Denali National Park

We camped about 20 miles south of Denali National Park in Cantwell.  Small little town but the campground had electric/water and would fit our 43 foot RV.  The National Park campgrounds will only allow a maximum of 40 foot campers.   It worked out well, as the road construction was just north of Denali and we could avoid it !  I just love the Alaska Tour Saver book.  We purchased ours online for $89 ahead of time, but it was available in many of the Safeway grocery stores and visitor centers.  It is a 2 for 1 book of Alaska.  We saved 6x the purchase amount and probably more, in all the places we used it.  In

Denali we took the Denali tour to Wonder Lake - the first 11 miles into Denali you can drive on your own, but beyond that you must take the park transportation (bus).  So the tour took us 89 miles into the park to Wonder Lake.  Our bus driver was very talkative and gave us lots of information on the park, wildlife and historic information.  He also had quite a few "stories" about the early days in the park and its origins.  I have gained such an admiration for people like Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir, as naturalists.  Their foresight in saving land and wildlife is the only reason we can still come to places like this and still see it in its raw beauty.  We actually got to see the North and South peaks of Denali early in our tour, but not again for the rest of the day. 

The tour was 11 hours long, so our campground neighbor that has been following us since Liard Hot Springs, agreed to take the next day's tour and so we could let each other's dogs out during the day.  Gator can only hold it about 6-7 hours.  We saw 2 grizzlies, caribou, ptarmigan, sheep, snowshoe hare, and many little varmints.  Randy thought he would see how it would feel to be an elk, kind of heavy having that weight on your head.  The moose we didn't see until we were on the Parks Hwy on our way back to the campground.  Wildlife was not as plentiful as we had hoped but park of that may be all the road construction or the wild fires just south of us new Willow and Wasilla???  On our way back from Wonder Lake it poured and poured and poured. So was a bit scary on the windy, cliffhanging parts of the road.  The bus driver did well, even while continually talking!

Back to the Alaska Tour Saver - We decided to go for it and booked the Whitewater Rafting and ATV 1/2 day tour of the back country.  We saved over $100 on those 2 tours.  They scare you to death on the "intro" for the Whitewater rafting on the Nenana River.  You could die, you could freeze, you could fall out, you could hit your head and die - on and on this guy went.  "So if any of you do not want to go we will refund your money in full"  Made me think….. but we did it anyway and it really was just fun.  Didn't feel life defying or life threatening at all.  I think they could have toned down the warning speech a bit. 

We also took the ATV Denali backcountry trip.  Great fun on an ATV, with trails and water to fly through.  We even had a few sightseeing and informative stops.  We weren't on Denali National Park land, but on the edge of it, as they do not allow motorized vehicles other then designated ones inside the park.  We had fun buzzing around and playing follow the leader.  No wildlife was seen but beautiful views and fun!

The road construction is really a bummer on this trip.  The Parks Hwy from Fairbanks to South of Denali was torn up and down to rough rutted road.  They tear up about 30 miles of the road and then the road crew comes through to pave, starting at the southern most point and working their way north.  So basically torn up roads for months until the road crew gets to the area.  So staying south of Denali really helped us out with the frustration of road work and flag people.  Not to mention the rough drive.