We woke up at 4am this morning to get an early start to our day. In yesterday’s post we mentioned that we have an 8:30AM bus reservation at Denali National Park. The drive from Talkeetna to Denali is about 2 1/2 hours, so we got on the road around 5am. We wanted to stop along our drive at different viewpoints of Denali, but the rainy weather this morning hid Denali behind the low-lying clouds, so there wasn’t much to see. Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley) is the highest mountain peak on the North American continent, with a summit elevation of 20,194ft above sea level and a base-to-peak elevation of 18,000ft! The word Denali comes from the word Deenaalee, meaning “the tall one” in the Koyuakon Athabascan language of Alaska.
As we got closer to Denali, we began to see the massive mountain peaking out of the cloudy sky…its peak shimmering from the white snow. It’s still pretty wild for us to see snowy peaks in the middle of the summer, but it’s the norm here.
We arrived to the Denali National Park entrance a little before 8:00am, so we headed straight to the Bus Depot to check-in for our reservation. Similar to Glacier National Park in Montana, Denali National Park has a contractual agreement with a private company to bring guests beyond Mile Marker 15 (Aramark in Denali National Park, and Xanterra in Glacier National Park). Private cars are allowed to drive up to Mile Marker 15 where you’ll find the Savage River parking area and trails, but be aware that parking is very limited in this area, so if you plan to park here, arrive early.
Note: There are different tour options. Some sell out well in advance, and many sell out in advance. We highly recommend booking the tour that is right for you as soon as possible. There is the transit bus (hop-on/hop-off) and there are 2 different narrated tour options. Due to a recent landslide (the Pretty Rock Landslide has been ongoing for decades, but has a significant slide between Fall 2021 and Spring 2022) just past East Fork River and before Polychrome Overlook, the furthest any bus can venture is mile marker 43 until a planned bridge is completed. There is some pretty incredible time-lapse footage of this slide that the NPS shared online if you’re interested (https://www.nps.gov/dena/learn/nature/pretty-rocks.htm).
The bus station is located in a small national park store. Here you can get some souvenirs and any last-minute supplies for your adventures (i.e. snacks, drinks, bear spray, and more). The check-in process was smooth and our 8:30am bus arrived right on time. Our driver Omar welcomed us onto the bus and prepped us for our upcoming 4.5 hour adventure. While it is a hop-on/hop-off bus that will stop almost anywhere requested, the park rangers recommended that we take the bus all the way to East Fork River to see where we would want to hop-off on our way back.
Note: After taking the bus ourselves, we would recommend the same thing because the park is quite large and each bus heading north is likely full and unable to pick you up.
Before we headed on the road, Omar told us that seeing wildlife wouldn’t be guaranteed, but we obviously kept our hopes high that we’d see something interesting along our drive! While we didn’t take the narrated tour, Omar did a great job of giving us some brief history of the park along the way.
If you’ve followed us along our adventures, you know we’ve been to a lot of national parks. However, Denali just has a different feel to it. The vastness of this place just left us wondering what we might see around the next bend. This park really exemplifies why so many consider Alaska to be “the last frontier.”
The first wildlife we saw was pointed out by one of the passengers, and Omar was quick to stop so that we could all check it out. From a (very far) distance, we saw a grizzly bear roaming along the Teklanika River.
Our first stop was at the Teklanika rest area where we had about 10 minutes to get off, use the restroom, and check out the river views from the wooden viewing platform. This is also an opportunity to hop-on/hop-off the bus to hike some of the nearby trails along the river. We considered it, but ultimately decided to continue on with Omar!
As we continued our drive, we saw another bus ahead of us stopped on the road…which either meant they were yielding for oncoming traffic, or wildlife sighting! Turns out they found Dall sheep on the side of the mountain. Binoculars and/or a nice zoom lens is a must, because to our naked eye they just look like little white dots scattered along the mountainside.
After the first animal sighting, everyone had their eyes peeled as we continued along the paved road, tracking any moving wildlife. Soon after seeing the Dall sheep, we saw a herd of caribou (reindeers) moving down one mountainside…and they were running fast!
We were so fortunate because as soon as our bus tour began, the skies began to clear up and the sun came out, giving us stunning views of the wilderness around us.
We reached the end of our road (mile marker 43) which was around Sable Pass. We were able to get off the bus for another 10 minutes and we had the option of staying off to explore the area or hop back on to head back towards the bus stop.
We decided to get back on the bus and checked out the map to see where we would want to get off for a quick hike. We had every intention of hopping off near the Savage River to hike the Savage Alpine trail…but we ultimately decided to take the bus all the way back to the Bus Depot to catch the free shuttle to the Sled Dog Kennels to make the 2:00pm demonstration.
It was pretty amazing to get up close and personal to these sled dogs. Each dog had their own wooden dog house with their names on it where they lived year round…even in the winter! After we walked through the kennel area, we walked towards a standing area for the demonstration. The park ranger introduced each dog that was used for the demonstrations and we watched all 5 dogs pull a wheeled sled around a short trail that ended in front of the crowd…so cool!
As soon as we got back into our car around 4pm, it began to rain again. We had great luck with the weather during our Denali adventure (it only rained during our drive to and from the park). At this point, we worked up an appetite and were ready for an early dinner. On our way to Denali we saw a cool looking restaurant in the middle of nowhere called “Jam Jams Spot” and planted the seed to stop there on the way back home…so we did just that!
We assumed it was a Jamaican spot based on the name and signage, and we were spot on. They had great sandwich choices, but the chef/owner told us that he uses his grandma’s recipe for the Jamaican jerk chicken and his special bbq sauce, so we couldn’t say no to that! While waiting for our food, we got to talking with the owner about his cuisine and how Jamaican jerk ended up in Alaska. After some small talk, we soon realized that we were from the same neighborhood in Queens, NY…what a small world!
He brought out our Jamaican jerk chicken sandwich, which was topped with coconut-pineapple coleslaw, and his signature BBQ sauce…and wow! The mix of sweet and savory flavors were phenomenal. We highly recommend stopping here if you’re in the area!
After our delicious lunch, we made our way back to Talkeetna and stopped into the Denali Brewing Company (located in Talkeetna) for a flight of beers.
I guess we didn’t get enough from Denali Brewing because once we got back to our Airbnb, we found ourselves walking to the Denali Brewpub to have some more! Here we tried a mead from Alaska Meadery which is the sister company of Denali Brewing Co., Denali Spirits, and Alaska Ciderworks. All are actually available and sold at the brewpub and Brewing Company (where we first went).
We made our way back home after one more drink at the brewpub and cooked our leftover fried rice from the Laotian restaurant yesterday (they had huge fried rice portions!). Tomorrow we’ll be making our way back to Anchorage where we will be adventuring for the next 2 days…so stay posted!