Denali National Park, Alaska
Everything the RV Renter Needs to Know
Everything the RV Renter Needs to Know
When you rent an RV in Alaska, one of the places that you need to have on your list is Denali National Park. The national park is one of the most famous in the entire state and covers a whopping six million acres of wildland.
There’s one road the bisects the park and that’s what you’ll travel on to see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest and the high-alpine tundra and the snow-covered mountains. This is a true wildland, and you need to make sure you take your time to take it all in. Here’s what you need to know if you want to visit Denali National Park in your rented RV.
It’s important to note, that you should only visit Denali National Park in the Summer. The park is not open to RVers outside of that time due to the weather. This means your window of opportunity here is from May 20 to the middle of September.
Names aside, this monstrous peak is the most impressive in all of America it reaches up to 20,310 feet tall. Reaching out from the base of the mountain are numerous glaciers that cover 16 percent of the park.
Denali is one of the best peaks to photograph, and there are various places to do it. The National Parks Service has identified several. The mountain is also a popular one for mountaineers and hikers.
There are various hiking trails for you to follow, but you can also hike off-trail if you want to. An off-trail hike is one that’s led by a park ranger. You can sign up for this kind of hike at the visitor center.
Ranger-led hikes are a fantastic way to learn about and see the best parts of the park. The length of these hikes can vart, and you should make sure to sign up for the one that is right for you and your family. Many of these hikes will require a bus ticket, so if you haven’t made the necessary bus arrangements, then you’ll need to do so. You can schedule a bus ticket reservation easily.
One common activity for visitors is to go birdwatching or wildlife viewing. All you need are some binoculars and some time, and you’re bound to see something that you didn’t expect, and likely something that will change your perspective on the natural world.
Want to camp near the park but want a full hookup for your RV and plenty of amenities for you and your family? That’s where the Denali RV Park and Motel comes into play. This RV park offers 82 full hookup campsites. The RV park is only a few minutes from the entrance to the park and you can schedule all kinds of tours and activities right from this campground that will take you deep into Denali.
Another great option in the area is Midnight Sun and RV Campground. Located a little further out from the national park in the small town of Healy, this RV campground is another great option. The park features six full hook-up campsites and 20 campsites with electrical hookups only. Located only 100 yards from the park are a brewery and a restaurant in the town of Healy.
Located half an hour south of the Denali National Park entrance, Cantwell RV Park is another gem of a campground. This RV park features full hookup and electric-only campsites. There’s also bathroom facilities and more inside the RV park. Cantwell also offers various activities depending on the time of the year, including blueberry picking, a 4th of July potluck, a staff-led trip to Denali every Wednesday, and an end-of-the-season potluck.
Denali Rainbow Village is both a hotel and an RV park. The RV park area offers 55 campsites that are either full or partial hookup sites. The campsites come with picnic tables, fire rings, potable water, Wi-Fi, and cable TV. There’s also a laundry house and bathroom facilities on-site. This park is located just one mile north of the park entrance.
As you can imagine, in a national park with so much undeveloped land, there aren’t a ton of options when it comes to dining inside the park. The main option is Morino Grill, which is the only sit-down restaurant in the park. This restaurant offers coffee all day as well as boxed lunches and made-to-order lunch and dinner.
The only other options for food inside the park are for snacks. Both the Denali Bus Depot or Riley Creek Mercantile will have very limited options.
There are numerous small towns along Highway 3 outside of the park. These small towns are also where you’ll find the vast majority of the RV parks and campgrounds outside the park. In these towns will be restaurants. Obviously, the bigger the town the more varied your options are.
The towns of McKinley Park and Healy will be your closest options. Both have restaurants and breweries at them, with McKinley offering more options than Healy. You can also go to the south on Highway 3 to find some other options. With Denali being so remote, there aren’t a plethora of options.
No matter where choose to eat or stay in your RV, we know you’ll find Denali to be a very unique and interesting place.