Best Things to Do in Denali National Park

This is your chance to expe­ri­ence the spec­tac­u­lar scenery along the Denali High­way, a road recent­ly ranked #2 world­wide as a ​‘Dri­ve of a Life­time’ by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Trav­el­er Mag­a­zine. You’ll be giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take the wheel, or if you pre­fer, just sit back and enjoy stun­ning views of the peaks and glac­i­ers of the cen­tral Alas­ka Range. There is a guide in the Jeep up front, but you can stop wher­ev­er, when­ev­er, and as often as you  ...more

Explore all 92 miles of the Denali Park Road and have the entire trip nar­rat­ed by an expe­ri­enced dri­ver. Not only will you see leg­endary land­marks such as Poly­chrome Pass, Won­der Lake and Reflec­tion Pond, you will have oppor­tu­ni­ties to see the abun­dance of wildlife in the park. Enjoy a hot lunch, explore the grounds, pan for gold, or take a short walk along the creek, or relax in a rock­er at the lodge and soak up the scenery.

Tra­verse Alas­ka can craft ful­ly-guid­ed cus­tom adven­tures, or set you up on a trip into the Alas­ka wilder­ness arm­ing you with some know-how — and pro­vid­ing you with the inde­pen­dence to freely explore. Excur­sions include pri­vate day hikes, raft­ing and pack­raft­ing, and mul­ti-day backpacking. 

This train trav­els through the forest­ed areas north of Anchor­age into the bore­al for­est, and even­tu­al­ly into the tun­dra regions fur­ther north. On a clear day the train will slow down to allow you to see beau­ti­ful vis­tas of Denali. You may also spot wildlife along the way. Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na Day Trip from Fair­banks: Denali Mul­ti-Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na, Denali Nation­al Park, and / or Fair­banks Mul­ti-Day Trip  ...more

Go on the typ­i­cal zipline and you get a love­ly ride under a canopy of trees. But with this unique zipline tour — the only one in the Denali Nation­al Park area— you ride above the tree line, so that you can take in sweep­ing, 360-degree views of miles around, includ­ing the tun­dra and the Alas­ka Range.

Expe­ri­ence the thrill of the icon­ic Alaskan sport of dogsled­ding from vet­er­ans of the Idi­tar­od and Yukon Quest races! Oper­at­ing in sum­mer and win­ter from Cantwell, about a 30-minute dri­ve south of Denali Nation­al Park, the pri­vate tours will be just you and your group, led by expert guides. Win­ter tours can involve learn­ing to dri­ve your own dog team or rid­ing out to see the north­ern lights. In sum­mer, the excit­ed dogs pull a side-by-side on  ...more

For­get the trail­head on your next hike. Instead, take a short but very scenic heli­copter ride to a spe­cial wilder­ness area just out­side Denali Nation­al Park and start your trek from there. Your guide will lead your small group on a soft-adven­ture hike above the tree line, with sweep­ing views. You’ll learn about iden­ti­fy­ing ani­mal tracks and the local flo­ra and fau­na, and of course have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to spot wildlife like bears, moose, and Dall  ...more

Tra­verse Alas­ka cre­ates cus­tom tours in the Denali Nation­al Park area that allow trav­el­ers to enjoy the mag­ic of Alas­ka at their own pace. Win­ter itin­er­aries include icon­ic Alaskan cold-weath­er activ­i­ties in South­cen­tral and Inte­ri­or Alas­ka. After all, Alas­ka in win­ter is a very spe­cial time of year — qui­eter, full of snow-frost­ed trees, and frozen snow-cov­ered ground cre­ates an out­door play­ground in every direction.

Explore Denali Nation­al Park with Alas­ka Geo­graph­ic on an edu­ca­tion­al day tour led by a sci­ence edu­ca­tor. Dive into the park’s ecosys­tem, his­to­ry, and wildlife through hands-on expe­ri­ences, off-trail hik­ing, and unique sen­so­ry engage­ments. Suit­able for any­one aged 8 and up, the tour includes stops at sig­nif­i­cant sites like the East Fork of the Tok­lat Riv­er and offers inti­mate insights into the sci­ence and research of Denali. Enjoy a  ...more

Don’t just vis­it icon­ic Denali Nation­al Park, expe­ri­ence it by gain­ing a real under­stand­ing of how to sur­vive in the wilder­ness. You’ll do some off-tri­al hik­ing and learn skills like how to build a shel­ter and iden­ti­fy edi­ble berries. Their oth­er small-group hik­ing tours have an edu­ca­tion­al empha­sis too. Learn how the entire ecosys­tem fits togeth­er to bet­ter appre­ci­ate the area around you. 

The best way to get an overview of Denali Nation­al Park is aboard one of the park bus­es, which fea­ture a trained nat­u­ral­ist who both dri­ves and pro­vides nar­ra­tion. Avail­able tours include the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Tour (4−5 hrs), and the Tun­dra Wilder­ness Tour (5−5.5 hrs).

Just out­side Denali Nation­al Park, the Nenana Riv­er offers a unique raft­ing expe­ri­ence: The riv­er is big and icy cold, with glacial­ly fed waters. But this raft­ing out­fit­ter based near the Park Entrance offers a soul-warm­ing expe­ri­ence on the riv­er, which makes an excel­lent coun­ter­part to a bus tour through the nation­al park. Choose a quick 3‑hour trip on mild water or splash through some rapids. Or opt for a longer 5.5‑hour run. 

Raft the pris­tine and scenic rivers in the Denali area with an expert, local guide. The most pop­u­lar water activ­i­ty is riv­er raft­ing, which can range from a scenic float to a more white­wa­ter expe­ri­ence on a class III+ riv­er. For a full day of adven­ture, you can com­bine a trip on the riv­er with hik­ing. Tra­verse Alas­ka also offers pack­raft­ing (each per­son is pad­dling their own small boat), which is a day-and-a-half class, tran­si­tion­ing from  ...more

Go flight­see­ing over Denali Nation­al Park in a very unique way: via heli­copter. Lift off on a 50-minute flight —land­ing the heli­copter on a glac­i­er, putting on spe­cial boots, and going for a walk on the frozen land­scape to get an up-close look at it. Or, vis­it Bus 142, made famous by adven­tur­er Christo­pher McCan­d­less. Flight­see­ing in a heli­copter is much dif­fer­ent from in a plane — learn all the ben­e­fits of this great way of check­ing out the  ...more

Dri­ve through Alas­ka with an audio tour guid­ing you along icon­ic routes. Audio Tour Alas­ka gives you an insider’s take on every­thing from points of inter­est to his­to­ry, wildlife, and cul­ture, along with cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ries. Guides to pop­u­lar routes include Anchor­age to Tal­keet­na; Tal­keet­na to Denali Nation­al Park; Denali to Fair­banks; Anchor­age to Seward; and Tern Lake to Homer.

A lot of peo­ple swear to it: the best way to see Alas­ka is from an air­plane, and there may indeed be no bet­ter way to get close to the face of Denali. This one-of-a-kind flight­see­ing oper­a­tor makes it easy to see up close to the Great One with­out spend­ing a great deal of time.

Dri­ve your own 4‑wheel all-ter­rain vehi­cle (ATV) on this excit­ing off-road jour­ney through the back­coun­try adja­cent to Denali Nation­al Park. Black Dia­mond puts you in con­trol: stop when­ev­er you want, take pic­tures of the spec­tac­u­lar scenery, and laugh as you expe­ri­ence Alas­ka as it was meant to be: rough and wild. Explore old coal-min­ing trails and spill out onto the Dry Creek Riv­er Bed, then head high up on Black Dia­mond Peak to take in the  ...more

Feel the thrill of crush­ing through white­wa­ter on the Nenana Riv­er just out­side the icon­ic Denali Nation­al Park. Do it with New Wave Adven­tures and you’ll have your choice of raft­ing trips — you can even decide whether to pad­dle or just take in the beau­ti­ful scenery — as well as oth­er excit­ing options like hik­ing and pack­raft­ing, all great options for fam­i­ly fun.

If you want to expe­ri­ence Denali Nation­al Park, Bike Denali has a fun, unique way to do it — on two wheels! Options include after­noon rentals to ride around the park entrance, full-day rentals to the explore the Denali Park Road to mul­ti-day rentals for bike camp­ing. Opt for a moun­tain bike, or eBike.

New Wave Adven­tures pro­vides expe­ri­enced guides who go beyond guid­ing your way — they enrich your jour­ney with insights into the area’s his­to­ry, flo­ra, fau­na, and geol­o­gy. Choose from 3 hikes in the Denali area: Oxbow, Triple Lakes, or Rock Creek.

The Black Dia­mond ATV Trea­sure Hunt back­coun­try adven­ture, just out­side Denali, offers both a skilled guide and a splash of think-for-your­self adven­ture. Your ride can be fast and excit­ing or slow and leisure­ly — it’s up to you. Unlike some oth­er ATV trips, you don’t have to do the dri­ving; a pro is at the wheel of the Polaris ATV. You’ll explore old coal-min­ing trails and the Dry Creek Riv­er Bed, where Athabas­can Indi­an arti­facts have been found  ...more

This tour is an adven­ture­some alter­na­tive to a bus ride into the park. Denali ATV Adven­tures offers sev­er­al tours that let you explore the areas sur­round­ing Denali Nation­al Park. On your jour­ney, you’ll splash through rivers, dri­ve over tree root-rut­ted trails, and four-wheel up to some of the area’s most spec­tac­u­lar vis­tas. Dri­ve your own ATV, or be the pas­sen­ger and enjoy the ride. 

To get a real sense of old-time Alas­ka, climb into Black Dia­mond’s fam­i­ly-friend­ly Cov­ered Wag­on Adven­ture for a trip through time. While guides fill you in on the area’s his­to­ry and nat­ur­al trea­sures, you’ll be pulled by two draft hors­es through the Alaskan tun­dra, with the moun­tains of near­by Denali Nation­al Park hov­er­ing over­head. Hear the his­to­ry of this coal-min­ing area as you pass through the wilderness. 

Denali Air flights see the majes­tic moun­tain a whop­ping 90% of the time, thanks to the company’s expe­ri­enced pilots and its loca­tion just out­side the park. And, every­one is guar­an­teed a win­dow seat. Lis­ten to your pilot nar­rate while you enjoy the views.

A road­side hike that gains quick ele­va­tion and leads to soar­ing views? Count me in. A lit­tle trav­eled creek that rush­es into one of the wildest white­wa­ter rivers in Alas­ka? Hmm. Yes, please. A trail all to your­self just a few min­utes from Denali’s busy front coun­try area? Now you’re talk­ing. Drag­on­fly Creek has all this and more, and you’ll only just be get­ting your feet wet.

This hike intro­duces you to the best that Denali has to offer. The Bison Gulch trail is all about stun­ning views of steep riv­er canyons, a sol­id, well-bro­ken trail through alpine tun­dra, and an excit­ing sum­mit scram­ble for those that reach it. For those with less time, this hike is favored for its quick access to high alpine views direct­ly off of the Parks High­way. No need to go all the way to the sum­mit if you haven’t the time or moti­va­tion; the  ...more

Sug­ar­loaf offers fun, steep, and chal­leng­ing ridge hik­ing above the hotels and restau­rants of the com­mer­cial area North of Denali Nation­al Park. It’s a great place to scram­ble freely in this region’s semi-arid alpine zone or to enjoy a long mid­night sun­set. The broad, west fac­ing peak of Sug­ar­loaf Moun­tain is a reward­ing sum­mit, and once you’ve climbed the steep­est trail sec­tion at the begin­ning you’ll like­ly have the rest of trail to yourself,  ...more

Either dri­ve your own car or take the free shut­tle 15 miles out the park road to the Sav­age Riv­er check sta­tion. This is a pop­u­lar hik­ing trail, and you won’t be alone, but at least you’re away from the entrance area and enter­ing the true wilder­ness of Denali Nation­al Park. This is a tun­dra walk on a devel­oped trail that fol­lows the riv­er. Good hike for kids, with pos­si­bil­i­ty of see­ing Dall sheep, mar­mots, and cari­bou. You can do a loop walk,  ...more

This pop­u­lar trail attracts lots of folks, so don’t expect to be the only hik­er. It’s still worth the trip. The trail begins at Mile 0.9 on the park road near the rail­road tracks. You’ll walk on a devel­oped trail down to the lake. After you reach the Over­look, the trail drops steeply. Along the way, espe­cial­ly at the over­look bench, you’ll have a panoram­ic view of the Nenana Riv­er, the devel­op­ment called ​“Glit­ter Gulch” right out­side the park,  ...more