Denali National Park

If you have the time and money, there's no better way to experience Denali National Park than to stay with the Cole's Camp Denali or North Face Lodge deep inside the Park. These are the original visitor lodges inside the park. Not only is there a rich sense of history here, but these lodges also have the best location. In fact, they're the only accommodations in Denali National Park that offer views of Mount McKinley from the lodge. The accommodations, meals, nature programs, and guided hikes are all superb.

The history of these lodges goes back over 50 years, to the founding of Alaska's modern conservation movement, and that strong wilderness ethic imbues your experience. The owners, the Coles-are welcoming and knowledgeable. And the staff, which comes back year after year, includes some of the park's best-trained naturalists. They can help you discover secrets of Denali's unique sub-arctic environment through organized hikes and activities, and their spirit of adventure and curiosity will rub off on you.

Or you can just explore on your own, taking a box lunch out on a hike or just staying at the lodge to enjoy the quiet and scenery. Because the lodge has been here for so long, they are grandfathered in with special privileges inside the Park, like being allowed to keep a canoe at Wonder Lake. Also, unlike other lodges, they're allowed to drive their guests back along the Park Road and let them off for hikes or bicycling back along the Park Road. The Coles also own several remote cabins in the Kantishna area, so even on a rainy day, you can go on a hike, knowing a warm cabin and place to dry off waits high up in the hills. All of these experiences are like having the park to yourself. Canoe on the lake, hike onto the tundra, and experience the quiet.

In fact, quiet is everywhere: there's no TV and no bar here, just a wilderness experience that is personal and insightful. Evening activities include the interesting lectures by staff, or by visiting authors or artists, many of whom choose to stay here when visiting Denali. The clientele is friendly, curious, relaxed, and upscale, but not snooty. Many are also repeat visitors.

There are two groups a week; one stays for three nights, the other for four, and the minimum stay of three or four nights is well worth it. Like all Kantishna lodges, you get a free Park Tour on the drive out and back along the Denali Park Road. You can fly one way and drive the other. Or you can also fly straight to Kantishna from Anchorage, as some repeat guests do.

Here are some specifics about the lodges:

Camp Denali sits up on a hillside and has a fabulous view of Mt. McKinley and other peaks in the Alaska Range. Everyone gets their own cabin, spaced far apart and set on a gently sloping hillside with wide expansive, unobstructed views of the Great One.

The North Face Lodge, built in 1973, sits a little lower down the hillside on a tundra meadow. It was bought and renovated by Camp Denali owners in the mid-1980s.

Hawk’s Nest is a rustic wilderness homestead cabin with magnificent views of Mt. McKinley and the Alaska Range and great for the independent traveler. This cabin is located 1.5 miles from Camp Denali, set off by itself in the Denali wilderness and offering scenic solitude. There is no electricity and no running water. Firewood is provided for the wood stove, and water is hand-pumped from a well. An outhouse is nearby and showers can be taken at Camp Denali. Guided hiking, meals, recreational equipment, and transportation are not available.