We started our trip in Fairbanks and stayed at the Princess lodge there. The lodge is like a large hotel and serves an excellent breakfast. If you go off on to the trails around the lodge be sure to spray yourself with insect repellent first. They are plentiful. Not so much close to the lodge though.
We took a bus from Fairbanks to the Denali Wildness Lodge. It not really a lodge, but a complex of over 20 buildings. The individual rooms are clean and very comfortable. The restaurants around the complex are a little pricey but serve very good food. The Pizza resturant next to the main lodge serves very good pizza and excellant calzones. I am not sure I would take another group to see the dinner and show on the complex. Princess charges $59 per person. The food and tea are plentiful The platters are passed down long tables. If you at the wrong end of the table, as we were, you usually end up with a almost empty platter and then have to get the waitress attention to bring you more. The food moves fast. If your used to having conversations during dinner, you may miss a platter or two that zooms by you. The waiters and waitress provide the singing entertainment. I would rate it between a B- and C. There are a couple of fast food resturants across the street from the lodge that were doing a tremendous business.
Denali Park is only about 3 miles from the lodge, and Princess provides a free shuttle to and from the Park 7a to 7p. There are two main buildings. The Visitor Center and the Wilderness Access Center. Princess will drop you off at either building. The park also provides a free shuttle that circles around to various building every 20 or 30 minutes. The Visitor Center has movies about the park and ranges to answer questions. The Access center is where they sell shuttle bus tickets and you start your ride into the park. If your on a tour not provided by Princess that ends after 7p, you can arrange with the front desk to have them come to the park to get you. There is an after hours charge of $10 per car load of 6 passengers. Denali has a courtesy phone with all the local hotel numbers posted on the wall by the phone. So you can call the lodge to come to pick your party up when your shuttle bus arrives back at the Access Center.
Denali Park has several tours throughout the day. Only Denali green and tan school Blue Bird buses are allowed past he 15 mile point in the Park. Tours are from about 5 hours long to 13 hours depending how far you go on the one and only 93 mile long road in the park. Many parts are narrow almost one lane. So one bus has to pull off the side for the other. There are numerous blind curves on some of these narrow parts at what is called Polychrome Pass. But drivers and the park must have it worked out well because we never encountered another bus on these curves.
There are two ways to bus through the park. One is a tour bus and the other is a shuttle bus. They are the same buses. The only differences are tour buses have a guide your cruise ship or hotel provides and usually a lunch on the longer rides. Shuttle buses are the same buses with only the park driver, but you buy your ticket directly from Denali Park. Most park shuttle bus drivers want to share there knowledge of the park with you, but are not obligated to do so. The difference is about half the cost and you need to bring your own food and water. I highly recommend you purchase your tickets on line before your leave home if you are planning on using the shuttle buses. The longer shuttles get booked to capacity. Denali does hold back about 10 tickets for each shuttle for those of you who never plan ahead and walk up and expect to get on the bus they want at the time they want. If you do this at least buy them the day before your shuttle ride. The buses stop frequently at rest stops. They are the bare necessity until you get the Eielsohn Vistor Center at he 66 mile point. This stop has modern bathrooms and water to refill your water bottles. If you go as far as Wonder Lake the 86 mile point, be sure to bring your bug spray. The mosquitoes are heavy there. Seeing animals along the way is potluck. This isn’t Disney Animal Kingdom. Our drive usually spotted something way before the other 80 eyes on the bus did. I guess he knwew where they usually showed up. Another sign is a vehicle stopped on the road. That usually means everyone in that vehicle is taking pictures of something they saw.
Part 2 will be about Mt McKinley. If you have any questions drop us an email vacationsforall@yahoo.com. Or you can call us about your next trip to Alaska 770-294-4522
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Posted on July 2, 2013
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