Elusive as any true celebrity, Mount McKinley spends as much time under cloud cover as filling the skyline. The highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet, McKinley claims a higher rise than Mount Everest, which sits on the Tibetan Plateau. The national park surrounding Mount McKinley remains a true wilderness, thanks to the far-sighted decision to exclude private vehicles. Visitors see the sights on a variety of park-approved tours including bus, plane and hiking tours.
Hop on, hop off. Some 30 shuttles operate in Denali during summer. Visitors buy tickets then flag down a green bus. Hikers debark at will for hikes or wildlife viewing, then catch another green shuttle going their way. Each shuttle travels to one of four destinations. The shortest trip is to Toklat River, 6.5 hours round-trip from the park entrance. The Eielson Visitor Center shuttle ride is an eight-hour bus trip and, like the 11-hour Wonder Lake trip, offers extraordinary views of Mount McKinley on clear days. The fourth shuttle destination is the former gold mining town, Kantishna, a 13-hour roundtrip.
If the bus is tan instead of green, it's a tour bus. Unlike shuttles, Park Service tour buses feature trained naturalists to provide a guided and informative trip around Denali. The service offers three different tour experiences. The four-hour Denali Natural History Tour focuses on the rich natural and cultural history of the park, including a stop at the Wilderness Access Center. The Tundra Wilderness Tour, a longer excursion into the park, focuses on wildlife and photography opportunities. The last option heads to gold mining town Kantishna, at the very end of the 92 miles of road. It takes 11 to 12 hours.
Tour on your own two feet guided by a trained naturalist or ranger. The Park Service offers a variety of guided walks and hikes throughout Denali. The popular Horseshoe Lake hike provides great views of the lake and the Tanana River while the Eielson Stroll crosses high-alpine tundra and the possibility of seeing grizzly bears and caribou. Most of the guided hikes run several hours and are easy to moderate in difficulty.
If you want a bird's eye view of Denali, take in the stunning park landscape from the window of a small plane. Daring visitors soar over sparking glaciers up to the rugged Alaska Range. Many flightseeing companies base in nearby Talkeetna, Denali Park, Healy, and Kantishna. A few tour companies land visitors on a park glaciers aboard a ski-equipped airplane. The park service currently authorizes four flightseeing concessionaires to land aircraft on glaciers in Denali National Park:
Fly Denali, Sheldon Air Service, K2 Aviation and Talkeetna Air Taxi.
.
The Park Service authorizes myriad commercial enterprises to offer private tours in parts of Denali. These services include guided mountaineering trips, hunting trips and ski trips. The Denali Park website linked in Resources provides the names of and contact information for approved businesses. Private tours generally cost more but may focus more closely on individual areas of interest.
