Bus ride to Wonder Lake: Denali National Park, Alaska

If you want to experience anything in Denali National Park, you will need to get your ass on a bus. Park visitors are generally allowed to only drive 15 miles into the park in their personal vehicle.

NOTE: For Summer 2024, this particular tour is unavailable. In 2021, the park service determined that the stretch of road around and near Polychome Pass is no longer safe for vehicles and enacted a road closure at Mile 43. The NPS estimates that this road closure will be in place until 2026. I’ll leave my post below on my experience in 2018 for you to enjoy, and hopefully you’ll be able to get to Wonder Lake (and beyond) in the coming years!)

We had a great experience on our Denali National Park shuttle bus ride, but we had the perfect, clear sunny day – we are part of what’s known as the 10% Club – meaning we were able to see Mt. Denali in completely clear conditions. Only 10% of park visitors will be able to experience this. 30% will actually be able to see the mountain, and the rest? It’ll be covered in clouds, completely socked in.

Details:

How to book a Denali Park Bus Ride:
You have two options: A tour or a shuttle (transit) bus and it can be booked here. Your cost will depend on how far you want to go on the park road. You can go on a shorter trip, just to Toklat or all the way to the end to Kantishna. The tour bus tickets are much more expensive than a shuttle and provide lunch and narration along the way. We chose the shuttle (green) bus to Wonder Lake and had a great experience, and our driver still provided narration for us on our ride.

You must book your tickets in advance! We booked several months in advance. You might get lucky and show up and get on a bus, but if you’re coming all the way to Alaska, you’ll want to make sure you get the experience you want.

Time Commitment: No matter how far you decide to go, taking the Denali National Park bus will eat up an entire day of your trip. The actual amount of time will depend on how far you want to go on the park road. Our bus ride was 11 hours round trip to Wonder Lake. If you just want to go to Eielson, it is 8 hours.

I recommend at least going out to the Eielson Visitor Center. The Eielson Visitor Center and Polychrome Pass are the most scenic areas of the park. If you just go to Toklat, you will miss all of this (most of the pictures in this post were taken after Toklat).

After Eielson, the scenery isn’t much different. I don’t think that it was necessary to go all the way to Wonder Lake, now that I look back, but since we had a nice day, we had a good experience. If we had cold, rainy foggy weather, I would not have been happy to spend 11 hours on that bus.

Food: You absolutely must bring food. We packed PB&J sandwiches, and other snacks, but we wished we would’ve had a soft-sided cooler for cold drinks. Before we boarded the bus, I bought a coffee at the transit station. You can also purchase some food and drinks at the Eielson Visitor Center (though I don’t know what’s exactly available, as we did not buy anything)

Bus
The transit/shuttle buses (the green buses) are school buses. And yes, you’ll be on that bus for the better part of a day. They’re not exactly comfortable, but you’ll be fine. There are plenty of stops along the way to get out and stretch your legs, and go to the bathroom. We thought the 11 hours went by very fast.

Our driver, Anna, was amazing. She made the right amount of wildlife stops and we had plenty of time to take pics of animals and the scenery.

Hop on/hop off:
With the green shuttle buses, you can hop on and hop off whenever you’d like, so if you want to go for a hike, stay longer at one of the stops, etc, you can. You simply tell the driver to stop anywhere along the park road and she’ll oblige. When you want to get back on a bus, just flag another green transit bus down while on the side of the road and they’ll stop.

We didn’t feel the need to hop on/off. We stayed with Anna the entire day – and most of the people on our bus did the same. We got plenty of time at all the stopping points, and as photographers, we were able to get all the pictures we wanted. I love hiking but hiking in Denali is a different beast – out past Savage River, there really are no trails – you’re on your own, and I’m just not prepared or feel the need to bushwhack through the Alaskan wilderness.

Ok, enough on the details, let’s get to the rest of the Denali National Park bus ride experience!

Wildlife Spotting

While we did see all kinds of wildlife, we didn’t get good photos of any animals. I had a 400mm lens with me and hardly got any photos worth saving. We saw bear, moose, caribou, and eagles, but all were just too far away to get decent photos, even with a giant zoom lens.

Denali Shuttle Bus Tour Overview – Stop by Stop

Teklanika Rest Area

Your first chance to go to the bathroom! Get out and use them! There isn’t much to see here at this rest area – it’s mostly just a stop to do your business and get back on the bus.

Toklat

Toklat is another quick stop along the route. There is a small bookstore, restrooms and some exhibits, including several caribou antlers for you to check out. Toklat is the first turn-around point for the passengers on the shortest Denali National Park tour.

Polychrome Pass

This is one of the most scenic areas of the park. Your driver will give you about 10-15 minutes to explore and take pictures before moving on. Of course, you can stay here and do some hiking, but we felt that was plenty of time.

Eielson Visitor Center

The Eielson Visitor Center is where a lot of people chose to end their ride and head back. In hindsight, this is what I would’ve done, because you really don’t see much beyond Eielson, and Wonder Lake just isn’t that impressive.

If you get a clear day like we did, you can get amazing photos right near the Eielson Visitor Center.

Wonder Lake

I expected more out of Wonder Lake – apparently, I heard that the shuttles used to take visitors to the spot where you can get a reflection of the mountain, but they no longer do that. You are dropped off at a much less scenic spot and to be honest, this lake isn’t anything special. You have the option to hike to another, smaller pond/lake that might or might not give you the reflection. However, if you want to do this short hike, you have to do it really really fast or you might miss the shuttle.

This is a problem because there are fewer buses that go to Wonder Lake and you might have to wait a while for the next one, if you miss yours. We chose not to do this – the other tourists on our bus who did it and made it back in time thought it wasn’t that great. And they didn’t have time to see Wonder Lake.

After Wonder Lake, it’s time to head back. The ride back goes much quicker than the ride out. I took a nap on the way back. At this point in the trip, everyone on your bus is likely tired, hungry and tapped out. Even when our driver saw some wildlife, and asked if we wanted to stop, the consensus was no.

All in all, I’m glad that I did this bus ride, but I don’t feel the need to do it again. The chances of having another perfect day like this aren’t great, and I feel like we really got the best experience possible. Anything else wouldn’t live up to this.

Denali National Park Shuttle Bus – Pros and Cons

Pros:
It’s kind of nice to sit back, relax, and let someone else do the driving
It’s a very long day

Cons:
You’re much more likely to have crappy, rainy weather than the clear sunny day like we had.
You only have a 30% chance of actually seeing Mt. Denali
Need to book in advance
Must remember to pack a lunch
Wonder Lake isn’t very scenic.