Denali Park Tundra Tour vs Shuttle for people going soon

[wolfie11]

If anyone is booked to go to Denali soon (within the next few weeks) you might want to make sure you sign up for the Fish Creek shuttle rather than the Tundra Wilderness Tour. I went on the shuttle yesterday and there is a pack of wolves hanging out in the five or six miles before the Fish Creek turnaround. We saw nine wolves, including the alpha female - four of which were on or within a hundred yards of the road.

 

Of course, there's also a large pack of hungry, unwashed, and potentially dangerous professional photographers hanging out in the area as well! I talked to one of them and he had been there from sunrise to sunset for the last two days. He said he was getting amazing photos of wolves hunting, playing, etc.

 

The TWT turns around prior to reaching the area where the wolves are, so your chances of seeing one aren't as good as on the shuttle.

[jackie1061]

We saw those wolves you are referring to. We were just there last Monday, 08/28. 2 of them came so close to our shuttle at the Fish Creek turnaround that the bus driver told us to get on (and stay on) the bus for our own safety.

 

And, I just wanted to let everyone know that I was able to get on the Fish Creek shuttle (standby) by using my Natural History Tour tickets. [[[We were on a Princess land tour, and I had unsuccessfully tried to get a refund from Princess for the NHT. I even tried to have them upgrade me to the Tundra tour with no luck. ]]] So, we were just going to forfeit our NHT tickets and pay full price for the shuttle but as I was about to purchase the tickets the girl at the Access Center told me I could get on the shuttle (standby) using the NHT tickets! As it turned out, we saw the "big five" -- Dall sheep, brown bears, wolves, moose, and caribou. It was fantastic! Much better than the NHT (I spoke to some of the other travellers in my group that had gone on the NHT and no one had any praise for that tour at all. One man said he wished he followed me instead).

 

Anyways, thanks to you, Budget Queen, for pointing us in the right direction regarding the tours/shuttles. I could not have done all this planning without you. The guy at the Denali Princess hotel said "Oh you must've been here before" because I was talking so knowledgeably about Denali. Actually, no, it was my first trip to Alaska, I just happened to be prepared.

 

I hope everyone who goes to Denali has as great of a time as we did.

I didn't mean to hijack your thread Wolfie11, I just want everyone to go to Denali and get on the shuttles!!!

[Budget Queen]

Thank you for the kind words. This is one of my priorities for people to understand, the differences within Denali Park are just so significant. :) IF people know about the options in Denali Park AND make the Natural History tour choice, at least it was their choice. The problem comes, which is seen over and over on this board of people just not knowing, frequently when it is too late for any changes.

 

What did you do about getting back to your hotel. This is an added information point that would be extremely valuable to anyone looking to do the same. Thank you for your informative post on an option for Denali.

[jackie1061]

Hi Budget Queen!

 

We took the Denali Princess courtesy shuttle (the hotel shuttle) to the Wilderness Access Center to get the Fish Creek shuttle, then to get back we took the Red Line shuttle from the Visitors center to the McKinley lodge (right next door to the Denali Princess).

 

The Princess courtesy shuttle last pick-up at the access center is 8:25PM and we weren't scheduled back from the Fish Creek shuttle until 10PM. I asked the same question before we actually left the Denali Princess -- "How will we get back?" It was a Princess employee that told me about the red line shuttle which runs till 11PM -- hence the conversation between us where he thought I must've been there before because I talked about the tours/shuttles with knowledge. He told me to be sure to ask the Fish Creek shuttle driver to let us off at the visitors center since that is where the red line picks up, not at the access center. I checked, double checked, and triple checked with the shuttle driver to make sure we'd be back in time for the (once an hour) Red line shuttle since it would be late, it was getting cold, and I didn't really want to walk back to the hotel. The shuttle driver told me that she would radio ahead to the red line shuttle and ask the shuttle to wait if it looked like we would be cutting close to the time, but as it turned out we were dropped off at the visitors center at 9:15PM, in time for the 9:25PM red line. We were the only shuttle people getting off at the visitors center as it would normally drop you off back at the access center where the shuttle started. Just as a side note, too, we took the Fish Creek shutle to Fish Creek, then on the way back the shuttle stopped at Toklat River for 45 minute break. There happened to be a Wonder Lake shuttle that was ready to leave so we jumped on that one for the remainder of the return trip, saving us a bit of time. Both shuttle drivers we had narrated the trip. Both seemed to love their job, and both stopped at any signs of wildlife. I can't imagine having a better day.

[Fergus]

We saw that same group earlier in August.....the alpha female and her babies.....she was lounging on the hill teaching them to howl! Then she and a younger wolf noticed a caribou trotting by and started stalking it. We thought we were going to see something really exciting, then they lost interest and the caribou lived to see another day!

[fti]

And, I just wanted to let everyone know that I was able to get on the Fish Creek shuttle (standby) by using my Natural History Tour tickets. [[[We were on a Princess land tour, and I had unsuccessfully tried to get a refund from Princess for the NHT. I even tried to have them upgrade me to the Tundra tour with no luck. ]]] So, we were just going to forfeit our NHT tickets and pay full price for the shuttle but as I was about to purchase the tickets the girl at the Access Center told me I could get on the shuttle (standby) using the NHT tickets!

 

I am glad that you found out about using the tour tickets for the shuttle bus. I have posted that a couple of times on a couple of threads after returning from my AK trip two months ago. Our shuttle bus driver told us about it - you can switch from a tour bus to a shuttle bus but not vice versa. You can actually take a tour bus into the park, get off the tour bus, hike, etc then board a shuttle bus to get you back to the entrance.