Day 3: Touring Denali National Park

Tundra Wilderness Tour
We woke up early on the third morning of our vacation and were excited because today was the day that we were scheduled to go on our Tundra Wilderness Tour.  We had booked the tour online about 2 months before our arrival so it's always iffy as to what the weather will be like when the date arrives.   When we had checked in to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge I decided to check with the tour coordinators there to confirm the time of the tour.  Good thing because the confirmation that we got when we booked the tour, gave a pick up time of 5:30 AM. When we checked at the desk, our actual time was 7:50 AM!  That's quite a difference and would have been a really long time to sit in the lobby waiting for the correct tour.  Tip: I would highly recommend double checking your times either at the hotel or by calling the tour company!  

After having read some reviews of the tour on TripAdvisor, we had also decided to order a boxed lunch from our hotel cafe instead of relying on the boxed lunch that the tour provided.  If you plan on being hungry sometime during the 8 hour trip, I would recommend that you pack your own lunch or order a boxed lunch.  The tour does provide a small snack and water bottles but it really is just a snack. 

The tours meet in the lobby of the hotels or at the visitor's center at designated pick up spots.  Be sure you are there about half an hour ahead of your schedule.  There are lots of tours scheduled at the same pick up spot about 10 minutes apart so be sure you know your tour number and wait for the correct bus to pick you up.

Tundra Wilderness Tour #10

Inside of the tour bus of the Tundra Wilderness Tour

For those of you new to Denali National Park.  It is different than most parks in that you can only drive a few miles into the park on your own.  After that cut-off point, you have a few choices to get further into the park.....1.  Hike, 2. Take the free bus service offered by the park service (Green Buses)  or 3. Take a narrated tour into the park.  (Tan Buses).  The tour company offers different tours which go different mileages into the park and take different amounts of time.  The prices are a little steep but for first time visitors especially, I would recommend taking the narrated tour so you see a little bit more.  Both the green and the tan buses are school buses.  The tan tour buses are modified school buses with more comfortable seating and video cameras so you can see the wildlife on the monitors.  There are no restrooms on either bus.....the tour buses are NOT like tour buses you would take with a group on a trip!  

Setting Reasonable Expectations for the tour:

A couple things to keep in mind on this tour that will help set your expectations a little better:

1.  The driver has to watch the road since it is quite windy and there are areas with no guard rails so he/she will NOT be pointing out the wildlife along the way.  It is up to you and your fellow passengers to spot the wildlife and call out for the driver to stop so that you can view it.  Once stopped the driver will use the video camera and ask that you pull your video monitors down.  You are welcome to open the windows and take pictures/video and use your binoculars to view the animals.  There are buses in front of and behind you so you can only stay in one spot so long.  

Caribou as seen with a zoom lens from the bus

2.  Definitely take binoculars!!!  If you own a camera with a long lens....take the longest lens you have! These animals are in their own habitats and not real easy to spot.  They are far away...although the drive did tell of instances that they came near the bus.  The ones that we saw were very far away and difficult to see with the naked eye.  Luckily we had a couple of very good spotters on our tour and they were able to see them in time for us to stop and take a look.

Restrooms along the way in Denali National Park

3.  There are no restrooms.  The buses do make restroom stops approximately every 1 1/2 hours.  There are lots of restrooms at each stop and it's easy to get out and back on the buses.  They don't make stops in between so be sure you use the facilities at the prearranged stops. 

4.  There is no designated "picnic" time.  You are welcome to eat your boxed lunch on the bus at any time that you feel hungry.  The only stop is at the end of the route before you turn back around for a quick cup of hot chocolate by where Denali is located.

5. You probably will NOT see Denali.  The statistics say that the mountain is only visible 30% of the time...our driver actually said it is closer to 20%.  The views of the mountains and the rivers and wildlife are still beautiful but don't expect to see the mountain or you will be disappointed.  

6.  Don't expect the narration on the tour to be all that informative unless you interact with the driver and ask questions.  I don't know if all drivers are the same but ours was quite willing to answer any questions we had but didn't offer much information up on his own.

Knowing these things ahead of time will make your experience a little better or at least keep your expectations in check.  It's a long trip and if you think you are going to see Denali and have wildlife coming up to your bus...you will be sadly disappointed in the tour and the amount that you paid for it.

And Away We Go.....

So our bus picks us up outside the lobby of our hotel right on time.  We load onto the bus and choose a seat and we head off to Denali National Park.  Our bus makes another stop at one of the centers to pick up passengers and then we are off on our 8 hour adventure.  The weather was pretty iffy looking from the forecast but it turned out to be a nice day....just a bit overcast.  We were hopeful of catching a glimpse of Denali (or Mt. McKinley) but the cloudiness didn't bode well for viewing the mountain.  

We settled into our seats and drove a little ways when we came across our first wildlife of the day.  Let me just point out here that I realized quite early on in the tour that I am horrible at spotting animals!  Even when someone is telling me where they are....I am horrible at spotting animals!!  My son was much better at it and I usually just handed him the camera and said,  shoot something!  I had my Nikon Coolpix with the zoom lens but wish I had had my Canon with a long lens for this outing.  The wildlife really was far away and not all over the place...you are lucky to see wildlife at all on some days I would guess.  Our first spotting was a herd of Caribou...

Caribou by the River

We drove quite a bit further and saw some beautiful scenery.  There are two areas where you can see Denali if it is visible that day.  No luck at the first one for us.....heavy cloud cover!

Some of the beautiful scenery in Denali National Park

Where Denali would have been if it had been visible.

So once you get to the first area and the mountain isn't out, you start getting the feeling that it isn't going to be your lucky day!  We headed on a bit further and did see our first Grizzly Bear.  They are blonde....who would have known!!

Grizzly Bear at Denali National Park

Grizzly Bear doing bear things!

It was at this point that our driver informed us that Grizzly bears are not social.  They are usually alone unless with the mama bears are with their cubs.  Keep this in mind for a bit later in the story!

We drove a ways further....again beautiful scenery...not a lot of wildlife.....no Denali.  We finally got to the end of our road...the spot where Denali was supposed to be center stage.....uh...no...not today!  Nothing but clouds.  We did make a stop here and have a cup of hot chocolate before heading back.  If you were lucky enough to be there on a day that Denali was "out" I think this would have been a wonderful view and breathtaking sight.  Since it was behind the clouds...it was a little less than spectacular.

The Family in front of the spot where Denali should be.  Nothing but clouds this day!

There is only one road through the park so once you hit the end of your designated tour, you turn around and head back the same roadway.  On the way back we encountered some Dahl Sheep on the side of a mountain.  The driver referred to them as "microdottage" which was quite accurate because they were really far away!

Dahl Sheep on the side of the mountain.

Our next stop was for a restroom break and look at the "tent" which housed a small gift shop and some antler displays.

After this was when things got a little interesting on our tour.  People were settling in and getting ready to return when our resident "spotters" saw some bears!  Now remember what I said earlier about Grizzly bears being solitary creatures?  Well first they spotted one bear....then another...

Bear Number 1

Bear number 2 meets Bear number 1

At this point we are asking the driver why they are so close together.  We were all expecting a bit of a spat....well....that's not exactly what happened.....

There may be some new bear cubs next spring!

Believe me this was the most exciting part of the trip!  The ruckus on the bus was pretty amazing! I think sales of the tour video went up quite a bit after this stop!

The tour company does make a video of the tour available at the end of the tour.  It is something that you order...you do not take it home with you.  Ours still hasn't arrived and it's been about 4 weeks since we were there so I guess it takes some time.  You get stock video from the tour and then they add the footage from your personal tour on to it.  Take a pen with you if you plan on ordering it right then and turning it into the bus driver.  They don't have pens and mailing it in delays the receipt of the video.

After the small video sales pitch, we headed back to the hotel for the evening.  Here are my thoughts regarding the Tundra Wilderness Tour:

1.  It's worth it if this is your first time visiting Denali.  The narration and the help spotting the wildlife and pointing out places of interest is worth the money for the tour.  If you are going back and want to take the drive through again, you may want to do the free version on the NPS buses.  It's the same road...just less stopping.

2.  Don't have these great expectations that you are going to see bears up close and personal and that you are going to actually see Denali.  Most people don't see the mountain and this isn't the zoo so wildlife sightings are a bit of a wild card.  

3.  If I was going back to Alaska for a second trip, I would probably not make a second trip to the Denali area but rather focus on other areas and more glaciers.  

The End of the Day

By the time we got back from our tour, it was almost time for our dinner reservations back at the King Salmon Restaurant.  We had hoped to be able to make the 4:00 PM show of the Sled Dog Demonstration but we didn't have time to make the trip back in after our bus arrived back at the hotel.  This was something that we definitely wanted to see before we left the Denali National Park Area so we rearranged our next day to make sure we could fit it in!  All in all it was a good day....long but worthwhile and interesting!

Coming Next:  Denali Sled Dog Demonstration and back to Anchorage

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Day 2: Traveling to Denali National Park

The best part of the 4 hour time difference between eastern time and Alaska time is that you are up early and ready to go!  It also helps that there are over 20 hours of daylight at this time of year in Alaska.  So on Day 2 we were up and ready to go.  After a quick breakfast at the Homewood Suites we headed out on Alaska Route 3 to start our adventure!

Driving to Denali National Park

I want to take just a moment to point out a few things about Alaska:

1.The roads are regular 2 lane highways, paved (for the most part...unless you hit road construction).  

2.  The main cities look like cities anywhere.  They do have a little more of a "wilderness look" to the buildings and the scenery is amazing!  

3.  There are not mounds of snow everywhere.  Other than on the mountains, we did not run into snow anywhere.  It's summertime and Alaska temperatures can get into the 70's.  The weather does change rapidly and it does rain in the summer so make sure that you wear layers and have some water repellent clothing with you.  One of the things that really struck us was how green and lush everything was.  

Making the Drive to Denali National Park

The actual drive to Denali National Park was very interesting.  The roadway was a two lane paved roadway with normal speed limits.  Traffic was not heavy.  We planned on just making the drive for the second day and it was a good thing.  This state is huge!  It takes quite awhile to get from one place to the next.  There are several places to pull over and take in the surroundings but there are not a whole lot of places to eat! So pack up your snacks and plan the better part of a day to get to your destination!  

Since my Aunt and Uncle had lived in Palmer, Alaska years ago, we took a small detour and headed through the town that they called home.  It was about a half hour detour but gave us some insight into the towns of Alaska.

Scenery on the way to Palmer

The town of Palmer, Alaska

You don't see these in Ohio!

After a brief tour of the city, we drove back to the Alaska Route 3 and continued our trek North.  Next town was Wasilla and that was about the last of the real towns for awhile so if you need to stop and get gas or pick up some food/snacks...this would be a good place to do so.

Talkeetna

After having read the travel guides, we decided to make a stop in Talkeetna, Alaska.  It was a few miles off the main roadway but the promises of a small, quaint, town with some gift shops and places to eat along with a  promise of a great view of Mount McKinley or Denali as the native refer to the great mountain.  Talkeetna turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for us to be honest.  

It certainly was a small, quaint town:

With Gift Shops:

And places to eat:

However, by the time that we arrived, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was now drizzling and there was absolutely no view of the mountain at all.  We also didn't find the small city to be all that friendly. We went into a few of the gift shops and they were small and very nice but the owners/employees really didn't go out of their way to make you feel welcome or provide much information about their city.  In fact in some ways you felt that you were intruding on their city.  Maybe it was just us or the dreariness of the day but it was the feeling that we got.  It did look like they did have a lot of helicopter and small plane tours that were available from this area to see the mountain...again with the weather that day, I didn't see anyone in line for the tours.  

We looked around a little bit and headed north.  This was about a 30-45 minute stop for us.  I'm sure others could spend longer so make sure you plan the time if this is somewhere you would like to make a stop along the way.

McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge

A little further on down the road, we were still in search of a glimpse of the great mountain and by this time some food...since we were a bit too early for lunch in Talkeetna.  Again, food was at a premium as 

there was little gas or food to be found during this part of the drive.  We saw a sign for a road called McKinley View Drive and figured what the heck....maybe we could see the mountain and stop at the Lodge for some food.  Since the cruise lines are such a big part of Alaska tourism, Princess Cruise Line has built several Lodges to house their guests.  We had made reservations at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge for the next two evenings so we decided to check out the sister Lodge here and see how it was.  First thing you notice is that most visitors arrive by busload and are part of a land and sea cruise option.  So people arrive in large groups and if you haven't made a reservation, you may be out of luck in some of the dining areas.  This was the case for us at the first restaurant that we tried.  We were able to find a table at the bar/grille restaurant.  Our food was good...a bit pricey...but considering that there was nothing else around...we had no problem with the prices.  There were restrooms available and viewing areas where you could see the mountain.....well on a clear day you could see the mountain.  Since our day was still cloudy and drizzly...no luck with the viewing but we did get some nice views of the Alaskan Mountain Range.

The views were beautiful and I'm sure would have been even more majestic had Denali been out that day!  We stopped at several pullouts around the area of the Lodge to try to see if we could see anything but without much luck.  It got to be kind of funny because we kept looking to the area where the signs and had the Mountain labeled among the other peaks  of the range and we weren't sure whether we could see the mountain or not! We had just decided that the peak in the distance was "it" when a local person began telling some visitors where the mountain would be if it was visible!!  Well...guess not!  The pictures are really hard to decipher as mountain peaks tend to look a whole lot alike!  

We finally stopped at one pullout and there was painted picture of what you should be able to see of the mountain from there....the north and south peaks.  After about 15 minutes staring at the mountain...we saw what we thought looked like the picture they had posted.  However...it could have been an illusion by that point!  Here is what we believe with no particular certainty...may be the peaks of Denali:

The peaks of Denali???

Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge 

About 4:00 PM or about 10 hours after we left the Homewood Suites in Anchorage, we pulled into our home away from home for the next few nights...The Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.  As stated above, this is one of the properties owned by Princess Cruise Lines and is one of the stops on their Land and Sea option.  The property is huge and is located in an area referred to as "Glitter Gulch".  It's a small strip with a plaza with small gift shops and a gas station.  Nothing fancy but more than is in other areas.  There are several Lodges in this area and many of the cruise lines use them for their passengers.  Again, when we arrived, we were greeted by busloads of passengers that were arriving for the evening.  Check in was quick and easy however.  They had customer service employees that were set up to help with the tour planning and we were easily able to check on our tour times and meet locations for the following day.  

We were in the Grizzly section of the Lodge and it was a bit of a walk from the lobby but not that bad.  They do offer a shuttle for guests to get to their rooms and they do a really good job of moving the cruise passengers' luggage to and from the busses and getting them where they need to be.  

Our Building at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

The buildings are rustic looking and the rooms are pretty basic.  You know when the only amenity is a "hair dryer in room" it's not a plush resort!  Our price was about $320.00 per night so it's not cheap to stay here but if you are looking for something that is nice, clean and close to the park, it's a great place to stay.  The grounds were beautiful and the lobby was very nice.  Rooms had two double beds, a bathroom and sink area, and a small table and old style TV with 14 channels...one of which is the Alaska Channel.  Again, nothing fancy but clean and comfortable.

Our room at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

The main areas were very nice and well themed for the area.

They had several restaurants.  One of the restaurants is a dinner theater.  We had read several reviews advising against seeing the show and so we avoided that.  They had a pizza place/bar and grill and a more upscale restaurant called the King Salmon.  We ate there both nights and I had the most amazing dinners I have ever eaten.  The first night I had the King Salmon and it was absolutely amazing and the second night I opted for the Alaskan King Crab Legs.  They were the biggest crab legs I had ever seen!

Alaskan King Crab Legs at The King Salmon Restaurant

Our servers were friendly and were very informative and the dinners were satisfying and tasty.

The Lodge area also had several small gift and specialty shops and made for something to do during your down time.  The main area had a cafe with the best Cinnamon Rolls and coffee and a great gift shop that was fun to look around.  There was also free WIFI in the main building so it was a nice place to go and sit and catch up on the world. Phone service from our room was a bit iffy!

Gift Shop at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

Cafe Area at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

The cafe also offered packed lunches to order for your tour the next day.  We took advantage of this and while a bit pricey...we were very happy that we had them the next day!!  More on this later!

After all the driving and getting our bellies full and our email checked we were ready to head to bed for the next day at the Park.  Since we were even further north than Anchorage...the days were even longer but we were so tired even the sunlight at midnight couldn't keep us awake!

Coming up Next:  Our Day at Denali National Park

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