When I drove my Jeep to Alaska in the summer of 2015, my primary goal, the single most important thing I wanted to do, was to see Denali, the biggest mountain in North America. It was a bucket list item, somewhere in my top five, and even though there were plenty of other amazing sights and scenes along the way, the High One reigned supreme in my dream.

I did some research before I went there, and I learned a few things. The summit of Denali rises to a breathtaking 20,308 feet, and the rise is so steep that it’s the third most prominent mountain peak anywhere, right after Mount Everest (the biggest mountain in the world), and Aconcagua, (the biggest mountain in South America). A thing like that literally disrupts the jet stream, and in the process, Denali creates its own weather, with heavy rain on the menu more often than not.

What that means for visitors can be summed up with a number: Thirty. Of the 600,000 people who make their way to this six million acre National Park in an average year, only 30%, less than 200,000, will actually see the mountain, at least, not the whole thing, the way it looks in all those beautiful pictures. For everyone else, Denali cloaks herself in cloud. What you see on the day you go is simply what you get, and that’s just the luck of the draw.

I really wanted to improve those odds if possible, so I started checking the weather forecast ten days ahead, and I timed my visit for what appeared to be a rare window of clear skies, on one single day, a Tuesday in mid-July. On the Sunday prior, I drove down from Fairbanks in pouring rain. What should have been a two hour journey took closer to three, but no matter, I wasn’t in a hurry.

I headed straight to the Visitor’s Center where they take reservations for the park shuttle buses, and booked myself a space on the 6:15 AM run out to Wonder Lake, on my hopefully sunny Tuesday, the only day in the proximate future that the weather forecast predicted sunshine—and so far, according to the weather app on my phone, that cheery forecast had not changed. The bus ride To Wonder Lake is a 170 mile round trip on the Denali Park Road that takes at least 11 hours. My ticket set me back almost fifty bucks, priced separately from entry to the National Park (which was free for me in any case, with my Senior Pass ;-). The bus is the only practical way to travel into the interior of the park, because private vehicles aren’t allowed beyond the Savage River Bridge, at mile 15. By restricting the volume of traffic on the road, they’ve greatly improved the odds of spotting wildlife near the road, and that’s a good thing for all park visitors.

SAVAGE RIVER

I had two days to kill before my tour, so I booked a “dry cabin” at a place called the Grizzly Bear Resort. You get heat, and a roof, but the bathroom is down the hill, so you save a small fortune. The Grizzly worked out well for me, so I’ll go so far as to recommend them!

On my second day at the park, I went back to the Visitor’s Center to check out the exhibits and the films, and to talk to one of the rangers about the area. Since I had my Jeep, he suggested that I drive out to the Savage River at mile 15, which was the farthest I’d be able to go without special permits.

Several views of the scenery in the area near the Savage River Bridge

BEFORE THE LANDSLIDE

On the day of my tour, I set the alarm on my phone for 5 AM, just in case, but I was out of bed long before it went off, excited at the prospect of finally seeing Denali. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as I drove to the National Park Wilderness Center to catch my bus. I was early, despite a construction delay on the road. Fortunately, they had both coffee and pastries available for sale, and I needed both!

There are two kinds of tour buses at Denali: the Brown buses, which are professionally guided tours, and the less expensive Green buses, which provide point-to-point transportation and knowledgeable drivers (almost as good as the guides).

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The first fifteen miles were already familiar to me from my drive to the Savage River Bridge the previous day. There are no views of the mountain until well after that. The bus rounds a curve at Mile 20, and suddenly there she is, just the top, peeking up above the ridge line. Smaller mountains that rise up in between obcure most of the view from this part of the road, but there can be no doubt about which peak is Denali.

Moving on down the road, the bus makes frequent stops for views, and also for wildlife. Through the day we saw at least three grizzlies, a couple of moose, at least a half dozen caribou, and because of the strict park rules prohibiting interaction with wildlife, the animals didn’t feel threatened, and ignored us like we weren’t even there.

Each vantage point was closer to the mountain, each had a different perspective, and the farther we traveled, the bigger Denali loomed. At mile 43, we reached the Polychrome Overlook, where there are stunning views of a multi-colored ridge of mountains, with a good-sized stream flowing steadily from melting ice on the mountains flanks.

Until the damage from the landslide has been repaired, this is the turnaround point for all tour buses. At the present time, the only way to travel any deeper into the park is on foot, or by taking a rather expensive flight to the airstrip at Kantishna Road House, the Lodge at the end of Denali Park Road.

AFTER THE LANDSLIDE

In 2015, the landslide hadn’t happened yet, so the Polychrome Overlook was just another photo stop, and we continued on from there, heading ever closer to the mountain. The views get serious here, with Denali beginning to stand apart from the surrounding lesser peaks. By the time the bus reached Mile 62, the Stony Hill Overlook, the mountain leapt free of the landscape, and we were rewarded with some of the finest views available of the biggest mountain in North America. I was doubly blessed to catch it on a wonderfully clear morning. I’ll let the resulting photos speak for themselves: watch as the mountain draws closer, and closer, until it fills the whole sky.

Views of Denali grow ever larger as you travel the road beyond Polychrome Pass

Beyond the Stony Hill Overlook, the bus continued on over the pass to a broad open area. At Mile 66, we came to the Eielson Visitor Center, a rest stop and interpretive center established in that spot by the National Park Service. When the weather is clear, as it was for us that day, the views of the mountain from Eielson are some of the best anywhere. Wildlife abounds in the area; we saw caribou and bears on the nearby mountain slopes.

Extraordinary views from the area near the Eielson Visitor Center at Mile 66 (Currently Closed)

The turnaround point for my bus that day was at Wonder Lake, Mile 85. The end of the road is at Mile 93, the Kantishna Roadhouse, a highly exclusive Back country Lodge that has remained open despite the road closure. (Guests, staff, and all supplies have to be flown in, at significant cost.)

At my bus driver’s suggestion, I got off at a Y junction just before the lake, and then hiked a mile or so to the “Reflection Pond,” a smaller lake, surrounded by fireweed, which was perfectly positioned to catch a reflection of the mountain in the water. The light wasn’t quite perfect, and the water was stirred slightly by a light breeze, so it wasn’t a perfect mirror—but it was well worth the short hike there and back.

Views of Denali and Reflection Pond, near Wonder Lake

View of Denali from the Eileson Visitor Center, as clouds begin to gather

The cloud cover thickened as we retraced our route and drove out of the park. That night, it rained again, a cold, relentless rain, and the following day was more of the same, steady rain and solid overcast that obscured every view of the mountain. 

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(Unless otherwise noted, all of the images in these posts are my original work, and are protected by copyright. They may not be duplicated for commercial purposes.)

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Some of the text and many of the photos in my Alaska Highway series first appeared on RoadTrip America’s website. A few years ago, I posted a detailed account of my entire 57 day, 13,000 mile “Mother of All Road Trips,” and RTA has kept that account available in their archive of Field Reports. If you’d like to read it, the link below will take you there:

MORE ABOUT THE ALASKA HIGHWAY:

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Alaska Road Trip

A few years ago I wrote a book about road trips in Arizona and New Mexico that's a lot like this website, packed with interesting information, and illustrated with beautiful photographs. Check it out! You can find it on Amazon, and at all other major booksellers.