South Denali project underway

The South Denali Visitor’s Center hasn’t even been built yet and the campground nearby isn’t open but it’s already drawing crowds.

Three tours visited the site last month. David Griffin, special assistant to the director of the state’s Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, said that the division hopes to open part of the planned development there next year.

“We’re not going to open this year even if we had staffing just because we need to kind of let things settle in,” he said. “Things are pretty green.”

The portion planned to open next year includes a campground with 35 sites for RVs and 15 for tents, and a half-mile, handicap-accessible trail called the Moose Flats Trail.

“It’s relatively flat but it provides some exceptional views of the Alaska Range, Ruth Glacier, the surrounding foothills,” Griffin said.

Eventually, the idea will be to have an actual visitor’s center on Curry Ridge. Ideas for what might go into the center include a theater, interpretative displays and a bookstore. Griffin said all the ideas are conceptual at this point, though there seem to be some pieces of the visitor’s center that would be hard to do without: large picture windows to take in the view of Denali, for instance.

“We’re looking for something that’s one story, with a low-angled roof line, colors that kind of blend into the natural environment — something that is kind of nestled into the landscape versus one that kind of sticks out,” Griffin said.

Total cost of the project is expected to be $47 million. So far the project has received $22.4 million of that. The bulk came from the state but Holland America/Princess kicked in $1 million for the part of the project that would bring three-phase power through Trapper Creek and the Federal Scenic Byways program threw in another $1 million because the project will improve the scenic byway running from Trapper Creek to Fairbanks.

That extended power grid, Griffin said, cost $6 million to install and is a big deal for the area.

“If they wanted to open a medical facility with an X-ray machine they could actually run the machinery because there’s three-phase power there now, or if they wanted to open a grocery store with coolers and freezers,” he said.

And, he said, there’s at least one corporation considering building a hotel on a nearby parcel once the site has become a tourist destination.

Denali National Park has been Alaska’s major tourist draw for decades but the bulk of the infrastructure there is on the north side of the park, outside the Mat-Su Borough.

The idea of developing something on the south side has been in the work since at least 1968, according to the state’s website devoted to the project. Ideas were plentiful for where and what to build there — everything from visitor’s centers to hotels to even a ski slope — over the course of the following decades.

The project really got off the ground in 2004 when work started on the South Denali Implementation Plan, a plan finalized in 2006 with the selection of Curry Ridge as the site for the visitor’s center.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.