Trip to Alaska
Wife and I are fairly new to RVing and wish to go Denali Nat'l Park this May. We will be departing from AZ in a 2009 Class C ( 31ft )Coachmen. Any suggestions as to which way to go, extra supplies, et...
Forum Discussion
fanrgs wrote:I never said I rode my bike past Teklanika, I just biked a little past Reilly CG. I may have gone farther if I had all day. I was mid 50's at the time not an Olympic athlete.Gjac wrote:I agree with you about seeing as many national and provincial parks in Canada as possible on the trip because they are often spectacular. And the Stewart-Hyder area glacier and wildlife alone are well-worth a trip over the Cassiar Highway in one direction.
The trip to Alaska was just as enjoyable as Alaska itself. . . I would skip the bus tour to Denali, after the trip everyone wanted to take a nap, I went back on my bike and saw a lot more animals close up.
I'm sorry but I couldn't ride my bike past the Teklanika campground when I was younger, much less up Polychrome Pass to the Eielson Visitors Center or Wonder Lake over 150 RT miles of gravel road. So, if you are not a bike aficionado, take the Denali NP bus tour. I have taken it 3 times--1992, 2000, and 2013--and have never been bored, even if the bus itself can be tiring. And keep in mind that, because summer days in the park are long, even a bus trip that seemingly starts late in the day will generally get you "home" before dark.
On one Denali bus trip, the driver was a Ph.D. wildlife biologist from a university in the Lower 48 who spent his days off studying the park's Dall sheep. He spent our entire trip essentially teaching a class on the park wildlife for all of us. Having never had college biology, I learned more than I ever could have from a guidebook. It was, without doubt, the best "guided tour" I have ever been a part of. IMHO, the bus is worth every dollar of the cost, regardless of how many people are in your family/group.
