I would like to visit it during the summer and do some day hikes. I’m looking for advice on how to get there, where to stay, etc.
I’m in Ohio, and plan on flying. I’m not sure if it’s best to fly in to Anchorage or Fairbanks. Thoughts? A little research shows that a lot of people who visit the park stay in Talkeetna. Should I rent a car, or take a train to Talkeetna from Anchorage or Fairbanks?
The Parks highway runs straight from Anchorage to Talkeetna, and that’s a 2 hour drive. Fairbanks appears to be about twice as far from Talkeetna as Anchorage.
Talkeetna is a little town of about 1200 people. It’s a little bit over-supplied with restaurants and bars because it’s a sort of base of operations for everything in that part of the state, and there are quite a few lodges/hotels near there which house cruise passengers and other tourists while they do hikes and jetboat cruises, etc…
I’m not sure about day hikes; Talkeetna is basically the last town before you get to the Denali National Park, but even it’s still probably another hour or more by car before you get to the park proper, and I think that’s the state park, not the national park. I bet there’s some kind of trailhead you can park at and go day-hiking around there somewhere. That seemed to be the way it worked in Alaska- there were trailheads more or less everywhere for hikers.
It looks like there are a lot on the southern side (the state park), and a bunch up on the northeast side as well- all along the Parks Highway.
I don’t think taking the train would work too well- there’s no way to get from Talkeetna to the trailheads without a car, and Anchorage is not that far away.
If you do end up in Anchorage, I recommend the Glacier Brewhouse Restaurant. Really good food and beer! Just make reservations in the summer- the Anchorage restaurants seem to be always crowded.
Denali National Park does not allow private cars inside the park. You must ride one of the park buses. And for that matter there are no actual trailheads, or defined trails. You just hike where wherever you want to hike, and then hike back to the road and flag down the next bus that comes by. The best advise is ask your bus driver for recommendations of hikes.
From watching YouTube videos from people who have ridden the Alaska Railroad, taking the train to Denali appears to be a very popular option, so there must be some way to get to the park from the train station. Those people may be staying at a lodge or campground within or near the park, rather than Talkeetna, though.
Thanks for the replies.
So how about this?
Fly in to Anchorage, rent a car, and drive up to Talkeetna.
Spend a couple days in Talkeetna: take an air taxi around the park (and land on a glacier), and perhaps a jet boat tour.
Drive up to Healy. Spend a few days there. It looks like it’s close to the park entrance, so get on some buses and do some hiking.
Drive back to Anchorage.
My one trip to Denali, I flew to Fairbanks, rented a camper, and stayed in the National Park campground. If I manage to make another trip, I’ll rent a car and drive from Anchorage. I would also make a point of eating at the Glacier Brewhouse before I left Anchorage.
In the park, you can actually drive in the first 15 miles. It’s bus-only beyond that point. Plenty of interesting hike options within that accessible zone. Having a car would be useful.
We went near Denali about 12 years ago. We were surprised at how - uh - BIG Alaska is. And how unlike National Parks in the lower 48. We took the train from Anchorage and stayed IIRC at the Talkeetna Lodge - which was still some 30+ miles from Denali. As I recall, it was cloudy throughout our stay, and we never even saw Denali. There are not the sorts of well-marked trails as we were familiar with. And any trail you happen upon could well be used by bears, moose… Not saying it is BAD - just quite different than we expected.
We have relatives who live near Anchorage, and endlessly proclaim the outdoors wonders of Alaska. Just realize it takes a while to get places (and/or expense via plane.) I’m not disappointed we went, but we are in no hurry to return.
Paging @Chefguy who grew up there and lived there for many years. He will have the first-hand unvarnished facts.
And maybe a tale or two of killing a charging bear with a golf pencil and a chip off a beer bottle. 
This is a pretty good plan. A couple of days in Talkeetna may be too long, though. It’s very small. I never did the flight-seeing thing, but wish I had. Arriving on a clear day is the biggest problem, as the mountain makes its own weather and it’s obscured much of the time. You could still take the bus in and do some hiking of course, but without the stunning scenery. Keep in mind that there are both grizzlies and wolves in the park, and they are far from habituated to humans. Give them a wide berth and carry a personal alarm. You can pick one up cheap at any outdoor provider. I had two of them: yank the lanyard and the thing shrieks like something possessed. Bears really don’t like strange noises. Bells don’t work, and a pissed off bear will likely ignore bear spray.
There are accommodations near the Park, if Talkeetna doesn’t work out. You need to book very early in either case, as the place is very popular. If you drive to the Park, there are huge parking lots near the bus terminal. As Dinsdale noted, there are really no defined trails in the Park, so be sure of your footing, wear good hiking boots, and carry a good walking stick. Also a map and compass, gorp and other common gear in case you get lost or if rain moves in. The people who get in the most trouble are the ones who treat Alaska like it’s a theme park.
My favorite drive in that area is on the Old Denali Road that goes between Cantwell and Paxson. Beautiful scenery, good fishing, hiking, etc. It’s a dirt road, though, for most of it’s length, and rental companies don’t want you to drive on those unless you rent an AWD. I think there are four lodges along there now. We used to drive it every year in our RV.
Amen to that. Even coming from Texas, the distances were pretty surprising. Anchorage to Fairbanks is about like going from Houston to Oklahoma City, and that’s only getting to the middle of the state.
We never saw Denali up close either; it was foggy when we were scheduled to go flightseeing around it, so we ended up seeing a glacier up close and personal instead. We did see Denali from a distance, which is cool.
Alaska is sort of the last wild frontier in a lot of ways. All sorts of wildlife is everywhere- bears, wolves, moose, etc… even in cities. Distances are huge, amenities are not as thick on the ground as elsewhere. And that’s in the “civilized” parts; a large part of the state(most?) is literally untamed wilderness.
And yeah, a day is about it for Talkeetna. It’s a tiny little town.
Some of my family is doing Denali this summer (late June), but I haven’t done much research on it. One of my sisters booked an AirBnB type place for us last October or so. The only input that I can give is that things book really early. In early April, my sister tried to book a popular guided tour in Denali, and two of the days were fully booked. She did get the other day booked for our group, though. At this point, it may be very difficult to find any availability for hotels or tours.
This closely matches our experience last year. We flew to Fairbanks and spent a day there, then rode the train to Denali (about 4 hours). Our lodge was in the tiny town just outside the park. The Denali bus picked us up at our lodge, and we had a wonderful day touring the road up to I think mile 33, where the road is closed due to a landslide. Saw lots of wildlife. As mentioned you can use the buses to hike, and there are no trails. On another day we did a guided day hike, and then rented a jeep to explore a little around Healy and in the park on the part of the road open to cars. We had awesome warm and clear weather so seeing the mountain was easy.
We rode the train to Anchorage for 8 hours (by way of Talkeetna) and spent a couple days there, then the train to Seward (4 hours), then train back to Anchorage and then home. IMHO the tourist infrastructure around the train was well developed, and we had no car other than the jeep for a few hours, but I imagine much less robust if you are planning things on your own.
Our experience in Denali was close to 20 years ago at this point, but my memories match a lot of what others have said here. We took a “bus safari” deep into the park, stayed for several days at the Denali Backcountry Lodge (highly recommended!) doing various guided hikes and other touristy activities, and then chartered a bush pilot to fly us back out.
That’s the norm, from what I understand. I was told that only about a third of people who visit the park actually see Denali.
I did do the flightseeing thing, and did see the mountain from the plane, though. Be aware that the flight can be kind of rough – that was the only time I’ve ever thrown up on a plane.
That’s about right. I lived in Anchorage for 7 years, visited Denali twice and the only times I saw the mountain was from Anchorage. Totally clouded in when I was at the park.
During our couple days in Anchorage we did a guided bike ride on the path that runs along the water. Beautiful, and great weather, and with moose! We rounded a turn and up a small hill near the airport and I could see something big and white in the distance to the north - I asked our guide and sure enuf - it was Denali - about 130 miles away!
Conversely, every time I went near the thing, it was clear as could be. Relatives come in? Get those clouds outa here! Taking our own trip into the Park to stay at North Face Lodge? Clouds? What clouds? Drive up the highway in the RV headed for the haul road to Prudhoe? Oh, look, the mountain! Dumb luck, of course.
Getting a car in Anchorage is a good plan. Gives you more flexibility. When we visited Alaska last year, we used Turo and found a good SUV for much less than the rental car places.
I would try to find a place closer to the park entrance. Talkeetna would be a bit of a drive. There are some lodges right outside the park entrance that you might look into.
The air taxi thing would be cool, but for me, seeing the wildlife is what makes Denali special. And to do that, your best/easiest way to go are the free shuttles. Though the road in the park isn’t very long, it makes for a long bus ride because 1) they’ll stop when they come across something interesting to see (bears, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, etc.), 2) the road doesn’t really allow for them to go very fast.
Seeing the mountain (fully, unobscured) is hit or miss. But from what I’ve heard from friends who have visited more recently, with global warming, the chances of seeing the mountain have really improved.
For hiking, a couple hikes I would recommend at Wonder Lake (end of the bus trip). But be sure to have plenty of mosquito repellant !
I don’t know much about the Healy area, but if you have time, I would recommend driving down past Anchorage, around the Turnagin Arm, and toward the Kenai peninsula. Seward is a cool town (at the end of the fjord), and it you can spare the time, we had a great trip taking a boat to the Kenai Fjords park.