Natural History Tour - What is the story?

[sfbear]

Have read several posts that the Denali Natural History Tour is not worth the trouble, time, or probably the money. I'm interested in what those who have taken the tour have to say . . . . the good, the bad and the ugly. Our little party will be on the Coral Princess land portion beginning August 9 and then after that boarding in Whittier on august 13th for our southbound cruise. This will be the second Alaska trip for all of us, but the first Denali land excursion. So, back to the topic, what is the story about the Natural History Tour ? ? ?

[Genessa]

you'll get much more details from others, but the Natural History Tour doesn't go into the park very far. It is approximately a 3 - 3 1/2 hour tour with a stop, where the Tundra Wilderness Tour is about 8 - 8 1/2 hours long. Most of the wildlife you can see in Denali likes to stay further in the park, so chances are you won't get to see much as far as wildlife goes and little as far as scenery goes.

 

On the other hand, you will not get a sore rear from sitting in a bumpy school bus for 8 hours. I didn't take the NHT, but did speak to several who did and they enjoyed it.

[Joy2Day]

I just got back from a cruisetour that included the Natural History tour. We only had 24 hours in Denali, so we were limited in our tour choices. We skipped the included afternoon Natural History tour and took a 3 pm shuttle (green bus) to the Toklat River instead -- same distance as the Tundra Wilderness Tour. On our 7-hour tour, we saw a moose, a wolf, multiple sightings of 6 bears, several (distant) Dall sheep and caribou sightings, and finally a nice sighting of a caribou in a stream.

 

The rest of our cruisetour took the Natural History Tour. They only saw 1 or 2 moose and everyone I talked to was sadly disappointed. My opinion based on what I've read here and my experience on 6/19/05 -- If you take the Natural History Tour expecting to seek a lot of wildlife, you will likely be disappointed. However, the Natural History tour contained some stops to listen to people talk about early life in Alaska. If your priorities include that type of information, then you may enjoy the Natural History Tour just fine.

 

Because we wanted to see more of the park and increase our chances for seeing wildlife, we chose the longer shuttle, so we missed out on opportunities to see the show at the lodge, get a nice dinner, enjoy a glass of wine, or have some relaxing downtime at the lodge. Instead, we each had a sub sandwich and a bottle of water while sitting on the bus, then dropped into bed as soon as we got back to the lodge.

[Mike2131]

Have read several posts that the Denali Natural History Tour is not worth the trouble, time, or probably the money. I'm interested in what those who have taken the tour have to say . . . . the good, the bad and the ugly. Our little party will be on the Coral Princess land portion beginning August 9 and then after that boarding in Whittier on august 13th for our southbound cruise. This will be the second Alaska trip for all of us, but the first Denali land excursion. So, back to the topic, what is the story about the Natural History Tour ? ? ?

 

We took this tour as an included part of our Celebrity cruisetour and it unfortunately was a waste of time. As mentioned, it does not go far enough into the park and we saw no wildlife. Very disappointing!

I would certainly not recommend this tour to anyone.

[Budget Queen]

Most people are uninformed on Denali Park. So here is the clairfication that will hopefully educate you. :)

 

 

The Park Road into Denali Park is 90 miles. There are 2 ways in, via SHUTTLE bus or TOUR bus. There are 2 tour bus options, the Natural History tour which IS worthless, goes to mile 17. Likely NO wildlife and little scenery. The Tundra Wilderness tour goes to mile 53, farther IF McKinley is viewable which it seldom is. This is prime bear country . The SHUTTLE buses go to Toklat- mile 53 for $28.50 vs $84 on the Tundra Tour. :) Fish Creek mile 63- my absolute min. distance in, Wonder Lake mile 85- my priority and mile 90 Kantishna- which is mostly privately owned. Farther is definately better here and the buses are not that BAD. :) The time flys by with wildlife viewing and scenery- Polychrome Pass is NOT TO BE MISSED. Binoculars are NECESSARY, have a pair for everyone. There is a small box lunch included on the TOUR buses, but you are well advised to bring your own food and drink. It is NECESSARY to do so on ALL shuttle buses. NO food in the park, and water at Eielson is NO MORE. Available at Wonder Lake and Toklat (I believe?)

 

 

A very important factor when booking cruisetours is to understand FULLY what you are purchasing. Denali Park NEEDS more than one day, so avoid those tours.

The McKinley lodge was built to take overflow. A very nice lodge but out in the middle of nowhere with very few activities and 50 miles from the nearest town- Talkeetna. Choose carefully. The cruisetours are a very costly way to tour Alaska, purchase what your priorities are. :)

[Len3]

We're scheduled for this tour, but will probably skip it and do something else. On the cruise part, we have the Neets Bay Bear Watch - so a good chance of seeing lots of bears feeding on salmon. Is there a white water rafting trip or something else that we could consider? The NHT is scheduled from 4:30to 8:30., with arrival at the lodge at 3:45PM.

[Budget Queen]

We're scheduled for this tour, but will probably skip it and do something else. On the cruise part, we have the Neets Bay Bear Watch - so a good chance of seeing lots of bears feeding on salmon. Is there a white water rafting trip or something else that we could consider? The NHT is scheduled from 4:30to 8:30., with arrival at the lodge at 3:45PM.

 

 

If you are "going to skip it" I most certainly would request a refund NOW from your TA. There were several posts of people getting the refund. It's a $47.50 tour per person.

[spongerob]

I pretty much have to agree with everyone else. The Natural History tour might be okay for someone who has never been outside the suburbs. What you really get is a trip down a bumpy road on an old school bus with people who get ecstatic about seeing a bunny rabbit, and the inevitable recitation of the Cremation of Sam McGee. Like you haven't heard THAT about six times already. The tour was part of our day trip between the McKinley and Fairbanks lodges. If I had to do it again, I'd remain at the Denali lodge drinking Alaskan Amber Ales. Mmmmm.

[Oi]

the natural history tour does give you some interesting history about denali and how it all got started. the scenery on the drive is beautiful, but other than that, I found just venturing out on our on hikes showed us more wildlife and views. Knowing what I know now, we would have opted to do some other tour that morning or done something on our own...

 

The word to describe the Denali Nat History tour is OK. Thats it.

[tiggy]

It all depends on when you go. My husband and I did the Natural History tour last May and my parents just did it this May. We saw everything except for bears and wolves on our tour. My parents got the whole nine yards (minus wolves) in terms of wildlife.

 

Early in the season (aka May) the wildlife is still down in the valleys since its cool. You have a chance to see a large amount of wildlife on the Natural History tour. As it warms up and more people are in the park, the wildlife moves further up into the mountains. Then you need the Tundra tour to have a better opportunity to see wildlife.

 

Personally, we were very happy with OUR Natural History tour and would tell people who go early in the season not to be disappointed that the tundra tour isn't available. As the weather changes, the wildlife moves. As avid hikers, we really felt it was a good introduction to the park and its wildlife. High season may be different.

[naplesam]

OK, here is a slightly differing opinion. Please remember that what is "awful" to some may be perfectly acceptable to others. And what might be a complete "waste of time" to some may be a very pleasant experience to another! Reading this board you know that already! Just look at any thread discussing the food onboard ship! :D If you want to flame me , go ahead now and save yourself the waste of time reading the rest of my post!

 

Not everyone has unlimited time or money to do everything there is to do in Alaska on their first trip (nor probably not even by their 10th trip for that matter). Work, family, home and other necessities of life dictate otherwise. So we all pick and choose from our available options and there are a LOTS of available options. If a cruise is to be the option we pick, then we select the pre or post tour accordingly. Some are physically unable to do some things and that also influences their choices.

 

We went to Alaska for our first time in 1999 with friends. With the available time, etc., we selected a tour that included the NHT as well as a little bit of other places in Alaska-Fairbanks, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Denali. Then a cruise southbound. Had we studied a little more before we selected, we might have picked a tour that included the TWT, but we didn't. However, we thoroughly enjoyed everything we did and decided right then and there that we would someday return! Was the NHT disappointing then? Absolutely not. Did we see a lot of wildlife? Well not herds of anything, but we did see caribou, moose, Dall sheep, etc. Now that we are finally returning this year, we specifically selected a tour that included the TWT and we specifically selected a tour that didn't go to Fairbanks. Each to their own---that's why they have so many options!

 

We also let Princess do the work for us while there. We think they do a great job. While in Europe (not cruising), we ALWAYS go on our own, but in Alaska, we enjoy not hauling the luggage around with us everywhere we go! Do we pay a premium for this? Of course. But worth it for us. Could we see more if we went around on our own? Probably, but we selected what we want to do and we know we will enjoy it.

 

All in all, grab all you can when you go to Alaska given the time and money you have to spend. But don't fret over everything! Pick what is most important to you. You will enjoy some things more than other things, but I don't think you will be disappointed at all. Relax and enjoy.

[Poodlesnoot]

Just Back from My Cruise tour. We switched out of the Natural History tour and took the Tundra trip....all the people we were with were unexcited with the Natural History tour they had just been on, and our trip into mile 63 was great...saw McKinnley when they didn't...saw wildlife etc. Well worth the switch.

[Toto2Kansas]

You know, when it comes to spotting animals and wildlife, it is all pure luck.

We spent two weeks in Alaska many years ago, one week land tour and one week on the Regal Princess. We took the Train and did all of the normal Alaska Tours including Denali. We saw ONE herd of Moose as the train went speeding by and one group of sheep in Denali. Then there was that one time we THOUGHT we saw a whale and the seals (or were those something else?) on the ice flow.

We were very disappointed at the lack of wildlife we actually did see in Alaska. Now, the next group might have seen a ton of different wildlife. It is like the weather, it can not be predicted.

[Budget Queen]

It certainly is good that those who went on the Natural History tour, thought it fine. BUT you have nothing to compare it to?? Anyone who has gone farther into the Park would never settle for only the first 17 miles. :)

 

Way too many people don't even know the differences of ways into Denali Park and some find out on these boards. This is information only, I find it very difficult to justify a 3 hour Denali Park tour when it takes all those hours to get there. :)

 

 

Information is the key here, go on the tour that fits your interests best but being informed with your decision will make it even better all the way around. :) Happy Alaska travels!!

[VinTek]

We took the Tundra Wilderness Tour in 2002. We'd seen a total of 1 carabou by the time we reached Mile 17, the point at which the Natural History Tour turns around. All of our other sightings (moose, dall sheep, bears and more carabou) occurred after Mile 17. We did get a clear look at McKinley, but I think that it was sheer luck. The clouds parted for only a few minutes, but it was breathtaking while it lasted.

[sfbear]

These boards are great. Thanks to everybody for both pro and con regarding the NHT. Now, the hard part. Taking this information and deciding what we will be doing. Whatever we decide, I know that we will have a wonderful time.

 

Thanks again . . . . Rich