Alaska trip: Which campground in Denali NP?

David in Kenai: please answer this if you know. I am going with my boyfriend to Alaska for 7 days leaving 22nd August
and returning 29 August home.
We know what we want to do; kayak or canoe in Prince William Sound, see the fjords in Kenai, flightseeing over Denali, maybe fishing one day and of course hiking.
There are no available campsites at Wonder Lake, so which of the other campgrounds in Denali would you recommend? And from Anchorage do you suggest we go south first or north first?
Anyone else have ideas?

North or south first? Denali is dramatic, especially the Mountain and the critters. But Kenai Fjords, PWS and spectacular too, so take it in any order that you can get reservation for.

Usa a KAYAK in PWS: closed top, “touring kayak” a.k.a. “sea kayak”. A sit-on-top or a canoe can’t handle the waves that come up quickly and have too much “freeboard” (the hull above the water) to catch the wind. You can rent sea kayaks in Whittier or Valdez. Also consider a water taxi from either town to get you further out into PWS sooner.

I’d say “canoe on the Kenai canoe trails” but I don’t know of a rental source of a good canoe (Mad River, etc). Just crappy Coleman canoes that don’t even have a good portage yoke which you must have to comfortable get from lake to lake. We send friends out in ours. And maybe you could, I don’t know, craigslist to rent one from a resident who has a decent one.

Wonder Lake is a great campground because of the chance of viewing the Mountain from there. But even the campground near the visitor’s center give you convenient access to the park bus and that is the important thing. 90% of the wildlife you see and all of your remote trail access will be by the park buses (or one of the private tour companies). And from the visitor center or Savage Rivier you could hop the bus any time you have a reservation for (go on-line in advance to do that).

Buy or borrow some killer binoculars before your trip. Serious birders are your best bet followed by hunters.

North or south, another thought: If you get into September, winter comes to the north first. So I’d do Denali first. Generally May and September are really nice because most tourists have gone home, there are no lines, still good daylight but you can see some northern lights. And a few feezing nights knocks down almost all the bugs. (But this summer has been GREAT – almost no squitters. October 06 was so cold so earlier, it seems to have killed most of the eggs and larva).

Hope that helps.

hikingdavid1642 (the expected at sign) hot.mail if you want follow-up on any of that.

Oh, and book seats on the EAST side of the plane (E+F coming up, A+B going south). The views of the glacier, the Canadian mountains, PWS and on a clear day, Denali are all better on that side.

“Burn” 10 year retrospective of the Alaska Kayak School

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