Denali National Park | Best Hotels, Tours, Trails, Wildlife Spots
Denali National Park
Home to Alaska's Big 5
Bears, wolves, caribou, dall sheep & moose
See the Great One
On a clear day, Denali towers overall at 20,320 ft
Unspoiled Wilderness
Private Vehicles not allowed, travel by foot or park bus
Endless Adventure
Rafting, flight seeing, ATV tours, & more
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Denali National Park is Alaska’s most popular land attraction—and with good reason. You can see some of Alaska’s most famous sights: 
• Mt. McKinley and the continent’s highest peaks.
• A vast, unspoiled wilderness of braided glacial rivers, massive peaks, and tundra.
• Lots of wildlife: Moose, caribou, grizzly bears, Dall sheep, and wolves.
One caveat: You can’t really do Denali in a day.  We recommend that people stay 2 nights, if they stay near the Park entrance , and 3 or 4 nights if you stay in Kantishna , deep inside the park’s interior.
 
Favorite Activities
Most independent travelers explore Denali by taking one of the bus tours , each of which covers varying lengths of the Park Road. You can compare different Park Road tours to see which is best for you, but keep in mind that you don’t have to stick with a bus. Some tour companies offer you the chance to rent bicycles and go solo—and plenty of people use the hop-on, hop-off Park Shuttle as the way to hike sections of the Park on their own. You can also go rafting , flightseeing , take a rowdy ATV tour , or tour the kennel of an Iditarod Musher . Some people book a stay at one of the lodges deep inside Denali , where you can hike, bicycle, canoe and experience the Park in comfort—but still largely off the grid. For a local perspective on the park, check out Denali Education Center.  They hold local community events, and offer an Alaskan-led evening program to learn about living in Alaska and Life in Denali.
Getting Here
Denali is 5½ hours from Anchorage  by car and 8 hours by the Alaska Railroad. From Fairbanks, it’s just 3 hours by car, and 4 hours by train. For more information, see our Anchorage to Denali , Seward to Denali , or Fairbanks to Denali advice pages.