Everything You Need to Know About Camping at Wonder Lake Campground, Denali National Park
Camping at Wonder Lake Campground in Denali National Park was a bucket list item for me (and should be for you, too). It was the #1 thing I wanted to do in Alaska when I visited in 2018, and also the very first reservation I made for the trip. Staying at this campground turned out to be a highlight, and my only regret is that we didn’t stay longer! In last week’s post I talked about the different camping and tour bus options within Denali National Park; today I’m here to share our experience at Wonder Lake!
Bus Options
First things first: there are multiple different tour bus options that operate within the park limits, but not for campers. Camping past mile 15 requires a ticket for a camper shuttle bus, reservable ahead of time. Reservations are also required for the campground, and are made on this third party website instead of recreation.gov like many parks. We didn’t have a hard time getting a spot at Wonder Lake, which I credit mainly to the fact that we went so late in the season (late August). We even changed our reservation days once with no problem, about two months prior to our arrival.
Matt, Fiona, and I camped at Riley Creek Campground at the very front of the park the night before our bus ride to Wonder Lake. This is something I would highly recommend doing--even being right next to the Wilderness Access Center (WAC), we still had a 5:30am wake up time that morning. And when you get your bus tickets at the WAC, make sure you also check into your campsite. We didn’t know to do this and the employee didn’t seem too concerned with giving instructions to clueless campers (but don’t worry, everything worked out).
Arriving at Wonder Lake
Since we hadn’t checked in, we had no idea what to do when we arrived at Wonder Lake around 1:00pm. We did a loop around the campground and knocked on the host’s RV with no answer before deciding to just set up camp and hope for the best. Denali herself sits 26 miles south of the campground, and pretty much all of the sites offer a good view, if she decides to come out of hiding. I tend to choose campsites with views in mind, but also for proximity to bathrooms (and in this case, the cook shelter). The campground host came to find us as we were setting up camp, and he was very gracious about the fact that we hadn’t checked into our site like we should have. On a normal day, he would have been waiting to greet us when the bus arrived, but on this particular day, he had been busy investigating an incident with a park ranger.
He explained to us that the prior night, an individual had been cooking over a camp stove on the McKinley Bar Trail. This unlucky person’s dinner was sniffed out by a bear and the person fled the scene, leaving all of their things behind. The scenario was problematic for a few reasons: first, there are very strict rules regarding cooking at Wonder Lake. Anything smelly, from food to toothpaste to fuel, must be kept in a food locker at the cooking shelter. No cooking is allowed at individual campsites, much less on a hiking trail. The campground host and park ranger had gone out to check the scene for evidence that the bear had been in contact with the cooking equipment. If this were the case, then the bear would come to associate humans with food and possibly become aggressive toward them, resulting in the need to put down the bear. I can’t imagine the death of a bear being something that anyone who visits a national park wants...or being the park ranger tasked with the deed. On this day, though, the outcome was good--they were able to gather the hiker’s gear unscathed, and the curious bear was free to live another day.
McKinley Bar Trail
Unlike most national parks, Denali has very few established hiking trails and actually encourages off-trail travel. We, however, weren’t prepared for that level of wilderness adventure, so after an afternoon nap, we set off on the McKinley Bar Trail. This trail is an easy 5-mile hike, starting at the campground road and leading to the McKinley River. There is a short descent at the beginning of the trail before it flattens out to a boggy, sparse forest. As the only humans on the trail, we were sure to carry on a loud conversation, especially knowing there was likely a bear nearby. We wandered through the northern boreal forest taking in the sights. Contrary to the bus ride earlier in the day, this version of Denali felt more intimate. We were up close and experiencing nature from the inside, rather than from the distant (albeit spectacular) views from the road. Although, it was maybe a little too close at times--we got a good scare from a caribou not 10 yards away that Matt was sure was a bear!
Back at camp, Fiona cooked a fancy dinner of cheese tortellini and sundried tomato pesto (yes, we hauled all of that with us) at the cook shelter. It was around 10:00pm by the time we ate, but we still had plenty of sunlight. While we were cooking, something magical happened: the clouds shifted and we were rewarded with our first glimpse of Denali in all her glory!
The Next Morning
We had another early wake up time for the bus departing Wonder Lake Campground at 8:00am the following morning. Denali was still standing mightily over us, free of clouds. With a final view from across the lake, we boarded the morning bus for our journey back.
Many pros and cons exist for this speed of visiting Wonder Lake. Matt and Fiona were working their regular hours, so we were confined to the space of a weekend for our visit. With that time constraint, I don’t think I would plan this trip any differently. It is absolutely worth it to take a bus as far into the park as possible, and our one night stay was a nice way to break up the ride. Arriving at the campground at 1:00pm also gave us plenty of time for exploring (and napping) that afternoon, and staying longer than one day gave us a better chance to see Denali (only about 25% of visitors do).
Unfortunately, since we only stayed one night, we weren’t able to utilize the “hop on hop off” feature of the transit buses. With more time, it would have been nice to walk more of the trails at Eielson, or even do some off-trail hiking in other sections of the park. But with the time that we had, I was very satisfied by all I was able to do and see in Denali National Park. Wonder Lake Campground was the highlight of this visit, but next time I’d like to camp in the backcountry! I better start working on my navigation skills….
