Denali Backcountry Lodge

The Denali Backcountry Lodge experience, while the Park Road is closed, can't be beat! The accommodations are comfortable, with all the necessary amenities, plus Wifi. The rooms are large enough to comfortably accommodate up to 4 people. After the 35-minute helicopter ride over the park, with incredible mountain views, you are greeted by a staff member who immediately shows you to your room, which has a large hiking pack and 32-oz water bottle for each member of your party to use during your stay. As your luggage is taken to your room for you by staff, your staff greeter shows you where the main lodge is for lunch and you can meet them there after you freshen up for a couple of minutes in your room. Lunch is a fixed menu of about 7 selections. There is also a different soup and side each day. After lunch on arrival day, your staff greeter takes you on a short tour of the property to share the amenities and how your days will be structured. Then you're led to the desk where you sign up for which hikes/activities you'd like to do that afternoon. All hikes/activities are optional. Only on arrival day, you pick your dinner from a menu of three items so that it can be prepared before you sit down for dinner. After arrival day, you choose your dinner during your breakfast each day. There's a meat option, a seafood option, and a vegetarian option for dinner, with a new kind of roll, flavored butter, and dessert each day. There's also a plentiful snack bar, coffee carafe, and espresso machine for in between meals. Breakfast is a fixed menu of about 5 items, with a fruit cup. At dinner, you look over the hiking options for the following day. Each day there is a casual hike, a moderate hike, and a challenging hike to choose from. When the moderate hike we wanted to do was filled to capacity (due to NPS rules), we asked about arranging another time of the day that we could do the hike and the BCL readily accommodated us and made sure that we'd get to do the hike we wanted. Each day there are also multiple shuttle rides to Wonder Lake to see what wildlife may be out and about. At Wonder Lake, on a clear day, you have a beautiful view of Denali and the north side of the Alaska Range. We booked 3 nights at the lodge, so on our 2nd full day, I booked a massage for after our Tundra Trek. The spa is an adorable little building with a wood burning stove in the massage area. On a 45-degree day in July, the heat was heavenly! The massage was just what I needed after 2 weeks in Alaska. I had the deep-tissue massage and left feeling relaxed and like I had actually been worked on. While the star of our time back here should have been the park, the food gave the park a run for its money! The lodge has a chef, a baker, a sous chef, and other kitchen staff to make the most delicious meals. We cleaned our plates AND our dessert plates every night. Then, when you get back to your room for the evening, there's an extra dessert treat to tide you over until breakfast!

We can't say enough great things about this experience. The staff is amazing, the chef and baker were superb, the masseuse was incredible, the nature and area was so beautiful and the ride into the resort was a trip in itself. The guided hikes were so much fun and so informative, the staff went out of their way to make sure everything was perfect. We highly recommend this unique experience!

We live in Anchorage, Alaska and try to get out to visit all the great things the State has to offer. We have been camping in Denali National Park before and have attended great seminars there through Alaska Geographic. We have also taken the park's Wilderness Tour Bus from the park entrance to Eielson Visitors Center and back, prior to the current road closure at Polychrome Pass. Nothing quite prepared us, however, for our stay at Denali Back Country Lodge through Pursuit, which we did to celebrate our 29th Wedding Anniversary a few months early. This year the landslide in Denali created a unique opportunity. First, we were flown on a helicopter via TEMSCO helicopter service - very professional and safe team. Our first day's flight was cancelled due to high winds, and our last day's flight was cancelled due to low cloud/fog coverage. All in all we got a full 4 nights of stay at a slightly reduced rate for the last night's stay because of weather delay. Upon arrival, the staff (all great women and men) came out to greet us, waving us in as the helicopter landed - it almost felt like Fantasy Island in the middle of the park. As lifelong military folk, my wife and I went to grab our gear -- and the staff said don't worry we got it -- it is your time to enjoy. And enjoy we did! They brought us in for a personal orientation and a little lunch -- needless to say with the fantastic cooking of Thomas we gained a few pounds (even after some exhilarating hikes) over our four days at the lodge. The naturalist guides (Sebastian, Buie, and Caylin) not only helped us and other couples pick appropriate hikes but at times went with us. One of us having just overcome being very ill, we opted for some of the easier to moderate hikes - but others grabbed available bikes, went on challenging hikes, and/or stayed in their rooms/the community area. Additionally, the lodge provided on-loan superior backpacks, water bottles, head nets, binoculars, and compasses. The lodge itself had plenty of cabin space, as the normal day traffic was reduced due to the landslide. Hence we had a very small group during our stay - where we saw grizzly bear (at a close range - 30 feet - but safely indoors); caribou (AKA reindeer); porcupine; trumpeter swan; sandhill cranes, loons, and songbirds. During our early morning hikes we were able to see Denali without clouds, enjoy the tundra walks, pick fresh blueberries, see some nature up close, and even go kayaking on Wonder Lake. All in all it was a magic time of the season, as fall was starting and we had wonderful fall color. Our cabin was a superior creekside - with the amenities we enjoy - an indoor bathroom with shower and tub (other company sites in the local area offer outhouses and a communal shower area) . Ralf (our German transplant room keeper) - left us adorable towel animals much like you find on cruise ships with a kicker from the on staff baker (delicious dessert bite treats) and a lovely messag