Denali National Park

Denali National Park and Preserve covers 6,075,030 acres of interior Alaska, about 9,492 square miles, and one road runs into it for 92 miles. Congress created the park in 1917 to protect Dall sheep. In 2025 it had 543,300 recreation visits, up 16.5% on 2024, and 79% of them came in June, July and August.

A landslide cut the road in half from 2021, and a new bridge over it opened in September 2026. We checked every figure below on 27 October 2026 on the park's own pages, the bus concessioner's, the Alaska Railroad's and NOAA's normals.

Why can private cars go only 15 miles into Denali?

Private cars may use Denali's park road only as far as Savage River, Mile 15, during the summer bus season. Beyond the check station there, visitors need a bus, a bicycle or their feet. Pavement covers only the first 15 miles.

The road was built over 16 years, from 1922 to 1938, and ends at Kantishna, an old mining community. The bus system beyond Mile 15 followed the completion of the George Parks Highway in 1972. A final rule of 15 October 2026 allows up to 160 vehicles a day, buses included, on the restricted road from Mile 15 to Mile 90. It replaces the old seasonal limit of 10,512.

The private-car limit moves with the season. After the buses stop, cars may drive to Teklanika, Mile 30, until 15 October or until snow closes the road. In winter plows clear the road only to Park Headquarters, Mile 3, until mid-February, when the road usually opens to Mountain Vista. The speed limit to Savage River is 35 mph, about half an hour's drive without stops.

Is the Pretty Rocks bridge open, and how far do the buses go?

The Pretty Rocks bridge opened with a ribbon-cutting on 2 September 2026, but Denali's buses still turned back at East Fork, Mile 43, for the rest of the 2026 season. The Park Service says full bus service along the park road will resume in 2027.

The landslide sits at Mile 45.4, on ice-rich permafrost over clay within 1°F of thawing. It moved inches a year before 2014 and up to 0.65 inch an hour in 2021, and the road west of it closed in late August 2021. The new steel truss is about 475 feet long, 50 feet tall and 24 feet wide. Twenty-three thermosiphons keep the ground beneath it frozen, and it cost about $230 million.

Hikers and cyclists have been allowed across the bridge since 27 August 2026. Crews are repairing the road and buildings west of it for 2027. The Eielson Visitor Center, the Toklat contact station and Wonder Lake Campground were all closed in 2026. Some older Park Service pages still describe the road as closed at Mile 43; the park's conditions page, updated on 19 October 2026, says it supersedes them.

What did a Denali bus ticket cost in 2026?

Denali's buses are run by a concessioner, Doyon/Aramark Joint Venture, not by the Park Service. In 2026 a green transit bus to East Fork cost $33.50 for an adult, and children aged 15 and under rode free. The buses ran from 20 May to 17 September.

The adult tour prices include the $15 entrance fee; transit tickets do not, and riders pay it at the Bus Depot. Transit riders may get off anywhere and flag down a later green bus with seats, after a wait of five minutes to an hour or more. No food is sold after the depot. Children need a ticket, and parents bring their own car or booster seats.

Bus and campground bookings for summer 2027 open on 1 December 2026. No 2027 fares or timetables had been published on 27 October. When the full road runs, a transit trip takes 6½ hours to Toklat, 8 to Eielson, 11 to Wonder Lake and 12 to Kantishna. You can change a ticket for $8.75 up to seven days ahead; after that, tickets are non-refundable.

What does Denali charge visitors from abroad?

Denali charges $15 for each visitor aged 16 or over, for a seven-day permit, all year. There is no car or motorcycle fee, and children aged 15 and under enter free.

Denali is not on the 2026 list of eleven parks with a $100 surcharge for non-residents, so visitors from abroad pay what Americans pay. Two adults pay $30 for a week. The $250 non-resident pass would need 17 adult entries to pay off here, and the park's own $45 annual pass is sold only to US citizens and residents. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors lists the surcharge parks.

The park takes no cash. Every sale point, from the visitor centre to the Bus Depot, takes cards only. A 24-hour machine outside the Murie Science and Learning Center sells the permit by card.

Will you see Mount McKinley from the park road?

Mount McKinley, at 20,310 feet the highest point in North America, often stays hidden, because summer skies here are often cloudy. The Park Service quotes veteran bus drivers who say only one day in three offers a glimpse; that is their estimate, not a measured figure.

The peak stays out of sight from the park entrance, where the road sits too low. Mile 9 is the first point where it can appear, and Mountain Vista has a 0.6-mile loop trail to a viewpoint. Clear skies are common in deep winter, when the road is mostly closed.

The Park Service's pages call the mountain Mount McKinley in 2026. Its history page explains that a 1917 law gave the park and the peak that name. In 2015 President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell restored the name Denali. In 2025 an executive order from President Donald Trump changed it back to Mount McKinley. The name of the park, the page adds, remains Denali National Park and Preserve.

The name Denali stems from "deenaalee" in Koyukon, the language spoken north of the mountain. The Alaska Railroad, a state corporation, still calls the peak Denali. This page follows the Park Service's usage for the mountain and uses Denali for the park.

How close may you get to Denali's bears and moose?

Stay at least 300 yards from bears and 25 yards from every other animal at all times, the Park Service's rule in Denali. Bear spray is strongly encouraged for all hikers, and the Bus Depot rents it.

Visitors see moose comparatively often between the entrance and Savage River. Dall sheep graze around Igloo Canyon, Miles 34 to 38, and Polychrome, Mile 45, and grizzlies along the rivers and the high passes. Sable Pass, Mile 39, is the first alpine zone the buses reach. The Park Service warns that sightings are not guaranteed, and wildlife is most active from May to September. Pets may walk on the park road and campground roads but not on trails.

Which Denali trails start near the entrance?

Denali's marked trails are short and sit near the entrance and Savage River; most of the park has no trails or bridges. Hikers may go off trail across most of it, in groups of no more than 12 in the wilderness.

The lengths are the park's own figures. The trails at Eielson and Wonder Lake will not be accessible until 2027.

Where do you sleep at Denali?

Denali has six campgrounds and no Park Service lodging. Visitors book the campgrounds through the concessioner, not Recreation.gov, and the prices below are its 2026 rates, with a $9 booking fee on the first night.

There are no hookups, and the longest RV allowed is 40 feet. Riley Creek is the only campground inside the park with phone coverage, the concessioner says. Most visitors stay outside the park, in Healy, about 11 miles north, in Cantwell, about 30 miles south, or along the highway between. Four private lodges stand at Kantishna, at the end of the road; how their guests reach them in 2027 had not been published.

What is open at Denali in winter?

Denali stays open all winter, though the road closes beyond Park Headquarters. On 27 October 2026 the park's alert said the road was open to Mile 3, with snow preventing vehicles beyond it but walkers allowed. The alert carried no date.

The Denali Visitor Center stays closed until 30 April. The Murie Science and Learning Center serves as the winter visitor centre, daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, and lends snowshoes. The sled-dog kennels at Headquarters open on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. The Park Service says Denali is the only national park with a kennel of working sled dogs, kept since 1922.

Riley Creek's Bear Loop is free in winter, first come, first served, with no water. No food is sold in the park, and the nearest services are in Healy. Temperatures can reach −40°F, and at the winter solstice the sun is up for less than four and a half hours. Crews are burning brush piles between Miles 0 and 5 through November, and drivers may see the smoke from the road.

How cold and wet is Denali through the year?

Denali's summer is short, cool and the wettest part of the year: June to August brings 54% of the year's precipitation at the park's weather station. The station, McKinley Park, stands at 2,070 feet near Park Headquarters.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 average highs and lows. July is the park's warmest and wettest month, at 3.12 inches, and November the snowiest, at 12.9 inches; the year brings 76.7 inches of snow. The high tundra turns colour in early August and the valley trees by early September, when mosquitoes are mostly gone. The Park Service measured warming of 7.7°F per century here from 1950 to 2010, the highest of all national parks.

How do you get to Denali from Anchorage and Fairbanks?

Denali's only road entrance is at Mile 237 of the George Parks Highway, about 240 miles north of Anchorage and 120 miles south of Fairbanks, by the park's own figures. Both cities have airports, and the train depot is a five-minute walk from the visitor centre.

The distances are our own routing, within two miles of the park's figures for Anchorage and Fairbanks. Fuel is sold all year in Healy and Cantwell; the station a mile north of the entrance opens in summer only.

The Alaska Railroad's Denali Star runs in summer only, from 12 May to 16 September 2027. Northbound it leaves Anchorage at 8:20 a.m. and reaches Denali at 3:40 p.m.; southbound it leaves Fairbanks at 8:20 a.m. and reaches Denali at 12:10 p.m. An adult in Adventure Class pays $205 one way from Anchorage and $102 from Fairbanks at 2027 fares. The concessioner warns that the depot is several miles from most hotels and taxis are hard to find.

In winter the weekend Aurora Winter Train stops at Healy, not Denali, by the railroad's own page. Private buses and vans run from Anchorage and Fairbanks in summer. The park is on Alaska time, which went back an hour on 1 November 2026, and it is one of the places in our guide to Alaska.

The other national parks in Alaska are Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve and Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve.