Denali NP – Self Drive

Denali National Park is a vast wilderness area. With 9,400 square miles, it is the third largest National Park.

The other two National Parks larger then Denali are also in Alaska. Gates to the Artic NP with 13,238 square miles and has no roads or trails and visitors must hike or fly to the park. The largest one is Wrangell St Elias National Park with 20,312 square miles. It can be accessed by only two unpaved roads, Nabesna and McCarthy-Kennecott.

Denali National Park has only one 89 mile long road. The Pretty Rocks Landslide intersect the park road at mile 45.4. It has been active since 1960 but on August 24, 2021 the road was closed at mile 42.

Access now to Denali can be done only in three ways. On foot, by private vehicles up to mile 15 and by the park tour bus system up to mile 43. During the shoulder seasons of Spring and Fall private vehicles can travel up to mile 30.

With about a dozen very short marked trails, the vast off-trail wilderness can only be explored on foot.

For these reasons we decided to first explore Denali driving Carioca up to mile 15 and hiking some of the few trails.