Thinking of taking a job in Denali. Please share what you know (Anchorage: sales, middle schools)

[saxon75]

As the title says I am thinking of moving my family to Denali Alaska at the national park, and I do not know anything about it. Other than it is cold, I love cold weather. IF you can please answer the following questions.

1. What is the cost of living, if you could compare the cost of living to a major city in the lower 48 which one would you choose?
2. (crazy question) Is Denali on the side of Alaska that gets all darkness and all sunshine?
3. Is elementary and middle schools there any good?
4. If I made $4000 a month would I be considered well off, or would I be struggling to make ends meet?
5. What is the church scene like? I mean are there a variety of churches or is it perdominately one belief?
6. Is Denali a city unto itself like a military base where everything you need is close by, or is it like a rural town in the lower 48 where to get to a Wal-Mart you drive 45 mins to an hour?
7. Along the same lines, if I wanted to take my family to a big city would I have to plan an over night trip, or could it be a day trip like in Missouri going from Springfield to St. Louis?

Any opinions would be welcome, I do not know anything about it.

Thanks

[1stimestar]

Denali is not a town. It's a park! There is an area called Glitter Gulch at the entrance to the park but it is pretty closed up during the winter. There are no schools there. The nearest big town is Fairbanks, 2.5 hours away.

[stiffnecked]

I know that in 2.5 seconds you could have found the same info I did by using Google.

Denali Chamber of Commerce

[Cobb]

As close as you'd come to living near Denali is Healy. Healy is about 10 miles from the park, a very small place. It does have a post office and a bank but no super markets as you'd find in Anchorage or Fairbanks. As far as a job, well seasonal from May to Sept/Oct.

I know there is a mining company and some sort of utility company in Healy (forget the name).
As the previous person said as far as big cities it's Anchorage (2-3hours south) or Fairbanks (2hours) north. I worked in Denali 2011 and it's fab in the summer. Everything shuts down in the winter. South of Denali there is another small pass through town called Cantwell and going north there is Nenana before Fairbanks.

I would suggest you do some serious homework before making a drastic move like this. It's cold like you would not believe and NOTHING is cheap in AK. The good part is......... no sales tax.

Maybe you can get a summer(seasonal) job as get an idea of the area. It's drop dead gorgeous there.

[War Beagle]

As others have said, there is little to nothing permanent around Denali. I visited in the summer, and even then, there is surprisingly little there given the high reputation of the park.

What would you be doing there? When I visited, I asked the park rangers a lot about living in the area. The only year round jobs there would be the rangers. Like others said, everything else shuts down when it's not summer.

[Marty Van Diest]

You seem to know very little about the area. Perhaps you are just starting your research. At least use google earth to look at the area.

There are schools, but not in Denali. They are in Healy and Cantwell. The high school/middle school is Tri-Valley in Healy about 20 miles or so north of Denali.

There are churches, but very small ones.

Nothing is very close. Fairbanks is 2.5 hours north and Anchorage is 4 hours south. People that live there love it because of it's remoteness. If you love hunting and snowmachining you will like it there.

[AKStafford]

Before I'd move a family up, I think a visit to check things out would be in order. As mentioned, you'd probably be looking at living in Healy, about 10 miles to the north. There's a couple of churches, a few restaurants, and a couple of gas stations with convenience stores. Fairbanks is 2 hours to the north and there you'll find grocery stores, Sam's Club, doctor offices, etc. Anchorage is about 4 or 5 hours to the south and has even more.
Summer has long days with 20+ hours of daylight. In winter you drop down to just a few hours of daylight. Today they will get 6 1/2 hours of daylight. Sunrise & Sunset for Healy, AK
It's remote living. But it is on the road system with electricity, phone, cable, etc. So by Alaskan standards its semi-remote.

[polarscribe]

If the job he's discussing is with the NPS (and there are a fair number of non-ranger administrative jobs associated with running a national park - HR, IT, planning, etc.), then it's possible he would actually be living "in" Denali - there's usually limited housing available for employees.

[gobrien]

Do you have children? Just wondering because you asked about schools.

[saxon75]

First THANK YOU for all that posted postive reports.

Yes I am just starting and even though someone said I could learn just about everything there is to know on Google. I am not one who puts 100% trust in what I read on the internet. I do not put 100% trust in what I read on here either, however people who have visited the area, or live in and around the area can give me a more accurate view of things. Than a website full of facts, or a website designed to attract tourism.

I would not move my family up there without a visit first, and yes I have one daughter. I just wanted to get the kind of information I am getting. I will gladly take all the information anyone wants to give.

Thank You for taking the time to write.