Denali Park

Attractions

• Bus tours +

  Several bus tours that follow the Park Road are available to visitors of Denali National Park and Preserve. The commercial tours are geared to viewing wildlife or venture the length of the road to Kantishna, where interpretive programs, gold panning or lunch awaits passengers.

• Denali Visitor Center +

  Opened in 2005, the Denali Visitor Center is 14,000-sq-foot facility to dedicated to a better understand of Denali National Park and Preserve. On the first floor are exhibits devoted to the area's natural and human history and a theater whose movies provide video glimpse of the park's wildlife and scenery. On the second floor is a giant table-top relief map that leaves no doubt in anybody's mind how rugged the national park is.

• Eielson Visitor Center +

  Located at Mile 66 of the Park Road, Eielson Visitor Center is Denali National Park's newest and most impressive interpretive center. The 7400-square-foot facility was opened in 2008 and features exhibits on the natural history of the region, a massive model of Mount McKinley and huge viewing windows to see North America's highest peak.

• Flightseeing +

  From airstrips in and around the park, charter air companies offer flightseeing tours that usually include flying around Mount McKinley and possibly landing on one of its glaciers. Flights are offered in either small bush planes or helicopters.

• Mountain biking +

  It possible to rent mountain bikes outside of the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve and use them to ride the gravel Park Road to enjoy the views of Mount McKinley or look for wildlife.

• Murie Science and Learning Center +

  Murie Science and Learning Center in Denali National Park features fascinating hands-on exhibits as well as a display on research currently taking place in the park. The staff stages nature-related programs throughout the week during the summer.

• Rafting +

  The Nenana River is the most popular white water rafting area in Alaska. The river's main whitewater begins near the entrance of Denali National Park and extends 10 miles north to Healy. Here outfitters offer raft trips that include Class III rapids, standing waves, and holes in sheer-sided canyons. More milder raft trips are run in the river south of the park entrance.

• Sled-Dog Demonstrations +

  Denali National Park is the only national park in the country where rangers conduct winter patrols via dog team. During the summer, the huskies are enjoyed during the park's free daily tours of the sled-dog kennels. Tours end with teams being spirited down a trail pulling a specially-designed wheeled cart.

• Stampede Trail +

  Built in the 1930s, most of this former mining route lies in to Denali National Park and Preserve. Today the trail is a rugged track used primarily by snowmobilers, mushers and skiers in late winter, when travel is easier. But the wilderness trail does draw a number of summer visitors who want to view the Fairbanks City bus where Chris McCandless, the subject of John Krakauer's 1997 bestseller Into The Wild, lived and died.

• Usibelli Coal Company +

  Connected to the Parks Highway by Healy Spur Road, Usibelli Coal Company (www.usibelli.com) conducts daily one-hour tours throughout the summer. Guests visit its quality-control office, main shop, warehouse, coal hopper and crusher.

• Wildlife Viewing +

  Denali National Park is home to 40 species of mammals and 167 varieties of birds. What most visitors want to view are moose, caribou, mountain sheep wolves and bears. It's possible to see them all on the park's shuttle buses that carry wildlife watchers, hikers and backpackers along the 92-mile-long Park Road that winds through the heart of this amazing wilderness.