Authored by Chris Picardi and Laura Strong

The one thing you might not see when visiting Denali is…Denali? Wait, what? You mean the primary attraction for which the park is named; the mountain that I’m traveling for hours to see; you’re telling me I might not see it? Regrettably, yes. That’s precisely what we’re saying.

According to the park’s rangers, only about one third of all visitors actually get to feast their eyes on the tallest mountain in North America due to the nearly constant cloud cover. If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t like those odds.

The Denali Experience is All a Matter of Luck

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Don’t travel to Denali with expectations – what you see while in the park comes largely down to luck.

Don’t travel to Denali with expectations – what you see while in the park comes largely down to luck.

The Denali experience might come down to a matter of luck, however if you find yourself one of the lucky 33%, you will find that the views are well worth the gamble.

The vistas along several stretches of the park road are easily some of the best North America has to offer. The best view points are at the Eielson Visitor Center and the Stony Hill Overlook. If you ride on the shuttle bus to Wonder Lake, you will maximize your chances of seeing the summit if the weather clears up even temporarily.

It can be incredibly disappointing when you’ve gone to such great lengths to travel, and and are then not able to experience the attraction you came to see. So we hope this post will allow you to set realistic expectations for your trip.

Set Realistic Expectations

When planning a trip to Denali National Park, don’t travel with expectations of what you might see. That way you’re not disappointed if the mountain spends most, if not all of its time hiding behind the clouds.

While planning our trip, we didn’t fully realize how rare it was to have summit views. Had we visited during a more typical cloudy week, we would have been quite crushed. So it’s better to hope for the best and plan for the worst. Besides, the park has so much more to offer than the mountain itself.

Even on a cloudy day, hiking in the vast backcountry is still an incredible experience, and you will almost certainly see amazing wildlife. The majority of visitors see grizzly bears, moose, caribou, and dall sheep, so the odds are in your favor in that regard.

Though wildlife is often spotted in the distance, around 80% of visitors get to see a grizzly bear. And a grizzly sighting with no mountain views is still a trip worth writing home about (as long as you don’t ultimately end up as his lunch!)

Diversify Your Alaska Trip

Another way to ease the pain of not seeing Denali is to diversify your Alaska trip. That is, don’t just visit Denali. Alaska is a massive state, and there is no shortage of things to see that are not named Denali.

Visit Wrangell St. Elias, which might even be a more beautiful park, the glaciers in Prince William Sound are stunning, and if you’re really feeling adventurous, take a flight to Kodiak Island where you’re almost guaranteed to see some of the largest bears on earth.

Everyone wants to see Denali, but the reality is that most don’t. Once you’ve come to terms with this fact, it will be much easier to enjoy your trip, and soften the blow of disappointment if the weather does what it tends to do in that part of the world. Then, if you get lucky with stunning views, it will make the trip that much more rewarding.

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Don’t travel to Denali with expectations – what you see while in the park comes largely down to luck.

Don’t travel to Denali with expectations – what you see while in the park comes largely down to luck.

Chris and Laura are a New England couple who enjoy traveling on weekends and vacation days. They blog at Trails Unblazed, where they share stories, travel tips, and photos from their adventures.

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