Denali
Location: Alaska
Established: February 26, 1917
Originally established in 1917 with the name Mount Mckinley National Park, 63 years later the park boundaries were expanded to 6 million acres and it was renamed Denali National Park and Preserve. If you’re like me, it’s hard to comprehend 6 million acres, so consider this — the park is approximately the size of Massachusetts and includes massive expanses of tundra, spruce forest, glacial lakes, wildlife such as grizzly bears, wolves, moose, caribou and Dall sheep, and towering mountains, with North America’s tallest peak, the 20,310 foot high Mount Denali, as its centerpiece.! So, where to begin when trying to take in the incredible wildlife, breathtaking scenery and untamed wilderness of a park as large as Denali? The good news is that there is only one road, Denali Park Road, in the park. At 92 miles long, the road parallels the Alaska Range and travels through low valleys and high mountain passes, giving you ample opportunity to take in the beauty of the park. The bad news is that private vehicles are only permitted to drive the first 15 miles of the road, to a place called Savage River. Beyond Mile 15, you have to utilize a bus system.
Here are two interesting facts about the park.
Denali has the only working dogsled team in the National Park Service. In winter, they run patrols and deliver researchers and supplies into the wilderness. In summer, rangers train the dogs (Alaskan huskies) and run demos for visitors.
Denali means the "High One" and is the name Athabascan native people gave the massive peak. However, in 1896, gold prospector William Dickey renamed it Mount McKinley in honor of Ohio politician William McKinley, a staunch champion of the gold standard who one year later would become the nation’s president. For decades Ohio’s congressional delegation successfully blocked attempts to rename the mountain. Then in 2015, the Obama Administration used its executive power to restore the original name.
