Hiking and Survival Tours
Guide’s Choice
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It can be stressful to find the right tour. What if it’s bad? Not what you thought it would be? Most companies would tell you to kick rocks. Not us.
If you don’t like your tour with Northern Epics, just give us a call. Or shoot us an email. Either way, we’ll give you a full refund. AND $100 towards your next tour in Alaska.
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Northern Epics Core Values
Our core values of safety, sustainability, and immersion are woven into the fabric of every tour we offer. You’ll love feeling the thick, lush peat moss under your feet, or tasting a freshly made “Alaskan sushi roll” crafted by your guide from edible plants and berries.
For guiding companies like ours, it all comes down to the guides, and we take pride in having the best guides in the industry. Equipped with Wilderness First Responder certifications, Northern Epics guides take every step possible to reduce risk for you and your family. Their deep knowledge of Denali National Park's ecosystems allows them to offer insights that will enrich your understanding and appreciation of the place you’ve traveled thousands of miles to experience.
By choosing us, you're not just booking a tour in Denali; you're investing in an experience that will make your vacation significantly more rewarding and memorable. We don’t just show you Denali; we show you how to experience it in a way that you never knew was possible.
Denali Park Tours FAQ’s
What is best tour of Denali National Park?
The answer to this question is inherently subjective, but I’ll give you what I believe to be the top four factors in deciding what Denali Park tour will be best for you..
Information - Of course, one of the most important aspects of any tour is that you learn a lot about Denali. That sounds obvious, but there are plenty of tours that fall short in this regard. Most tour companies hire guides who have never been to Denali before, and only train them for a few days before turning them loose on their own with clients like you. If you want to learn a lot about Denali, I would recommend taking a hiking tour with us before any other tours you take. I was going to list other informational tours here to make it seem like I wasn’t being biased towards our own tours, but to be completely honest with you, we’re so far ahead of anyone else in this department that it would be disingenuous to do so.
Sightseeing - Any time you’re going to a new area, you want to see everything there is to see. That’s tough to do in Denali, considering the National Park is larger than the state of Massachusetts. So what are the best tours for seeing everything you can? There are two obvious choices - a bus, and a plane. Buses are the only vehicles allowed past mile 15 of the Denali Park Road, so if you want to get a ground-level look deep into the National Park, you have no other other choice. I recommend the East Fork Transit bus, as it allows more freedom than the Tundra Wilderness Tour, and for cheaper! The other option is a flightseeing tour of Denali. This is easily my top choice when it comes to sightseeing. You can’t beat seeing Denali from above, even if it is really expensive! I recommend Denali Air for this one.
Authenticity - You’ll want to make sure that any tour you take is authentic to the area. This means a combination of things - the guide has to be knowledgeable about the area and its history, the mode of transportation should be one that is used by the locals or is historically accurate, and the tour shouldn’t be showing you things that aren’t relevant to Denali itself. This is an area where I think Northern Epics tours shine yet again. With the most knowledgeable guides in Denali, and a focus on teaching you about the history of the area, Northern Epics tours are as authentic as it gets. Husky Homestead also offers some great tours in which they demonstrate the sled dog lifestyle in an authentic Alaskan way. TEMSCO’s helicopter glacier landings are also good, as travel by helicopter is still common in Alaska.
Accessibility - Obviously, the most important aspect of a Denali Park tour is whether or not you’ll be able to do it in the first place. While you can do some research and find the tours that will match your desired activity level, I’ll list a few that are accessibly to almost anyone here; Tundra Wilderness Tour, whitewater rafting Wilderness Run, and Denali Jeep Tours.
Are Denali Park tours worth it?
The short answer is yes! Denali National Park is a favorite in Alaska for a reason. Aside from boasting the tallest mountain in North America, its unique climate has made for a set of alpine sub-arctic ecosystems that will absolutely blow your mind as you begin to understand them. No Alaska vacation is complete without a visit to Denali, and no visit to Denali is complete without at least a few tours to help you really get to know and understand the area.
Can you tour Denali on your own?
The answer to this question is rather complicated, and it depends on what you mean by touring Denali. If you mean actually going deep into the National Park, then the answer is no. Private vehicles are prohibited past mile 15 on the Denali Park Road, which is the only road that goes into Denali National Park. However, if you want to stay around the outskirts of the National Park than you can absolutely make your own tour of Denali. There are plenty of hiking trails around the entrance to the Park, and as long as you know what to do if you encounter a bear or moose and you’re prepared with bear spray and first-aid, hiking on your own is a lot of fun! With that said, I truly believe that to get the most out of your vacation, you should book some tours. Learn from the people whose job it is to teach you. It also helps support small Alaskan businesses like ours and the others around the Denali Park entrance.