Alaska in late May-Early June

[jpkelpe]

A friend is thinking about an Alaskan cruise the first week of June, would start in Anchorage but they are thinking about going about 3 days early and go to Danali Park. What kind of weather could they expect, or is this not a good time to go to the Park?

[Northstar]

June is an excellent time to visit Alaska. Early June is usually dry weather.

[jsmitfl]

I was there the first two weeks of June this summer and it sure was beautiful. I think we had one day that it was misty. We did a week from Fairbanks to Seward and then a cruise to Vancouver. Can't wait to go back.

[jrgwdenner]

When we were in Denali this past July, our guide told us that June was Spring, July was Summer, and August was Fall. The rest of the months were Winter. I think Spring would be a great time to visit the park as the flower will be blooming. It will be cool as I think the weather is usually cool in any month. There may be more bugs in June but that's easy to prepare for.

[Russ and Sandy]

Sounds as if your friends might be using some sort of tour service. I can't speak to that but can share some of our experience at that time of year.

We toured some of Alaska in 1999 in a motor home. We started in Seattle and drove the Cassiar (about 450 miles of dirt road) and then the Alaskan Highway including trips to Skagway and Valdez. We were in Fairbanks and Denali the last week of May. Stayed at the Denali Teklanika River campground (minimum 3 days). No water as it was still frozen it really was dry camping. It was about 45° days and around 20° nights.

You can only drive to the campground if you have a camping reservation. The rest of the ride is via school bus type shuttles. We were only able to get as far as mile 58 if I recall correctly. Reason: The last 30 miles or so were snowed shut. I remember that you must get shuttle/tour tickets in advance or at least very early in the day even that early in the season to be assured of a seat.

We found only one campground in Fairbanks that was not frozen. And it was too early for their special Salmon Bake.

We did have an fantastic private air flight to Mt McKinley. There are small aircraft everywhere in Alaska. Interesting sight to see a plane taxiing right out the rear camper window!

Anchorage was in the 60's and the only moisture we experienced was some fog at Kenai Peninsula, some very light rain on a boat tour of the Columbia Glacier, and snow between Valdez and Fairbanks.

I would say "Don't let the weather scare them off". They told us it was a little unusual to still be so cold at that time of year. It is a fantastic place to visit! We only spent 3 weeks on the trip "up" and flew back "down". That was not nearly enough time, but we do not regret a minute of the trip! If only digital cameras were available/affordable then....

Russ

[tundra rose]

Early June should be a good time to visit Denali.
If your friends will be renting a car, they may want to consider spending a few more days. Denali is close to a five hour drive from Anchorage, assuming a few stops to look at the scenery. With a day dedicated to the park, they will not have much time to see anything else in the area. The Denali Highway, east of Cantwell is very pretty, so long as one does not mind driving on a gravel road.

[jrgwdenner]

We drove down the Cassiar on our return trip from Alaska. The road is no longer dirt although the first 150 miles south of the Alcan were among the bumpiest that we encountered. But the bumps led us to stop at Kinaskan Provincial Park which proved to be oneof the most beautiful places that we stayed on our entire trip.

Glen and I drove through the Denali campgrounds and our final opinion was that it would be very hard to get any Montana in the campsites. You would have to plan ahead and register, if you can, for a site that accomodates larger rigs. There are two campgrounds outside the National Park, Rainbow and Grizzly. We stayed at Rainbow, which is right behind the strip of log cabin stores and does not have very good bathroom facilities. The newer park with seemingly nice facilities is the Grizzly RV Park north of town. I would recommend staying there if you're camping.