Great national park center, a mile or less away from the Denali Visitor Center, with kind and helpful staff at the general information booth. Tickets to the national park hosted buses that drive further into Denali can be purchased here. Lines come and go and, one minute, there will be absolutely no one in line and nothing is sold out. The next minute, the line's 30 min deep with each customer asking a dozen question prior to making their purchase decision - There are more than half a dozen tours and it is VERY HARD to tell the difference between tours, which in turn requires the counter representatives to explain and explain away to each customer. And before you know it, all the early morning tickets are SOLD OUT! Seeing as you need to ask dozens of questions, the helpfulness of the staff at the ticket counter matters and, unfortunately, we found this varies greatly - first guy we talked to was knowledgeable and had common sense. Second guy we talked to and purchased tickets with was not nearly as forthcoming and gave incomplete information. I get that English may not be his first language, he may be tired of relaying the same dang information every 10 min (average decision making seems to be out this long per customer) but we sure suffered for it! For example, would have been good to know that we had to pay separately for a pre-order box lunch and that this is DIFFERENT from the box of food included in the ticket price. We found out at 4AM that the preordered lunch includes a real meal with sandwich, fruit, etc. The box included in our ticket price was merely a snack box! My 4-year old would have been super cranky had I not arrived at pickup location 45 min early and been observant and inquisitive. Not that my questions mattered - lunch boxes are not sold same-day. They must be preordered. And so of course, I had to run around at 4AM, trying to scrounge up lunch from ghosts. Our ticket agent said that the earliest buses get the best views - some hocus pocus about large animals being nocturnal. When talking to the bus drivers, this is NOT what they reported. It is dark at 5AM and so you cannot spot animals at all! And, let's be frank, you're relying on your bus buddies to help spot animals as the bus driver / only tour guide needs to focus on driving on one pretty hair raising stretches of road. If everyone can't see, well, you're SOL. Going early does not mean there is an increased chance of seeing animals. We had some more bad luck with ticket purchased as the park was replacing a long stretch of the one and only single lane road and so animals were wary of the night work lights, construction vehicles, pace cars, noise, smell, etc. I don't believe this information is posted online for those that like to plan ahead. Find a good, talkative and knowledgeable counter agent when buying tickets! Now on to the FREE and the best part: The bus to the dog sled demonstration departs from here. Plan accordingly! Dog sled demos take place a few times a day. The shows and the buses to the shows are both free. The rangers take great care of their animals and present some neat information our entire family of mixed ages enjoyed. Location as water available to fill bottles and canteens. Bathrooms are super duper clean. read more

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Started my visit to Denali Park right here. There's a Pokemon stop and a gym. Interior is rather large, there's a movie theater, the education station, info about wild animals, 3D topical map the the entire park. What's the animal statues. I thought I was really really cool one side of the building the windows have been replaced with solar panels. They're making a good amount of their own power to run this Visitor Center. One of the Rangers point me in the right direction of all the campsites and bus tours and offered me a guided hike with a ranger which I took up immediately. They're all very nice so I told him I don't know where I am they gave me a map and put X's by everything that I needed to know and wrote down what it was. read more

Wilderness Access Center - Parks Near Me

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Useful bear info--closes at 7:00 pm. Info too and buses and ranger led hikes. Place to catch shuttles is here! read more

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So you want to venture off into the wilderness that is Denali National Park, this is where you have to go to do it. They provide all of the camp ground and trekking permits in this location. It is also where you can hop on a bus deep into the park to jump off and enjoy the park. There is an information desk, the permitting office, a gift shop, restrooms and theater here showing a park movie. The information desk has a ton of information and you can pick up junior ranger guides as well. The movie is about 20 minutes long and covers a lot of the park history and wildlife. This is the first stop on all of the shuttle buses coming into the park. You can take a trail or shuttle up to the visitor center. I suggest walking/hiking up its about 3/4 of a mile away. I will agree that this office looks like it can be very chaotic if you are looking for permits... read more

Private vehicle can only go the first 15 miles by park policy. Your chance of seeing any wildlife is low during this drive. To see the real deal, open your wallet or purse and paid the $28 fee for the Green bus ride, ignore the Tan bus. The Tan bus is a prison bus. You are stuck on the bus with the warden, aka tour guide. You are not allowed to get off. Be adventurous, go with the Green bus which allows you to get on and off anywhere on the 57 miles loop. Green buses circulate every 30 minutes apart, you will not get stuck anywhere on the loop. Just wave you arm with your Green bus ticket, it will stop. Create your own hiking and photo memories. There are no water and food shacks on the loop, so pack your back pack with lots of water and foods. Enjoy your own back to nature journey. read more

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This little gem is the hub of activity in Denali... There is a 10-15 minute movie and all park buses leave from this place. I was also really impressed with the bulk mix in their snack shop area..the information desk was able to give me clear information on what tours are available and I absolutely loved the NPS sled dog tour.it was great! So much of Alaska is involved with dog sledding these dogs actually patrol and deliver items throughout the park during the winter. read more

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Helpful staff there, this is where you can buy tickets for the tour/shuttle busses. They have a cafe, which we utilized for 3 mornings and each morning their coffees were more delicious! There is tiny outfitter here, restrooms, a theater and a spring fed water bottle station. read more

Wilderness Access Center - The little cafe that serves Starbucks!!! - Parks Near Me

We were going out on the 12 hour Kantishna bus tour. So had to stock up on enough food and water for the day. We picked couple of Turkey Sandwich(es) from the snack bar here. It was obviously expensive (as everything else is in Alaska), but was surprisingly fresh and tasted good. read more

Nice little movie about the history of Denali, National Park Stamps can be collected here, and NPS gift shop in here. Stopped in as part of our tour and enjoyed it. A good starting point for your day at Denali National Park. read more

Unorganized chaos. Still early in the season, but ridiculously unorganized. The Parks service has a parks concession joint venture with Doyon Limited/Aramark running their website (reservedenali.com) for reserving bus tours, campgrounds, etc. - website said campgrounds were full but not so at the desk. We picked up our tickets the day before for the 10 am Denali History Tour Bus. A few hours later got a call that they needed to switch us from the 10 am bus 116 to the 9:15 am bus 113. A half hour later, got a call that they needed to switch us from the 9:15 bus to the 8:40 am bus 110. So we got there early and...no bus was there at 8:40. We finally left in bus 110 sometime after 9:30. And the tour is billed as a 4.5-5 hour tour, but it was only 3 hours. The tour itself was pleasant and informative, but not as billed and with multiple changes. Highly unprofessional - and frustrating. read more