Best Things to Do in Denali National Park

1. Take a Park Tour

Hop on a bus for an exciting tour of Denali National Park, looking for wildlife and views of Mt. Denali.

This is your ticket to explore the heart of the park, as private cars aren’t allowed past Mile 15 of the Park Road; plus, the bus offers narration from a trained naturalist.

Other options are taking a van tour (with fewer passengers), flying in one way, or renting a bike and see the park on two wheels!

2. See the Park from Above

Get a unique perspective on the park’s majesty by soaring high above it on a flightseeing tour; you’ll get a bird’s-eye view of wildlife and see mountain peaks up close.

Go by plane to cover more territory; or travel by helicopter, where you’ll have the option of landing on a glacier or hiking along the alpine tundra.

Another fun way to see the park from off the ground: Zoom along on a zipline tour!

3. Hike the Park

With more than 6 million acres in Denali National Park and Preserve, it’s hard for hikers to know where to begin.

Fortunately, a wealth of guided hiking tours can help you navigate it, whether you’re looking for a day hike, a multi-day trip, or a small-group customized trip.

You also have the option to hike on your own, either on maintained trails near the park entrance or in Denali’s backcountry.

4. Go Off-Roading

Get off the beaten path and explore by ATV or Jeep. Either way, you’ll experience the thrill of splashing through water as you cruise across the Alaskan tundra heading deep into the Alaskan backcountry.

On Jeep tours, you can decide to relax and take in the views (and look for wildlife) as a passenger, or grab the wheel yourself and pilot your vehicle.

You can also rent a Jeep or ATV and explore the area on your own!

5. Get Out on the River

Rafting the Nenana River is an exciting way to get away from noisy roads and take in the serenity of the Alaskan wilderness. Choose a mild float trip, where you can kick back and gaze up at snow-capped peaks. Or a opt for a heart-pounding journey through rushing rapids with names like Coffee Grinder and Ice Worm. You'll also have the option to choose a raft where everyone gets a paddle and contributes to the ride, or a fully guided trip where just the guide navigates the boat. Either way, you’ll feel the wind in your hair as you cruise down glacial rivers and look for wildlife along the riverbanks.

A rafting tour is one of the easiest activities to fit into your schedule. Shorter 2-hour tours have departures as early as 7:30am and as late as 6:30pm during the middle of summer. You can also opt for a full-day trip complete with a picnic lunch on the riverbank. Get even more hands on with a packrafting adventure that includes a hike, and paddling your own packraft through the Denali area backcountry.

6. Dog Sledding (Year-Round!)

Just 30 minutes south of Denali National Park near Cantwell, you can experience a dog sled adventure with Squid Acres Kennel year-round. Winter tours can involve learning to drive your own dog team or riding out to see the northern lights. In summer, the excited dogs pull a side-by-side on wheels across the tundra with a view of Denali. All tours are private, just you and your group, led by expert guides.

You can also visit the Denali National Park sled dog kennels. Free demonstrations are given by a National Park Ranger 2-3 times daily between May and September, with a free shuttle from the Denali Visitor Center to access the kennels. The kennels are open in winter too, check the visitor center for hours.

7. Education & Entertainment

Learn all about the park and get the inside scoop from the rangers who work here by stopping by one of the park’s many information centers, including the Denali Visitor Center.

Another fun option is to spend an evening experiencing dinner theater, Alaska-style: In addition to a delicious, family-style meal, you’ll learn about historic events like the Gold Rush and the first ascent of Denali.

Show Map

Denali National Park

Day Tours & Excursions View All

Season: May - September $259+ 1 to 5 hrs

Go flight­see­ing over Denali Nation­al Park in a very unique way: via heli­copter. Lift off on a 50-minute flight —land­ing the heli­copter on a glac­i­er, putting on spe­cial boots, and going for a walk on the frozen land­scape to get an up-close look at it. Or, vis­it Bus 142, made famous by adven­tur­er Christo­pher McCan­d­less. Flight­see­ing in a heli­copter is much dif­fer­ent from in a plane — learn all the ben­e­fits of this great way of check­ing out the  ...more

Season: May 1 - Sept 30 $29+ 3+ hrs to Multi-Day Rentals

If you want to expe­ri­ence Denali Nation­al Park, Bike Denali has a fun, unique way to do it — on two wheels! Options include after­noon rentals to ride around the park entrance, full-day rentals to the explore the Denali Park Road to mul­ti-day rentals for bike camp­ing. Opt for a moun­tain bike, or eBike.

Season: Year Round $125+ per person 2-4 hrs

Expe­ri­ence the thrill of the icon­ic Alaskan sport of dogsled­ding from vet­er­ans of the Idi­tar­od and Yukon Quest races! Oper­at­ing in sum­mer and win­ter from Cantwell, about a 30-minute dri­ve south of Denali Nation­al Park, the pri­vate tours will be just you and your group, led by expert guides. Win­ter tours can involve learn­ing to dri­ve your own dog team or rid­ing out to see the north­ern lights. In sum­mer, the excit­ed dogs pull a side-by-side on  ...more

Season: May 26 - Sept 9 $149 3 hrs

Go on the typ­i­cal zipline and you get a love­ly ride under a canopy of trees. But with this unique zipline tour — the only one in the Denali Nation­al Park area— you ride above the tree line, so that you can take in sweep­ing, 360-degree views of miles around, includ­ing the tun­dra and the Alas­ka Range.

Season: May 20 to Sep 10 $125+ 3 - 5.5 hrs

Just out­side Denali Nation­al Park, the Nenana Riv­er offers a unique raft­ing expe­ri­ence: The riv­er is big and icy cold, with glacial­ly fed waters. But this raft­ing out­fit­ter based near the Park Entrance offers a soul-warm­ing expe­ri­ence on the riv­er, which makes an excel­lent coun­ter­part to a bus tour through the nation­al park. Choose a quick 3‑hour trip on mild water or splash through some rapids. Or opt for a longer 5.5‑hour run. 

Season: May 15 - Sept 15 $200+ 1+ hrs

ATV rentals for 2, 4, 8, or even a full 24 hours to explore many of the fun trails just out­side of Denali Nation­al Park on your own. Unguid­ed doesn’t mean unaid­ed: Denali Toy Rentals will out­fit you with a hel­met, gog­gles, and trail map, as well as lots of insid­er tips and sug­ges­tions on where to go, cus­tomized to your interests.

Season: May 7 - Sept 15 $99.95 3.5 hrs

To get a real sense of old-time Alas­ka, climb into Black Dia­mond’s fam­i­ly-friend­ly Cov­ered Wag­on Adven­ture for a trip through time. While guides fill you in on the area’s his­to­ry and nat­ur­al trea­sures, you’ll be pulled by two draft hors­es through the Alaskan tun­dra, with the moun­tains of near­by Denali Nation­al Park hov­er­ing over­head. Hear the his­to­ry of this coal-min­ing area as you pass through the wilderness. 

Season: May 10 to Sep 21 $75 to $509

This train trav­els through the forest­ed areas north of Anchor­age into the bore­al for­est, and even­tu­al­ly into the tun­dra regions fur­ther north. On a clear day the train will slow down to allow you to see beau­ti­ful vis­tas of Denali. You may also spot wildlife along the way. Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na Day Trip from Fair­banks: Denali Mul­ti-Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na, Denali Nation­al Park, and / or Fair­banks Mul­ti-Day Trip  ...more

Season: May 19 - Sept 9 $125+ 2.5 to 3.5 hrs

This tour is an adven­ture­some alter­na­tive to a bus ride into the park. Denali ATV Adven­tures offers sev­er­al tours that let you explore the areas sur­round­ing Denali Nation­al Park. On your jour­ney, you’ll splash through rivers, dri­ve over tree root-rut­ted trails, and four-wheel up to some of the area’s most spec­tac­u­lar vis­tas. Dri­ve your own ATV, or be the pas­sen­ger and enjoy the ride. 

Season: Year Round Custom pricing, contact for rates Full Day & Multi-Day

Tra­verse Alas­ka can craft ful­ly-guid­ed cus­tom adven­tures, or set you up on a trip into the Alas­ka wilder­ness arm­ing you with some know-how — and pro­vid­ing you with the inde­pen­dence to freely explore. Excur­sions include pri­vate day hikes, raft­ing and pack­raft­ing, and mul­ti-day backpacking. 

Season: Year Round Custom pricing, contact for rates Half, Full Day & Multi-Day

Raft the pris­tine and scenic rivers in the Denali area with an expert, local guide. The most pop­u­lar water activ­i­ty is riv­er raft­ing, which can range from a scenic float to a more white­wa­ter expe­ri­ence on a class III+ riv­er. For a full day of adven­ture, you can com­bine a trip on the riv­er with hik­ing. Tra­verse Alas­ka also offers pack­raft­ing (each per­son is pad­dling their own small boat), which is a day-and-a-half class, tran­si­tion­ing from  ...more

Season: May 7 - Sept 20 $139.95+ 3.5 hrs

Dri­ve your own 4‑wheel all-ter­rain vehi­cle (ATV) on this excit­ing off-road jour­ney through the back­coun­try adja­cent to Denali Nation­al Park. Black Dia­mond puts you in con­trol: stop when­ev­er you want, take pic­tures of the spec­tac­u­lar scenery, and laugh as you expe­ri­ence Alas­ka as it was meant to be: rough and wild. Explore old coal-min­ing trails and spill out onto the Dry Creek Riv­er Bed, then head high up on Black Dia­mond Peak to take in the  ...more

Season: February - April Custom, Call for Quote 3+ Days

Tra­verse Alas­ka cre­ates cus­tom tours in the Denali Nation­al Park area that allow trav­el­ers to enjoy the mag­ic of Alas­ka at their own pace. Win­ter itin­er­aries include icon­ic Alaskan cold-weath­er activ­i­ties in South­cen­tral and Inte­ri­or Alas­ka. After all, Alas­ka in win­ter is a very spe­cial time of year — qui­eter, full of snow-frost­ed trees, and frozen snow-cov­ered ground cre­ates an out­door play­ground in every direction.

Not Operating in 2023

Explore all 92 miles of the Denali Park Road and have the entire trip nar­rat­ed by an expe­ri­enced dri­ver. Not only will you see leg­endary land­marks such as Poly­chrome Pass, Won­der Lake and Reflec­tion Pond, you will have oppor­tu­ni­ties to see the abun­dance of wildlife in the park. Enjoy a hot lunch, explore the grounds, pan for gold, or take a short walk along the creek, or relax in a rock­er at the lodge and soak up the scenery.

Season: May - Sept $125+ 3+ hrs

New Wave Adven­tures pro­vides expe­ri­enced guides who go beyond guid­ing your way — they enrich your jour­ney with insights into the area’s his­to­ry, flo­ra, fau­na, and geol­o­gy. Choose from 3 hikes in the Denali area: Oxbow, Triple Lakes, or Rock Creek.

$365+ 45 - 70 mins

Denali Air flights see the majes­tic moun­tain a whop­ping 90% of the time, thanks to the company’s expe­ri­enced pilots and its loca­tion just out­side the park. And, every­one is guar­an­teed a win­dow seat. Lis­ten to your pilot nar­rate while you enjoy the views.

Season: May 7 - Sept 24 $159.95 3 hrs

The Black Dia­mond ATV Trea­sure Hunt back­coun­try adven­ture, just out­side Denali, offers both a skilled guide and a splash of think-for-your­self adven­ture. Your ride can be fast and excit­ing or slow and leisure­ly — it’s up to you. Unlike some oth­er ATV trips, you don’t have to do the dri­ving; a pro is at the wheel of the Polaris ATV. You’ll explore old coal-min­ing trails and the Dry Creek Riv­er Bed, where Athabas­can Indi­an arti­facts have been found  ...more

Season: Year Round $14.99+

Dri­ve through Alas­ka with an audio tour guid­ing you along icon­ic routes. Audio Tour Alas­ka gives you an insider’s take on every­thing from points of inter­est to his­to­ry, wildlife, and cul­ture, along with cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ries. Guides to pop­u­lar routes include Anchor­age to Tal­keet­na; Tal­keet­na to Denali Nation­al Park; Denali to Fair­banks; Anchor­age to Seward; and Tern Lake to Homer.

Call for rates 1.25 hrs

A lot of peo­ple swear to it: the best way to see Alas­ka is from an air­plane, and there may indeed be no bet­ter way to get close to the face of Denali. This one-of-a-kind flight­see­ing oper­a­tor makes it easy to see up close to the Great One with­out spend­ing a great deal of time.

Season: May 12 - Sep 20 $114+ 4.5 to 12 hrs

The best way to get an overview of Denali Nation­al Park is aboard one of the park bus­es, which fea­ture a trained nat­u­ral­ist who both dri­ves and pro­vides nar­ra­tion. Avail­able tours include the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Tour (45 hrs), and the Tun­dra Wilder­ness Tour (55.5 hrs).

Season: May - September $499 3.5 hrs hiking | 5 hrs total

For­get the trail­head on your next hike. Instead, take a short but very scenic heli­copter ride to a spe­cial wilder­ness area just out­side Denali Nation­al Park and start your trek from there. Your guide will lead your small group on a soft-adven­ture hike above the tree line, with sweep­ing views. You’ll learn about iden­ti­fy­ing ani­mal tracks and the local flo­ra and fau­na, and of course have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to spot wildlife like bears, moose, and Dall  ...more

Season: May 15 - Sept 15 $179 Jeep Tour 4-8 hrs

This is your chance to expe­ri­ence the spec­tac­u­lar scenery along the Denali High­way, a road recent­ly ranked #2 world­wide as a Dri­ve of a Life­time’ by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Trav­el­er Mag­a­zine. You’ll be giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take the wheel, or if you pre­fer, just sit back and enjoy stun­ning views of the peaks and glac­i­ers of the cen­tral Alas­ka Range. There is a guide in the Jeep up front, but you can stop wher­ev­er, when­ev­er, and as often as you  ...more

Season: May - Sept $125+ 3.5 - 5.5 hrs

Feel the thrill of crush­ing through white­wa­ter on the Nenana Riv­er just out­side the icon­ic Denali Nation­al Park. Do it with New Wave Adven­tures and you’ll have your choice of raft­ing trips — you can even decide whether to pad­dle or just take in the beau­ti­ful scenery — as well as oth­er excit­ing options like hik­ing and pack­raft­ing, all great options for fam­i­ly fun.

[{"slug":"denali-national-park","title":"Denali National Park"},{"slug":"anchorage","title":"Anchorage"}]

Parks & Trails View All

Difficulty: Difficult Distance: 7 miles Elevation Gain: 4000 feet

This hike intro­duces you to the best that Denali has to offer. The Bison Gulch trail is all about stun­ning views of steep riv­er canyons, a sol­id, well-bro­ken trail through alpine tun­dra, and an excit­ing sum­mit scram­ble for those that reach it. For those with less time, this hike is favored for its quick access to high alpine views direct­ly off of the Parks High­way. No need to go all the way to the sum­mit if you haven’t the time or moti­va­tion; the  ...more

Difficulty: Difficult Distance: 4 miles Elevation Gain: 2700 feet

Sug­ar­loaf offers fun, steep, and chal­leng­ing ridge hik­ing above the hotels and restau­rants of the com­mer­cial area North of Denali Nation­al Park. It’s a great place to scram­ble freely in this region’s semi-arid alpine zone or to enjoy a long mid­night sun­set. The broad, west fac­ing peak of Sug­ar­loaf Moun­tain is a reward­ing sum­mit, and once you’ve climbed the steep­est trail sec­tion at the begin­ning you’ll like­ly have the rest of trail to yourself,  ...more

A road­side hike that gains quick ele­va­tion and leads to soar­ing views? Count me in. A lit­tle trav­eled creek that rush­es into one of the wildest white­wa­ter rivers in Alas­ka? Hmm. Yes, please. A trail all to your­self just a few min­utes from Denali’s busy front coun­try area? Now you’re talk­ing. Drag­on­fly Creek has all this and more, and you’ll only just be get­ting your feet wet.

Difficulty: Easy Distance: 2 miles

Either dri­ve your own car or take the free shut­tle 15 miles out the park road to the Sav­age Riv­er check sta­tion. This is a pop­u­lar hik­ing trail, and you won’t be alone, but at least you’re away from the entrance area and enter­ing the true wilder­ness of Denali Nation­al Park. This is a tun­dra walk on a devel­oped trail that fol­lows the riv­er. Good hike for kids, with pos­si­bil­i­ty of see­ing Dall sheep, mar­mots, and cari­bou. You can do a loop walk,  ...more

Difficulty: Easy Distance: 1 mile

This pop­u­lar trail attracts lots of folks, so don’t expect to be the only hik­er. It’s still worth the trip. The trail begins at Mile 0.9 on the park road near the rail­road tracks. You’ll walk on a devel­oped trail down to the lake. After you reach the Over­look, the trail drops steeply. Along the way, espe­cial­ly at the over­look bench, you’ll have a panoram­ic view of the Nenana Riv­er, the devel­op­ment called Glit­ter Gulch” right out­side the park,  ...more

[{"slug":"denali-national-park","title":"Denali National Park"},{"slug":"anchorage","title":"Anchorage"}]