Almost everyone that contacts me about coming to Alaska has Denali National Park on their “must see” list. It is no surprise, considering the tremendous number of images and advertisements that one sees that include Mt. McKinley and the spectacular wildlife that lives within the park. In addition, there has been some considerable publicity in recent years about the wolf packs in the park, and their habit of wandering outside the park boundaries, where several Denali wolves have been taken by trappers. Everyone seems to know about Denali, and they all want to visit.

Unfortunately for most visitors, the experience within Denali National Park is not as great as it once was. My first visit to the park was in 1985, and even at that time there were reasons for the visitor to leave Denali feeling that the visit did not live up to expectations. In the 21 years since, the annual number of visitors to Denali National Park has doubled, and there is no sign that the number of visitors is going to level off any time soon. A number of the larger tour and cruise companies have undertaken large construction projects in the past year to add hotel rooms at the entrance to the park. The growth in popularity of this already popular park is taking its toll on the visitor experience.

This is not to say that there isn’t something to see and do in Denali National Park. There are few places in Alaska that are as readily accessible as Denali that offer such great wildlife viewing opportunities. The park is notable because of both the numbers and variety of wildlife that a visitor can hope to see here.

However, all of this beauty and wildlife comes to the visitor at a price; dealing with hundreds or even thousands of other visitors in the park at the same time. This may seem like a false panic in a park the size of the state of Massachusetts. However, for almost every one of those thousands of visitors, the path through the park is the same. Virtually all of the park visits originate at the park headquarters in the town of Denali Park, and almost all visitors enter the park either on a guided tour, or on the park’s shuttle system, known as the Visitor Transportation System, or VTS.

Whether on a tour or on the VTS, the experience is similar: the day starts with long lines of people waiting to get onto one of the buses. Once you’re on the bus, you travel along the 90 mile Denali National Park Road, watching for wildlife and enjoying the scenery. If you’re on one of the tours, you don’t have the option to explore the park on your own. You do get off the bus periodically to stretch your legs and to take a bathroom break. The VTS offers a lot more flexibility; once you pass the Savage River, your driver will stop the bus wherever you like and let you off to hike, or do whatever it is you want to do within the park.

I strongly suggest to my guests that they choose the VTS over the tours, for a number of reasons. The most important is that the VTS allows you to decide what you want to see and do, and how long you want to stay in the park. In contrast, the tours are a fixed length, and if you want to see more of the park, or if you’ve had enough and want to go back sooner, you don’t have either option available to you.

Winter picture of Mt. McKinley taken in Denali State Park near Trapper Creek. This location is about 100 miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park.

The VTS is not the perfect alternative, either. While the drivers are knowledgeable and will answer your questions and provide a basic narration along the way, it is still just a bus ride, and you’re best suited if you get off the bus and experience the park on foot. I am not the most eager hiker, and my first visit to the park was a bit intimidating, both because of the tremendous size of the park (a treeless vista of mountains, tundra and rivers that goes on for dozens of miles) and because of the small but nonzero chance of a wildlife encounter. I remember thinking that the view from my seat on the bus would be almost as good as the view from outside, and I didn’t need to wander through the tundra singing to keep the bears away. For that reason, and many others, a lot of other VTS guests choose to stay on the bus instead of getting off.

I make it a point to follow up with my guests about their visits to Alaska, and I am proud to say that almost without exception, they rave about their experiences here. When I ask them for specifics, and they get to the part about Denali National Park, the raves are replaced with ‘OKs’. If there is a complaint, it is the experience with the crowds and the limited access to the park that is most common. This is unfortunate, because Denali really is a spectacular and special place. There just isn’t a good solution for most visitors that want to experience the park.

Which leads me to the secret. In late April, early May and mid September, the park road is open to private vehicles as far as the Teklanika River, provided the road conditions allow safe passage. You’re welcome to drive the park road in your own car (or a rental car), stop anywhere you like, and enjoy the park on your own terms. If you have a bicycle, you can take the road past this point by bicycle. Unfortunately, there is nothing guaranteed about the road conditions; snow can occur in any month of the year, and as you might imagine, it is rather common in these shoulder seasons. However, in most years, you can generally get a day or two in the park by road.

I have made several trips into the park in April and May, as well as in late September and early October and I’ve seen bears, caribou, moose, fox, golden eagles, ptarmigan and other wildlife along the road. The park is interesting at those times of year for other reasons, too. In the spring, there are still patches of snow everywhere, and it is a great way to experience what winter in alpine Alaska is like, without having to brave numbing cold. The wildlife viewing is generally quite good, with caribou and ptarmigan being the most common animals. A couple years back we were driving through the park and watched a golden eagle as it hunted in the park. While bald eagles are the birds that most people are intent on seeing here, a golden eagle is an impressive creature, indeed – they are considerably larger than bald eagles, and they tend to take on larger prey.

Last fall we drove through the park, and while we didn’t see a ton of wildlife, the day itself was rather spectacular, with frost adorning all of the trees. We had heard rumors of bears around the Teklanika River, but we didn’t see them.

The shoulder seasons are not without their challenges. There are no guarantees about the weather, and of course, wildlife doesn’t stick to the script either. However, the park is amazing, especially when you’re able to do it all on your own, rather than with a couple hundred of your closest friends. Because everything is iffy in the park in the spring and fall, it can be tough to plan a vacation around the shoulder seasons in Denali. But it might be worth a shot, if you want to explore on your own… and for some people, the shoulder seasons are when they can be here. For them, Denali should be a “must-see.”

Tundra near the Savage River in Denali National Park, September 2005.

Immediately east of Anchorage is the Chugach Mountains. The first ridge that overlooks the city has peaks to about 3500 feet; head deeper into the mountains and the peaks get taller, and eventually you reach the glaciers of the Chugach Mountains.

About this time of year, we’ll get a rainy, foggy day, and when we get up the next morning, the tops of the peaks will have a fresh coating of snow. Alaskans call this “termination dust”, which is a reference to the end of summer. Termination dust comes and goes several times in late August and September, before the snows settle in here at sea level, usually on a Saturday morning, when we have some outdoor chore, or even worse, a fishing trip planned. The phenomenon is the same in other parts of the state. In Fairbanks, the White Mountains just north and northeast of town will gather a mantle of snow a few weeks before the snows reach the floor of the Tanana Valley.

In Denali National Park, the situation is a little different. The mountains there are quite a bit taller, and most of the park, including the area along the park road is around the 3000 to 4000 feet, so when there’s termination dust on the Chugach Mountains, there’s snow on the park road in Denali. This is an important thing to remember when you’re out in the elements in Alaska; especially in the fall, but in fact, it is important anytime. When it is raining on you, it is snowing just a few thousand feet above your head, and in Alaska, a nice sunny day can become rainy very quickly, and an unexpected heavy shower might have a few hailstones, then a few more, then a few flakes of snow, and before you know it, you have a cold, wet mess.

I was on a moose hunting trip a few years back. We traveled by boat for about 15 miles, and we spent the better part of the month of September at our camp. We hunted the last day of the season. It was a beautiful fall day, with temperatures in the low 50’s. We went into our tents that night, ready to break camp and go home the next day. I woke up around 7 AM, and I heard some dripping on the tent.I was eager to make some coffee and some breakfast, so I started to get dressed and go to our campfire and get the fire started. I unzipped my tent, and was greeted by the sight of six inches of snow.

First snow of the year at Kashwitna Lake near Willow.

I made my coffee, and we broke camp, and rode in the boat for 15 miles in the cold and miserable snow all the way back to town.

Any day now, the Chugach Mountains will get another coating of snow, and Alaskans will moan and complain about how summer was short, and winter is coming. The truth is, winter comes when it wants to come, and summer is really just on loan to us, and we’re going to have to pay that loan back… Any day now.

Alaska has become one of the more popular destinations for travelers in the United States. The hospitality industry in Alaska is one of the largest single sectors of our economy, and we have experienced a slow and mostly steady growth in visits to Alaska. One implication of this growth is that once-small businesses have had to grow and change to accommodate higher and higher demand for their products and services.

In the years that I have been in the industry, my business has been transformed in the opposite way. Most of my guests contact me because they are looking to avoid the larger, more commercial destinations and activities. So as the Alaska Hospitality industry grows, and the businesses within that sector try to accommodate larger and larger volumes of people, my business is charged with the task of courting and maintaining relationships with small or very small business that offer highly customized and personalized experiences, whether it be lodging at a secluded cabin on a hilltop with views of Mt. McKinley, or a personally guided rafting and float trip, or a personalized adventure in the Brooks Range.

Much of the information that people outside of Alaska receive about our state come from large, sophisticated marketing engines operated by industry groups and/or large vendors. You’ll notice a lot of cruise ships, domed rail cars, king crabs and big mountains in these advertisements, and I am the first to admit that these images are very compelling, and the cruise lines and other large players have done a very good job at getting their guests to some truly spectacular destinations. However, to be on that cruise ship looking at that glacier or visiting that national park requires you to compromise about the number of people with whom you share that experience. So while the experience with both the cruise lines and the railroad is very good, once you reach your destination you’re faced with a rather commercial and often crowded set of options.

View from the entrance of one of the large hotels in Denali Park, Alaska. Numerous business, hotels and other commercial enterprises are located in the area known as “Glitter Gulch.” This picture was taken in September 2005, after the guests had left for the season.

The biggest enterprises are the drum to which the smaller businesses tend to dance. Tour schedules and courtesy shuttles are tailored to match the arrivals of cruise ships and trains. In order to offer these added amenities, the smaller companies must have the ability to handle the large number of guests arriving at once, and so what was once a very personalized experience becomes something geared to a larger audience, and by definition, is less personal. In addition, businesses that are located away from the cruise ship terminals and train stations have a hard time attracting these guests because they can’t offer the transportation options that the larger places offer. While this situation may seem like quite a problem to overcome for a small to very small business, I actually think this is a big advantage for many of them, provided they are focused on a very high quality experience for their guests.

For that reason we generally suggest that people skip the larger vendors, and do a self-guided trip instead. It isn’t that these larger vendors don’t do a good job, but rather that to have that wonderful, personalized Alaskan experience, with great hospitality and great locations, you need more flexibility. In almost every case, that requires that you travel by private vehicle, and for that reason we include rental cars in almost every package we do for our guests.

A lot of people are reluctant to drive during their visit to Alaska. My guests have cited a number of reasons, from finding driving to stressful, to concerns about the condition and quality of Alaskan roads, to the amount of time required to drive the hundreds of miles in a typical stay here. I will admit that I am not typical, and I really enjoy driving, but part of that is because of the tremendous flexibility that having your own vehicle offers. In addition, there are so many wonderful destinations that are not served by cruise ships or the train. Having access to a car opens up your visit to so many possibilities that really make a difference in your stay.

Having access to a vehicle is not the complete answer, however. This past weekend is a perfect example of what can go wrong in Alaska, or in fact, on any trip that you might plan. A week of heavy rains caused widespread flooding that damaged two bridges on the Parks Highway, the major route between Anchorage and Denali and Fairbanks. The road is just now being reopened, and drivers should expect delays traveling either north or south on the Parks Highway between Talkeetna and Denali. Travel insurance is always a good idea, and if you had the right travel insurance, your costs relating to delays and trip interruption would be covered. The same flooding also suspended rail operations, and thousands of guests were stranded, especially in Talkeetna and Denali, so taking the train did not help guests avoid the inconvenience caused by the floods.

So, get in the car, find the special places, meet the special people, buy travel insurance, and have a great vacation.