Denali National Park and Preserve

Visiting

Choose your bus first. A non-narrated transit bus lets you get off anywhere past Savage River: call out "stop" to the driver, then flag down the next green bus when you want to ride on. Book ahead if you have fewer than two full days.

A tour bus gives you a driver who narrates the whole way, plus a snack or lunch.

Bring binoculars, food, water and warm layers, because nothing is sold along the road. Drivers stop for wildlife and ask for quiet while you watch. Moose, caribou, Dall sheep and grizzlies are the usual sightings, and a wolf is the rare one.

Without a bus ticket, drive or take the free Savage River Shuttle, which leaves every 30 minutes. Walk the flat Savage River Loop, or the steep Savage Alpine Trail over the ridge to Mountain Vista, and ride the shuttle back.

Visit the park's sled dogs at the kennels, daily in summer and on weekend afternoons the rest of the year. Ride the dedicated shuttle to a summer sled dog demonstration, or walk up the trail from the visitor centre and come back downhill.

Only about 30 percent of visitors see the mountain, so give yourself more than one day if it matters to you. For a better chance, book a scenic flight from Talkeetna, Healy or Denali Park, where some small planes land on a glacier in spring and summer.

To camp in the backcountry, get the free permit in person, no more than a day before you set off, and allow an hour for it. Each zone of the park takes a set number of campers a night, and bear-resistant food containers are required, lent free by the Park Service.