Gaming The Denali National Park Road Lottery

Nice haul. I drove all the roads in great smoky mtns over a labor day wknd, and saw one bear.

I did this trek in the green national park school bus tour in August of 2000. Alaska is great! Funny how lots of points people don't venture there. .......cause you have to pay I guess. $250 p/night rooms 15 years ago that are too roughing it for the Hyatt crowd.

Could you get permits for multiple days using this approach?

Eric -- Yes, and we met people who did exactly that.

I have 24 hours free in Anchorage. 12 noon when we land until 12 noon the next day when the float plane picks us up.

Any recommendations for a good day hike near Anchorage? I wish we had time to run up to Denali. Maybe next trip.

Where did you find that cabin? Link?

Thanks.

Gary -- It's the Denali Mountain Morning Hostel & Cabins. We stayed in Highwater. I'll update the post to include this. Thanks for asking.

http://www.denalihostel.com/

Yes, but think how many Ultimate Reward points you would earn for spending $10 x an infinite number of entries! I'm pretty sure you could go *anywhere in the world* with that balance. Maybe farther.

And with regards to the picture at the end of the road - that is what happens when you let your 6 month old take the pictures.

Great Post very enjoyable, but I had to google ptarmigans 🙂

James, try the Matanuska Glacier. It's about a 90 min scenic drive but isn't a hike so much as traipsing all over a glacier, which is still pretty awesome.

Thanks for the post, Travis. I've added this to my 2016 calendar.

On a side note, long-time FlyerTalker (and trip reporter extraordinaire) Seat 2A is a bus driver on one of those green school buses. Well worth the trip just to meet up with him!

No problem with the rental car contracts on the gravel road?

One summer back in college, I was a tour director for one of the cruise lines up in Alaska, and took groups all up and down the state when they did the land-based tours (part of their overall cruise package). Was able to take the Tundra Wildnerness Tours a few times on the school busses and loved it!

Thanks for the very informative post... also adding it to my to-do list for this summer! 🙂

Well, Travis, I must say you got very lucky...on the weather. Some summers it rains just about every day and even on sunny days the mountain can be covered in clouds. And, on those rainy days, the mud from the road covers your entire car (or the bus) making it hard to see out and you end up missing a lot of wildlife. So, you were lucky... twice!

Question: did you use your card for all the different entries? I can use my siblings emails and addresses but my card info to pay. Will that disqualify me for doing multiple entries? Make sense?

@ Garrett, your question makes perfect sense and no, that will not disqualify you. I live in Alaska and have entered for years. My family never takes the time to enter but they allow me to enter for them under their names. Only one entry per person is allowed. They are not addicted to it like I am so I enter for them under their names and pay for the entries with my credit card/debit card. (Sometimes they go with me if they win and other times they do not. If the entry under one of the other family members is the one that wins, you just have to make sure you get their written authorization, i.e. their transfer of the permit to you.) The other advantage is that once the winners are drawn, the $25 entry fee will automatically be deducted from the credit card used on the winning name's account so I frequently know that I won (under mine or one of my family member's names) before the names are actually posted on Denali's website. I just don't know under whose name I won until the winning list of name's are posted on the website OR until I log back in under my various family entries. Hopefully, my response makes sense.

so question. I live in the NC mountains and planning a trip to visit your mountains in AK. I have read about this lottery....and wondering....(as a tourist...yes...sorry...we have tourists here too in our mountains 🙂 ) if its worth trying to get this permit or just take a bus ride into the area? Yes I do like to stop and I love nature, (and photograph) so I like to meander around, explore and savor it all, but are there areas like that to do on this road? from the movie on the NPS site it shows many narrow areas so I am doubting you can pull over and get out. is this true? Do you think one should experience this? Again I love nature and our beautiful mother nature.....but since I don't live up there not sure if going all the way in is...well worth the time and effort. Thank you for any feedback about this. I want to soak up so much when I get there....and well your state has a lot to offer! 🙂

oh and I would like to add I dislike large crowds with noise and disrespect for our environment and the animals. so saying that the bus thing would probably be...too many people.

Sandy -- Just to be clear, I don't live in Alaska so it's not "my" state. That said, I love your Smoky Mountains too. 🙂

As for Road Lottery -- this only really matters if you are going to be there over the specific weekend in September. If you are there that weekend, you need a Road Lottery permit to drive the road, cause the busses don't run. If you are there earlier in the season, you have to take a bus to access the park.

As for whether it's worth it-- there is plenty of space to pull over and wander across the tundra. The road is somewhat narrow in places, but there's not much traffic (400 cars per day), so it's fine. We thought it was an awesome day. But everyone will have different opinions.

THANKS!!! I have decided to go for it and see what happens. I just booked a room for 2 nights near the entrance. Wish I had the duckies to stay at those nice lodges in the park...but....got a lot to cover! Appreciate your response.

Hi Travis,

While googling for the denali national park, I found this blog post and came to know the road lottery. It was a perfect match since we are going to visit alaska this september and so we decided to take part in the lottery with your tips in mind.. 😉

After the drawing, we were so happy because we won a permit.. Now I am really looking forward to september and the denali national park.

Thanks for sharing your experiences..

Best Regards from Switzerland
Jan

We were awarded a permit through the military for military appreciation day. I was wondering what TIME you started your drive??? How long did it take you to get to the end of the road?

I wasn't sure if we should be there right at 6am when it opens or if we can show up later and it won't be as congested still?

I too was curious about 400 cars on the road and being stuck behind a long line of traffic. Thank you for your help!

I forgot to his to notify me of follow up comments so I am posting again here- please respond here to my above post! Thank you 🙂

Congrats on the permit Jen. You'll love it.

1. We had a 5 month old or so at the time, so we didn't get an early start at all. I want to say we were at the visitor center at maybe 9-ish. We had hoped to start early, but didn't happen.

2. We drove all the way to the end, and were coming out around 9 pm. So maybe about 12 hours? And that was pretty leisurely.

3. I would not worry about the 400 cars. It's a 92 mile long road, so 400 cars are going to get dispersed very fast. I guess it could be busy at the start, but by the time we showed up, it definitely wasn't. We had many long stretches where we saw no one. In fact, the only time we were really with other people was when their were animals nearby and then maybe there would be 5-10 cars stopped to look.

Have fun, and please come back to share your experience.

Thanks for the quick response! We are traveling with my parents (the grandparents) and our 4 children- 10,8, 4, and almost 2. I am worried that we need to be there super early to avoid crowds and that it would take a HUGE feat to get us all out the door and up there by 6-7am! So knowing that we can show up at 9ish and not be stuck behind long lines is great. And I'd like to try to go the whole way- once in a lifetime, then why not? 🙂 We'll be packing tons of food, layers, foot gear, etc! I'll let you know how it goes!

"Not only is he cute, he’s also lucky!"

Maybe lucky, but definitely not Lucky 😉

"The road ends here. And so does the picture."

I bet the youngest lottery winner, lucky not Lucky, was the photographer 😉

Thanks for this blog post. We followed your lead and just got back from this awesome drive.
I entered 9 times for a 75% chance and got lucky with one entry pass granted.
The transfer of the letter from a family member to us personally was easy.
We travelled for free with our points from South Carolina. The cash outlay was for a rental truck from Enterprise, which was a deal for $250 for a week, our dining and the stay at Denali Hostel.
The drive in the park was incredible and we were lucky enough to hit the park on a clear day with freshly fallen snow.
We also combined a trip to Seward, which is a great drive also.
Thanks for your tips on this awesome travel opportunity.
PS.
When you tell people in Alaska that you won the road lottery they think you are someone special. I guess a lot of folks have been trying to win the lottery for many years and few are successful. Because of the quick turn around from lottery winning and planning of a trip, not many people enter from outside of Alaska (Anchorage).
We made our travel plans as if we were going to win. Either way we were going.

If you win can you get your pass before you arrive in ALaska? If I were to win on my grandson's name I assume he does not have to be there for me to use the pass.

Hi Ken,
No, you have to pick up the pass during the days of the lottery, e.g. the day before your pass is issued for.
If the lottery winner is not you personally, you have to present a transfer letter that the winner allows you to use his ticket.
When you win the lottery, you get detailed information about that..

I have been unsuccessful for a few years, so I am trying your strategy. Do I need different email addresses for each "person" to register at Recreation.gov? Thanks.

I had 7 people enter for me this year and ended up winning 2 passes! Was kind of weird that both ended up being friends and no one from the immediate family. Yay Alaska!

Sucks rich people get better odds than poor Alaskans like me. Sucks it’s a National Park instead of State. Phff!