Denali Road Closure - What You Will See and What You Will Not See

[donaldsc]

This is an interesting read.  Consider this before you decide to visit Denali or take a CruiseTour that visits Denali.  https://www.earthtrekkers.com/denali-road-closure-things-to-do/

 

DON

[Swordfish1949]

Very interesting article - thanks for posting it Don.

[Northern Aurora]

I sometimes sense that folks who have not visited Denali National Park make the assumption that wildlife viewing opportunities are equally spaced along the road.  The first part of the road is not above the tree line and has a dense spruce forest in some areas.   Moose step off of the roadway and, despite their size, instantly become invisible.

 

With the closure of the single road into the park folks miss the Polychrome Overlook (nice overlook to spot wildlife), the Toklat River rest stop (frequent bear spotting here), the Stony Hill Overlook (again, great open views to spot wildlife), and the Eielson Visitor's Center (very different educational displays than the visitor center at the park entrance, beautiful views across to Denali, wide open views to spot wildlife and ranger lead hikes).

[wolfie11]

I've been going to Denali since the 80's.  For the last 20 years, a good friend has been a driver there and I hang out with him a couple times a year.  I drive my car down and we would drive every evening out to Savage River after the busses stopped running.  Early and late season we drive out to Teklanika.  For the last several years, we have seen very little wildlife on the Savage River section of the road with the exception of moose and some caribou near the river.  There are also sheep up high.  Caribou can be seen from Savage River to Primrose Ridge.  Bear are seldom seen until you get to Teklanika, where they are fairly common on the river bed in spring in search of plants.  Sable Pass, which is before the turnaround, is a good place to spot bears, caribou, and Dall sheep. The current turnaround is at the Toklak River at Mile 42.  Unfortunately, the area beyond the turnaround is where the majority of wildlife is spotted and where the best views of Denali are located.  
 

If this summer is likely your only opportunity to get to Denali, I would go.  But if you know you'll be coming back to Alaska, I would definitely wait until the road is open again.  

[donaldsc]

1 minute ago, wolfie11 said:

 

If this summer is likely your only opportunity to get to Denali, I would go.  But if you know you'll be coming back to Alaska, I would definitely wait until the road is open again.  

 

My question and I have not bothered to check it out is whether the cruise companies are telling customers about the road closure or do they let them find out when they get to Denali.  We all know based on some of the posts on CC that some people do not bother to do any research and they believe everything that the cruise companies or other travel related companies tell them.

 

DON

[wolfie11]

Call me cynical, but the vast majority of land tour passengers are automatically booked on the included and absolutely worthless Natural History tour.  They don't do any homework and have no idea that the Tundra Wilderness/Kantishna tours or shuttle busses even exist, and couldn't get on them even if they did know, because they only get one night at the park and have to be on a bus or the train that afternoon.

 

Princess does say the TWT goes to Mile 43 in the park, but doesn't mention that it's shorter because of the road closure.

[Swordfish1949]

20 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

My question and I have not bothered to check it out is whether the cruise companies are telling customers about the road closure or do they let them find out when they get to Denali.  We all know based on some of the posts on CC that some people do not bother to do any research and they believe everything that the cruise companies or other travel related companies tell them.

 

DON

Well Don......not a word about it on our Celebrity booking. Not too surprizing.

[pbianche]

@wolfie11Well I am one of those Princess guest you spoke of and I found CC and am researching how the heck I can experience the park next August when arriving at Princess Denali Wilderness Lodge at 4 pm and leaving the next afternoon at 2 pm! My sister booked that land portion of our cruise way last November 2022 and if we switch our package now then we give up a very attractive price with all kind of freebies/incentives. The sad part is ….Princess,  after one night at their Denali Lodge 3 miles from park entrance … then runs you back down the highway to their Mt. McKinley Lodge (too far away from the park and with no transportation). I WILL see the park however on a very limited capacity. I have decided to hook it on over to the park via their 5 pm shuttle (Princess shuttle from their lodge to park), and ride the Savage River shuttle to mile 15 and get off and hike the short trail and then catch the next shuttle passing back to park entrance. I have researched the shuttle times and it is doable. . Am now researching how late the Princess shuttle will come get me from the park as it will be around 9 pm.  The next morning I will take Princess earliest shuttle back to the park and ride the East Fork transit out to mile 43 (just hoping to see more of the park and maybe wildlife) OR I may just do a few of the hikes near the park entrance. Yes disappointing but it is what it is and I am not coming to Alaska and not seeing a little of the park! Pardon me if I am not responding correctly  to your post in the thread about cruise companies not informing their customers about the current park situation. The way I found out is …. I did not like any of their “excursions” from the lodge so I started doing my own research, research, research. This is my very first post on CC and I need all the help I can get with not just planning but how to post correctly and reply to others correctly. I am not real tech savvy but am a great hiker!

[cruiselvr04]

We are doing a Cruisetour with Royal but not a word about anything really.  We know it’s closed because we do the research.  Some may be surprised.  We get the longer bus ride so will at least get to mile 42.  
 

We are there 2 nights so hoping for an easy hiking opportunity and plan to do the salmon bake and show.  
 

We are sad to not go further in but this is the year for Alaska.  We canceled last year but now have our flights so we are committed.  We will enjoy the scenery.

[reallyitsmema]

1 hour ago, cruiselvr04 said:

We are doing a Cruisetour with Royal but not a word about anything really.  We know it’s closed because we do the research.  Some may be surprised.  We get the longer bus ride so will at least get to mile 42.  
 

We are there 2 nights so hoping for an easy hiking opportunity and plan to do the salmon bake and show.  
 

We are sad to not go further in but this is the year for Alaska.  We canceled last year but now have our flights so we are committed.  We will enjoy the scenery.

 

We did two of the extra excursions while at Denali that you can book with your tour guide once you meet them the first day.  We did the ATV Adventure and the float excursion which it looks like they aren't doing now, just the rafting excursion.  For the ATV, we did a two person side by side ATV which was like a dune buggy.  I drove the whole time and DH just enjoyed the ride.  We could have swapped when we stopped in the river bed.  The river float we did was really fun and was more like class 2 and 3 rapids as the river was running high.  At the time we went, there was also a rapids excursion that put in farther down the river and those that went said it was wild because the river was high.  Looks like they have just one river excursion now, so not sure how rough it is.  If they say they put in by the hotel, it is the easier part of the river.

 

Not sure if you have seen this link, but it has lots of information.  The extra excursions you can buy are under the resources tab.

 

https://www.royalcaribbeancruisetours.com/

 

Link to extra excursions brochure.

 

https://www.royalcaribbeancruisetours.com/content/uploads/2023/01/22003043_Alaska_CruiseTours_Land_Excursions_Brochure_HR_compressed-1.pdf

[Northern Aurora]

On 3/1/2023 at 4:17 PM, pbianche said:

@wolfie11....... OR I may just do a few of the hikes near the park entrance. Yes disappointing but it is what it is and I am not coming to Alaska and not seeing a little of the park! Pardon me if I am not responding correctly  to your post in the thread about cruise companies not informing their customers about the current park situation. The way I found out is …. I did not like any of their “excursions” from the lodge so I started doing my own research, research, research. This is my very first post on CC and I need all the help I can get with not just planning but how to post correctly and reply to others correctly. I am not real tech savvy but am a great hiker!

 

Since you are a hiker research the Mountain Vista trail.  Should be information on the Denali National Park website.

[Sigyn]

I wouldn't visit Denali unless I could go the full length of the park road. That's why for our July 2023 cruise we're skipping Denali and waiting until we return in 2024 or later. I really want my husband to see the park but there's so much that he'd miss only going on basically half the road. 

 

I took the bus into Denali to the end of the road in September 1999. I was with an old boyfriend. It was literally the last bus in for the season, on the last day, before the road shut down for the year. If I remember correctly, they were letting in a few private cars the next day, who had won some sort of lottery, but this was the last bus and so we picked up all of the end of season campers and backpackers at Wonder Lake campground at the far end of the road since we were their only ride out. It was quite something, coming back at dusk with a full bus. Everyone was in a great mood. Dirty, hungry and happy at the end of the season. I wasn't a "real" camper but they made me feel like one of them. We even saw a lone wolf standing by the side of the road as we got closer to the main visitor center. There had been two young bull moose sparring and their antlers locked and the wolves had brought them down. So other wolves were coming over for dinner.  It was an amazing sight. 

 

But there was so much to see after we passed Pretty Rocks, and even after Eielson. I remember at Eielson there was a momma grizzly bear and two cubs, and two bicyclists, and they used our bus as a barrier between them and the three bears and our driver drove slowly so they could use us for protection until they were safely past the area. I mean, where else can you experience something like that? It was just amazing and the sights at that point were so incredible. We saw 17 grizzly bears that day, moose, Dall's sheep, eagles...it was unforgettable. Obviously. 24 years later and I can still picture it all so clearly. 

[islandchick]

The best part of Denali Park is after the landslide. Just be aware that if you decide to go anyway you really haven't seen the park. Perhaps you could book a flightseeing tour so you can get a better view of the park while the landslide is still in place. It wont have the best wildlife viewing but could see the extensive glaciers, and landscape. 

[no1racefan1]

We are going in mid-May 2024. Not only will the road most likely still be closed, but the park may not be fully operational for the season yet when we are there.

 

For those of you familiar with the park--how much time would you allow just to drive the first 15 miles and do some of the hikes near the entrance? We're going to do a DIY land tour before our cruise, and I'm trying to figure out timing.

 

I'm disappointed about the road closure, but this will be our 2nd cruise to Alaska and being we have a lot of other places on our bucket list, I don't know if/when we will go back. I want to be able to say I visited Denali NP, even if we just do a hike.

 

(We're from Wyoming, and have had the pleasure of lots of wildlife viewing in our travels, so I'm not *as* disappointed as some others may be about the road closure.)

[Sigyn]

When is the road supposed to fully reopen? In summer 2024? Or are they unsure?

[auntmeg]

1 hour ago, njsmom said:

When is the road supposed to fully reopen? In summer 2024? Or are they unsure?

2025

 

https://www.nps.gov/dena/getinvolved/polychrome-plan.htm

[wolfie11]

2 hours ago, njsmom said:

When is the road supposed to fully reopen? In summer 2024? Or are they unsure?

Can we start a contest for closest guess?  I'll take July 2026.  We could do one for the Railroad Dock in Skagway while we're at it. 😁

[kickboxrca]

We did a cruise tour last August with HAL.  They were upfront about the road closure, and refunded part of the tour cost. That said, we enjoyed the Tundra Wilderness Tour immensely - saw lots of wildlife - including a bear and many caribou ... it would have been amazing to be able to go further, however it was great.

[Northern Aurora]

On 3/12/2023 at 5:58 AM, njsmom said:

When is the road supposed to fully reopen? In summer 2024? Or are they unsure?

I believe the goal is 2025, but given supply chain issues who knows.  I like wolfie11’s idea a lottery.  I am taking August 15, 2026.

[wreckem2013]

Originally I was supposed to Europe in 2020 and Alaska in 2021. This is the primary reason why I’m doing an Alaskan B2B this year and a European B2B next summer. Once Denali is fully open I plan to do a one way north and then do a self arranged land tour of 7-10 days.

 

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by wreckem2013

[Northern Bear]

Just found this thread. We are booked to do a land/cruise through Princess the summer of 2024. 2 nights Fairbanks, 2 nights Denali, 2 nights McKinley. This will be our first time doing this. To those that have done this before, will the road closure impact the tours to the point that a person should consider re-booking?

[donaldsc]

I would rebook but I have been to AK many times and have done the full road to the end twice.  If I was thinking that I might make another trip to AK after the road is fixed I would find another place to visit.  After all if your goal is to maybe see Mt. Denali you can see it off the Parks Highway.

 

DON

[Ber2048]

On 3/11/2023 at 10:09 PM, no1racefan1 said:

We are going in mid-May 2024. Not only will the road most likely still be closed, but the park may not be fully operational for the season yet when we are there.

 

For those of you familiar with the park--how much time would you allow just to drive the first 15 miles and do some of the hikes near the entrance? We're going to do a DIY land tour before our cruise, and I'm trying to figure out timing.

 

I'm disappointed about the road closure, but this will be our 2nd cruise to Alaska and being we have a lot of other places on our bucket list, I don't know if/when we will go back. I want to be able to say I visited Denali NP, even if we just do a hike.

 

(We're from Wyoming, and have had the pleasure of lots of wildlife viewing in our travels, so I'm not *as* disappointed as some others may be about the road closure.)

When are you going to be in Denali in mid May 2024. We will be there May 13 and 14 on a Princess Land tour. We arrive at 1:00p.m. on the 13th and have the rest of that day free. I was trying to figure out how I could get into the park without the buses. I also was thinking about just doing a trail around the visitor center, but was hoping for more. We will not have a car, so I was looking into renting? Someone posted it took them about 45 minutes to an hour to drive to mile 15, and about 1 1/2 hours to drive to mile 30 from mile 15, but you will need a car that you can drive on a gravel road. Not all rental cars are allowed to do that. Since the buses aren’t running then, you can take a personal car to mile 30.

 

 

[wolfie11]

It depends on how often you stop.  I like to park at Tek and walk the road over the bridge towards Igloo Creek.  Heard a pack of wolves howling there one evening as I was walking.  You can also rent a bike or e-bike from Bike Denali if they’re open. 
 

Also, check with the rental company about driving in Denali.  It may not be considered a “gravel road” in the sense that you’re likely not going to get stuck out there and stranded, which is the reason for that rule.

[Ber2048]

41 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

It depends on how often you stop.  I like to park at Tek and walk the road over the bridge towards Igloo Creek.  Heard a pack of wolves howling there one evening as I was walking.  You can also rent a bike or e-bike from Bike Denali if they’re open. 
 

Also, check with the rental company about driving in Denali.  It may not be considered a “gravel road” in the sense that you’re likely not going to get stuck out there and stranded, which is the reason for that rule.

Good idea about a bike. I would have to check when Bike Denali opens.  I did check with the only two rental car companies that we could possibly use. You do need a car for a gravel road (SUV).  Glad to hear the road is good, so you  wouldn’t get stuck. Not sure how traveled the road is if you do run into a problem. I understand there is no cell phone reception.