Showcase of Alaska’s Interior
The Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park is my favorite part of our Alaska cruisetour experience. Read on for why you should include it in your cruisetour itinerary.
I also highlight:
- how many nights you should stay in Denali National Park
- the five animals you’ll be searching to see
- the two most striking geological features
- what to bring
- what to wear
Why it’s Worth your Time to do a Cruisetour in Alaska
Denali National Park is the shining gem in your cruisetour itinerary. Its interior location, vast size, and wildlife give you a unique view of Alaska. Your cruise’s Inside Passage ports indeed provide an expansive overview of Southeastern Alaska. And it’s Denali National Park that delivers the best snapshot of interior Alaska.
By visiting Denali National Park, I felt that I had truly seen Alaska.
But, frankly, there is a way to do a cruisetour that maximizes your experience. Follow my advice below so that your cruisetour makes you say “Wow!” — instead of “That’s it?”
Why you Should Spend Two Nights in Denali National Park
It’s worth using the extra vacation days to tack a cruisetour onto your Alaskan cruise. But you might regret doing so unless you book at least two nights in Denali National Park. The prime excursion in Denali National Park is the Tundra Wilderness Tour. It takes 7-8 hours, and it’s time well spent.
Most itineraries that book only one night in Denali National Park do not afford time to go on the Tundra Wilderness Tour. And in my opinion, the Tundra Wilderness Tour is the whole point of visiting Denali National Park. It gets you deep into the park where the wildlife and expansive scenery await.
The park road in Denali National Park begins in greenery. Expansive views of braided rivers, mountains, and sloping valleys lie ahead.
The “Double Denali” with Holland America
Both of our cruisetours have been on northbound itineraries (cruise 1st, land 2nd) with Holland America, who call their two-night stay the “Double Denali” feature.
On our most recent cruisetour, we arrived after 5 pm in pouring rain. Some folks on our bus were on a different Holland cruisetour package that did not include the two-night stay. They rushed to an excursion that evening, stayed overnight, and departed in the morning. No Tundra Wildness Tour for them. They could say that they had “been to Denali National Park”, but they missed the best part.
Value-Added Feature: If you book a Double Denali stay with Holland America, the Tundra Wilderness Tour is included in the cost of your cruisetour.
If Your Itinerary includes the Natural History Tour Instead
Heads up! Some itineraries include a tour in Denali that is not the Tundra Wilderness Tour. Some offer the Natural History Tour instead. The Natural History Tour goes to mile 27 on the park road while the Tundra Wilderness Tour goes to mile 62.
All tours starts on the eastern side of Denali National Park. How far along the park road your bus travels depends on which tour you choose. (map source: https://www.nps.gov)
The Natural History Tour might be a better option for someone who, for health reasons, isn’t comfortable sitting for extensive periods of time. Of the Natural History Tour’s 4.5-5 hours, one hour is spent off the tour bus. This includes touring the original ranger’s cabin, watching a film, and viewing an Alaskan Native presentation. Personally, I haven’t been on the Natural History Tour; you might find it is a better match for you.
But if you have the time and stamina for the Tundra Wilderness Tour, I recommend it. You can often pay for an upgrade rather than taking the Natural History Tour that’s listed in your cruiseline’s itinerary. Just make sure that you coordinate this with your travel agent ahead of time, much in advance of departing. The Denali tours sell out, so you most likely would not be able to make the upgrade after arriving to Denali. (When my parents upgraded from the Natural History Tour to the Tundra Wilderness Tour on their Princess cruisetour, they did so months in advance.)
Kantishna and Wonder Lake
There is a third tour option that is even longer than the Tundra Wilderness Tour. It’s called the Kantishna Experience, and it goes as far as mile 92, past Wonder Lake, to where the park road ends in Kantishna. This 11-12 hour tour includes lunch, snacks, beverages, and a National Park Service Ranger who joins the tour halfway through.
We haven’t participated in the Kantishna Experience, but we sure hope to do so someday!
Highlights of the Tundra Wilderness Tour
What You’ll Experience on the Tundra Wilderness Tour
The park’s tan tour buses are school buses, not the plush-seated coach variety you might be picturing. There is no restroom onboard, but all tours include restroom breaks at rest stops.
The tour bus for your Tundra Wilderness Tour will pick you up at your lodge. Read on for what to pack for the day.
But being on a school bus for eight hours is better than it sounds. The driver-guide makes the time fly by, and photo opportunities abound. Plus, if you luck out and get friendly fellow bus passengers, you might build a fun camaraderie as you help each other spot the wildlife.
No cars are permitted past mile 15 on the park road in Denali National Park. So often your bus has the road to itself – other than another bus in the distance (center left).
Animals you may see on the Tundra Wilderness Tour
Which wildlife you will see is unpredictable and variable. The big five to watch for:
- wolves
- caribou
- Dall sheep
- bears
- moose
We’ve been on the Tundra Wilderness Tour twice and have yet to see a wolf. At most recent count, there were more than 70 wolves living in Denali National Park – in an expanse of the park’s over six million acres. Understandably, wolf sightings can be rare.
We have seen caribou and Dall sheep close enough to snap some photos.
Our tour bus stopped so that we could watch these caribou grazing along the park road. But not all wildlife will be this close.
Those light brown specks in the valley are the largest caribou herd we’ve seen yet on the Tundra Wilderness Tour.
Sometimes you have to look up. This Dall sheep was peeking down at our tour bus.
Search for Dall sheep along the side of mountains or nestled atop craggy overlooks.
Any bear sightings were, unfortunately, brownish blobs in the distance. (We saw more bears and in closer proximity on our van trip from Skagway into the Yukon than we have on two Tundra Wilderness Tours.)
We haven’t seen moose yet on the Tundra Wilderness Tour. But we always spot some from the train that we use to get to or from the park.
Your experience may differ, so please comment below if you’ve had wildlife sightings in Denali National Park. I’d love to hear about it!
Sightseeing on the Tundra Wilderness Tour
Your driver-guide’s narration keeps the trip interesting despite much of the initial part of the park road winding along a treeless tundra. And just wait – the really good stuff lies ahead – miles into the park which you can only see via the Tundra Wilderness Tour.
Geological highlights are Polychrome Pass (mile 46 on the park road) and, if you’re lucky, a sighting of Mount Denali.
I was a little white-knuckled on the no-guard-rail switchback turns in Polychrome Pass. Completely worth the view, though!
The Tundra Wilderness Tour is a study in contrasts: light and shadow, volcanic rock and snow-capped peaks, flat tundra and switch-back rises.
Due to the interior’s long winters and late springs, the full Tundra Wildness Tour is only available after June 1. That’s when your bus can travel to Mile 62 on the park road to reach Stony Hill Overlook. That’s where you’ll have your best chance of seeing the summit of Mount Denali on a clear day.
Two-thirds of the time, Mount Denali is obscured by cloud cover – as it was on our visits.
What to bring on the Tundra Wilderness Tour
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Both the Natural History Tour and Tundra Wilderness Tour include a snack and bottled water. I recommend packing additional snacks and beverages. There is nowhere along the tour to buy food. This is a day where some gluten-free protein bars come in handy in my day bag.
To capture the animal sightings and geological features, bring a camera. Make sure you have an extra set of charged batteries. And an extra memory card wouldn’t be a bad idea either. (Check out some must-have camera accessories
We also bring one shared set of binoculars
Do you have the “Passport to Your National Parks” booklet?
This small, navy, spiral-bound booklet is not to be confused with the small, navy, official passport issued to you by the United States government. “Passport to Your National Parks” provides a handy way to keep track of which American national parks you’ve visited in your travels. Each national park has a stop (visitors’ center, etc.) where you can use their cancellation stamp to mark your book to show when you were there.
On your Tundra Wilderness Tour, you can stamp yours at the Toklat River Rest Stop (mile 53 on the park road). (You can also use a second, different stamp at the park’s Visitor Center, but I haven’t made it there myself yet.)
What to Wear on the Tundra Wilderness Tour
Dress for comfort and ease of getting on/off the tour/school bus. As you will for all of your days in Alaska, make sure you dress in layers. The weather varies throughout the day. On a recent June trip we saw both snow flurries and rainbows during our Tundra Wilderness Tour!
On our Tundra Wilderness Tour in early June it was snowing in the park’s interior but not at the lodge. Later the day warmed and brightened to give us this rainbow.
The bus ride itself can get chilly as often passengers are lowering bus windows to get better photos. And it can get downright cold at the rest stops as the wind whips across the tundra. So much so that I always bring a winter hat. And since I’m always cold, I wore an insulated winter coat on my most recent visit. You might get by with a base layer, fleece, and windbreaker.
Regardless of the weather, you won’t regret the extra vacation days that you will use to book a cruisetour that features the Tundra Wilderness Tour.
I am wishing you lots of wildlife viewing in Denali National Park!
Let’s make the most of our vacation days!