I was going to choose the wonder lake option until the website to book tickets made mention that in order to see scencic reflection pond you have to choose the kantishna experience. Is this reflection pond worth it? It makes the trip an extra 2 hours (from 11 to 13 hours)
which would you choose? I don't want to hike the 2 miles there and back from wonder lake.
Also, how long do they usually stop at wonder lake or kantishna?

any advice?

We made the tour to Wonder Lake I a must say, it was not worth it.

First, Mont McKinley was in clouds (in fact, for four days in a row), so we could not see the famous reflection.

Second, the tour from Eielson to Wonder Lake is not very scenic and we had no animal sighting at all in this section. (On the way from the entrance to Eielson and back we had 8 grizzly bear sightings, some of them very close, also moose, caribou, fox.)

If I could choose again, I would skip Wonder Lake and hike around Eielson instead.

I forgot your last question. Our shuttle bus drove directly from Eielson to Wonder Lake, no stop at Kantishna. The shuttle stopped for 30 minutes at Wonder Lake and it was just a short walk from the bus stop to the lake. Not much to see there.

Here's how I do the park drive (which I typically do twice a year):
- I book the shuttle for 2 days to Wonder Lake
- I use day 1 to determine where on day 2 I might want to get off the shuttle to walk/hike
- If the weather is not cooperating (i.e. Denali is not going to make an appearance, then I turn around at Eielson Visitor Ctr
- I'll also make one or 2 'self-drives' into Savage River under the guise that more time in the park increases the likelihood of seeing more wildlife.

Was just interested in finding out whether making the extra 2 hour stop to kantishna to see reflection pond is worth it? or wether wonder lake is enough. (we definitely want to go at least to wonder lake)

no one has an opinion on kantishna vs wonder lake?

Kantishna not worth the extra time (in my opinion).

Agree, Kantishna not worth the extra time. If I remember correctly reflection pond is just off of the park road near/adjacent Wonder Lake , not Kantishna.

ok thanks