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2nd Denali Road


lmcd

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A 2nd access road that goes in at Healy and meets the current road at the Toklat River or Kantishna is being studied, but hasn't been approved yet. The poster's nephew must be on the study team.

 

Murray

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There have been studies done for the last few years to take a pre-existing road that goes through Petersville on the northside of the range to open access to another area of the park.

 

The property probably referred to here is a new lodge being built by the native cooperation CIRI who because being native can build almost anywhere without special permission.

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There are two proposed alternate routes being studied - one from the north via the Stampede Trail (where the guy froze to death, see Into the Wild by Krakauer), or from the south via the Petersville Road. Nothing has been decided.

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Do you know if they allow any 4x4 giant off road tour companies to operate in denali np? I have seen this posted several times but always thought it wasn/t actually in park but maybe in nat'l forest surrounding or in state park?

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I have taken this tour. The company is Denali Sightseeing Safari. It is done on an old gold mining road. Bridges have been washed out in some places. The big wheels, 64" wheels, dual transmisson in some cases allow the trucks to go just about anywhere. However they do not get off the old road by very much except when they are driving the river beds.. They don't just tear thru the park leaving destruction in their wake. We enjoyed the tour very much. Be sure to take plenty of food for lunch and snacks. You can ask for a tour mainly looking for wildlife. Not sure how much more you would see.

 

Larry

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Thanks Murray and all. I had read a few reviews of this over the years and doubted whether it was actually a tour IN the park or just nearby. I'm really surprised that park allows this type of usage. Or mining. You didn't mention wildlife and as I recall it wasn't aimed at that since it stays on a specific road. But along the park road you always see wildlife. We did a similar tour in Puerta Vahartta in big Mercedes trucks.

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Without getting into too much Alaska politics and history -- There is an "old" Denali Park, which is the original park, and a "new" park which was acreage added on in 1980 as part of ANILCA. In the new park, subsistence activities are allowed. There are also inholdings within the park where people own private land. People doing subsistence and/or people who own property are allowed access on established roads and trails. My guess is that this company owns or has a contract with someone who has private property within the park and that the tours go to that property.

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>>My guess is that this company owns or has a contract with someone who has private property within the park and that the tours go to that property.>>

 

It's a historic mining access road - the road cuts across a corner of the park and then goes out again to the mine. The NPS tried to block access 3 or 4 years ago but lost in court.

 

Murray

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Unless the company changed their tours, the wildlife option starts on the same mining road but doesn't go to the mine, but takes a different route. There was a map on the website at one time. The mine is the Dunkel Gold Mine and is still privately owned, but no mining is going on. Was never profitable to work the mine and then ship to south to be processed.

 

As aside when we took the tour, there were 3 college students doing research at the the mine. The company had taken them out a few days earlier and then brought them back on this day. There is no way for another vehicle to get there. I understand this company has the only rights to use the road and must maintain the road. It's really not much of a road, but with the extremely low air pressure in the tires, the ride isn't bad.

 

Larry

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Wolfie

I thought I might have read something about that but wasn't sure about expansion. My son's in-laws own a cabin in Mineral King, which was incorporated into Kings Canyon-Sequoia and they have been trying to tear the cabins down ever since, but they have a lot of history and supporters on their side. Politics again!!!!

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