Microtel in Eagle River. I wished that I could have gotten a reservation there for our last night in Alaska instead of the fleabag in Anchorage.
There will be a big parade and fireworks in Wasilla on July 4. You might even get a chance to see Sarah Palin.

I would play the rest of the 3rd by ear depending on when and for how long you're involved with the flightseeing trip. You might consider a visit to the Native Heritage Center, or if the weather's good, maybe head up to the native village of Eklutna and visit the interesting cemetery with its "spirit houses" - http://www.eklutnahistoricalpark.org/

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...5ed8e71e71.jpg

On the 4th, consider what I suggested earlier. Head to Whittier and do a glacier cruise, e.g. https://www.phillipscruises.com/crui...ier-cruise.php . This will take a few hours, after which you come back through the Whittier tunnel to Portage, from which it's around 20 min. back up to Girdwood for the night. The Whittier cruises are different from the Kenai Fjords ones out of Seward in that they're on calm water, you'll (probably) see less wildlife, but way more tidewater glaciers, icebergs, etc.

On the 7th if it was me I'd make a couple of stops on the way back to Anchorage. First would be to take the side road to Hope, an old mining village on the south shore of Turnagain Arm. It's quite atmospheric and if the pink salmon are running in Resurrection Creek, it can be quite a sight. Then I'd stop at the AK Wildlife Conservation Center, near the junction of the Seward Highway and the Portage Valley road (the one that goes to the Whittier tunnel.) And finally if you want to join the crowds, the Girdwood Forest Fair that I mentioned above will be in full swing.

Here's a map showing the various places mentioned. https://goo.gl/maps/e1AKNzzbDKz