Denali National Park and Preserve, which was previously called Mount McKinley National Park, is a United States national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska. It is centered on Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. The park and its connected preserve cover 6,045,153 acres, which is larger than the state of New Hampshire. On December 2, 1980, 2,146,580 acres of Mount McKinley's Wilderness area were established within the park. The park's landscape includes forests at the lowest elevations, such as deciduous taiga, tundra at middle elevations, and glaciers, snow, and bare rock at the highest elevations. The longest glacier in the park is the Kahiltna Glacier. Winter activities in the park include dog sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling. In 2018, the park had 594,660 recreational visitors.
History
Human habitation in the Denali Region dates back more than 11,000 years. Some sites near the park, outside its boundaries, are more than 8,000 years old. However, few archaeological sites have been found inside the park because of its high elevation, cold winters, and limited resources compared to lower areas. The oldest site inside the park is the Teklanika River site, which is about 7130 BC. More than 84 archaeological sites have been found within the park. These sites are mostly hunting camps, not permanent homes, and provide limited information about the people who lived there. Athabaskan peoples are believed to have lived in the region between 1,500 and 1,000 years ago based on evidence from language and archaeology. Some researchers think Athabaskans may have lived there even earlier. In the last 500 years, the main groups in the park area were the Koyukon, Tanana, and Dena'ina people.
In 1906, conservationist Charles Alexander Sheldon suggested protecting the Denali region as a national park. He shared his plan with members of the Boone and Crockett Club. They believed the political situation was not right for action in Congress and thought gaining support from Alaskans was the best way forward. Sheldon wrote, "The first step was to secure the approval and cooperation of the delegate who represented Alaska in Congress."
In October 1915, Sheldon discussed the plan with E. W. Nelson of the Biological Survey in Washington, D.C., and George Bird Grinnell. They planned to introduce a bill in Congress. The Game Committee of the Boone and Crockett Club reviewed the plan and supported it.
On December 3, 1915, the plan was shared with Alaska’s delegate, James Wickersham, who approved it after considering the details. The plan was then reviewed by the Boone and Crockett Club’s executive committee, which accepted it unanimously on December 15, 1915. The club endorsed the plan and sent it to Stephen Mather, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, who approved it immediately.
The bill was introduced in April 1916 by Delegate Wickersham in the House and Senator Key Pittman in the Senate. After much lobbying, the bill passed on February 19, 1917. President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill into law on February 26, 1917, creating Mount McKinley National Park.
Part of Denali, except the summit, was included in the park’s original boundary. The boundary was expanded in 1922 and again in 1932 and 1947 to include the area of the hotel and railroad.
On Thanksgiving Day in 1921, the Mount McKinley Park Hotel opened. In July 1923, President Warren Harding visited the hotel during a tour of the Alaska Railroad. He drove a golden spike to mark the railroad’s completion at Nenana. The hotel was the first building visitors saw after arriving by train. It was a two-story log building with exposed balconies, glass windows, and electric lights. Inside were 24 guest rooms, a shop, a lunch counter, a kitchen, and a storeroom. By the 1930s, the hotel had problems like lice, dirty linens, cold rooms, and poor food, leading to its closure. The hotel was abandoned for years and destroyed by fire in 1972.
Fourteen log cabins were built in the late 1920s and early 1930s as shelters for park rangers. These cabins were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The 93-mile (150 km) Park Road was completed in 1938 after 17 years of construction.
There was no road to the park entrance until 1957, when the Denali Highway opened. Park visits increased: 5,000 visitors in 1956 and 25,000 by 1958. In 1971, the George Parks Highway was completed, connecting the park to Anchorage and Fairbanks. Visits doubled to 88,000 from 1971 to 1972. Because of the growing number of visitors, the Park Road was closed to private vehicles in 1972, and shuttle buses were required.
In 1967, a deadly mountaineering accident occurred on Denali, where seven climbers died in a blizzard. The Park Service considered closing the mountain to climbing but decided to keep it open.
The park was named an international biosphere reserve in 1976. A surrounding Denali National Monument was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and combined with the park in 1980.
The name "Mount McKinley National Park" faced criticism from the start. "Denali" means "the high one" in the Athabaskan language and refers to the mountain itself. The mountain was named after President William McKinley in 1897 by prospector William A. Dickey. The U.S. government officially used the name "Mount McKinley" after the park was created in 1917. In 1980, the park was combined with Denali National Monument, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act renamed the area "Denali National Park and Preserve." At that time, the Alaska State Board of Geographic Names changed the mountain’s name to Denali. However, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names did not accept the change and continued to use "Mount McKinley." This situation changed in 2015 when President Barack Obama directed the Interior Department to rename the mountain Denali. In 2017, President Donald Trump signed an order to revert the name to Mount McKinley, but the park’s name remained unchanged. Changing the park’s name requires action by Congress.
In 1992, Christopher McCandless entered the Alaskan wilderness and lived in an abandoned bus near Lake Wentitika on the Stampede Trail. He had little food or supplies and hoped to live in solitude. Four months later, his remains were found, weighing only 67 pounds. His story became widely known through books, films, and articles. The bus where he lived is now a shrine visited by people worldwide.
On November 5, 2012, the U.S. Mint released a coin in its America the Beautiful Quarters series honoring Denali National Park. The coin shows a Dall sheep on a background of Denali.
In September 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Denali National Park Improvement Act. The law allows the Interior Department to issue permits for small hydroelectric projects in the Kantishna Hills area of the park. It also permits land exchanges with Doyon Tourism, Inc., and allows the National Park Service to issue permits for a natural gas pipeline in the park
Geography
Denali National Park and Preserve covers the central and highest parts of the Alaska Range, along with many glaciers and valleys formed by glaciers that flow southward from the range. To the north, the park includes the valleys of the McKinley, Toklat, and Foraker Rivers, as well as the Kantishna and Wyoming Hills. The George Parks Highway runs along the eastern edge of the park, crossing the Alaska Range at the divide between the valleys of the Chultina River and the Nenana River. The entrance to the park is about 11 miles (18 kilometers) south of Healy. The Denali Visitor Center and the park headquarters are located just inside the entrance. Preserve lands are on the west side of the park, with one area covering lakes in the Highpower Creek and Muddy River regions, and another area covering the southwest end of the Alaska Range near Mount Dall. Unlike the park, where hunting is not allowed or only permitted for subsistence by residents, sport hunting is allowed in the preserve. Residents of Nikolai, Telida, Lake Minchumina, and Cantwell are allowed to hunt in the park because these communities historically hunted there for subsistence.
Denali’s large size and remote location cause it to create its own weather patterns. As a result, clouds often cover the mountain. Locals sometimes say "the mountain is out" when it becomes visible. It is often said that only 30 percent of visitors to the park actually see Denali. Another estimate suggests that only 10 percent of visitors see the mountain completely without any clouds blocking the view. Denali is more visible during winter months due to different weather patterns. The Eielson Visitor Center has a carved outline of Denali’s peaks on a window facing the mountain, showing where the mountain would appear if it were visible.
The Denali Wilderness is a protected area within Denali National Park that safeguards the higher elevations of the central Alaska Range, including Denali, which is officially named Mount McKinley. The wilderness covers about one-third of the park and preserve—2,146,580 acres (3,354 square miles; 8,687 square kilometers)—which matches the park’s boundaries before 1980.
Geology
Denali National Park and Preserve is located in the central Alaska Range, a mountain chain that stretches 600 miles (970 km) across Alaska. Its most famous feature is Denali, also known as Mount McKinley. Denali rises to an elevation of 20,310 ft (6,190.5 m), making it the tallest mountain in North America. The distance from its base to its peak is 18,000 ft (5,500 m), the greatest vertical height of any mountain in the world. Denali grows about 1 mm (0.039 in) taller each year because the North American and Pacific Plates are slowly pushing together. The mountain is made mostly of granite, a strong rock that resists erosion, which is why it remains so tall.
The park is shaped by tectonic activity. Over millions of years, pieces of land called terranes from the Pacific Ocean have moved toward Alaska and attached to it. The oldest rocks in the park are part of the Yukon-Tanana terrane, formed from ocean sediments deposited 400 million to 1 billion years ago. These rocks were changed by heat, pressure, and movement, forming types like schist, quartzite, and slate. The next oldest rocks are from the Farewell terrane, which are about 250 to 500 million years old. These rocks were formed in ocean environments, and their marine fossils show the area once had a warm, tropical climate. Other terranes, like the Pingston, McKinley, and Chulitna, formed during the Mesozoic era and include rocks such as marble, limestone, and sandstone. Igneous rocks like gabbro and diorite are also present. Special features include pillow basalts, which form when lava cools underwater, and ophiolite sequences, which show ocean crust was pushed onto land.
Some of the park’s younger rocks are from the Kahiltna terrane, formed about 100 million years ago. The McKinley Intrusive Sequence includes Denali itself. The Cantwell Volcanics contain basalt, rhyolite, and ash deposits. Fossils from the Cantwell Formation show dinosaur footprints and indicate the area was once a path for dinosaurs moving between Asia and North America. Plant fossils suggest the region had wetlands and ponds.
Denali National Park is in a tectonically active area where the Pacific Plate is moving under the North American Plate, creating the Denali Fault. This fault is part of the same system as California’s San Andreas Fault. Over 600 earthquakes happen in the park each year, most too small to feel. Two large earthquakes occurred in 2002: one of magnitude 6.7 on October 23 and another of magnitude 7.9 on November 3. These quakes caused landslides but no major damage because the area is sparsely populated.
Glaciers cover about 16% of the park’s 6 million acres. They are losing about 6.6 ft (2 m) of ice each year. More glaciers are on the southeastern side because more snow falls there from winds carrying moisture from the Gulf of Alaska. The five largest glaciers on the south side are Yentna, Kahiltna, Tokositna, Ruth, and Eldrige. The Ruth Glacier is 3,800 ft (1,200 m) thick. The largest glacier, Muldrow Glacier, is on the north side and is 32 miles (51 km) long. Muldrow Glacier has surged twice in the last century, meaning it moved forward quickly for short periods due to water pressure beneath it.
At the tops of glaciers, steep, bowl-shaped valleys called cirques form from melting and freezing water. When cirques on opposite sides of a ridge erode deeply, they create narrow, sharp ridges called arêtes. The low point between cirques is called a col, which can be a pass. A sharp peak formed by cirques cutting into a mountain from multiple sides is called a horn.
Glaciers leave behind rock fragments, including large rocks called erratics, which are carried far from their origin. Some erratics, like those from the Yanert Valley, are 30 miles (48 km) from where they started. As glaciers move, they push debris to form lateral moraines along their edges. When moraines from two glaciers meet, they form medial moraines. Meltwater streams carry rock debris, creating valley trains of sediment. When glaciers retreat, ice blocks buried in soil melt, forming depressions called kettles. If kettles fill with water, they become kettle lakes, visible near Polychrome Overlook and Wonder Lake.
Permanently frozen ground, called permafrost, is common in the park but not continuous due to differences in snow, temperature, and water. The active layer above permafrost thaws and freezes seasonally, ranging from 1 inch (25 mm) to 10 feet (3 m) thick. Permafrost is found 30 to 100 feet (9.1 to 30.5 m) below the surface. Trees in the Drunken Forest lean because soil shifts from permafrost thawing. Permafrost affects the park’s water, plants, and animals. During the cold Pleistocene era, all of Denali was frozen, and northern areas remain frozen today. About 75% of the park has permafrost.
Climate
Denali National Park has a subarctic climate, which is labeled as Dfc in the Köppen system. The plant hardiness zone at Denali Visitor Center is 3a, where the lowest temperature can reach −38.9 °F (−39.4 °C) on average each year.
Winters are long, and the growing season is short. About 80% of the birds return after winter to raise their young. Most mammals and other animals use the short summer to prepare for winter and care for their young.
Summers are usually cool and wet, but temperatures in the 70s are common. The weather is unpredictable, and snowstorms can happen even in August.
The north and south sides of the Alaska Range have very different climates. Moisture from the Gulf of Alaska reaches the south side, but the mountains stop moisture from reaching the north. This makes the north drier with bigger temperature changes. The south has a mix of ocean and land influences, with wetter, cooler summers and warmer winters.
Ecology
The Alaska Range is a large mountain area that stretches across the entire park, greatly affecting the park’s ecosystems. Plants in the park change depending on the height above sea level. The line where trees stop growing is at 2,500 ft (760 m), making most of the park a large area of tundra. In the park’s lowland areas, like the western parts near Wonder Lake, spruce and willow trees are the main types of forest. Most trees and shrubs do not grow to their full size because of the poor climate and thin soil. There are three types of forests in the park, listed from lowest to highest: low shrub bog, bottomland spruce-poplar forest, and upland spruce-hardwood forest. These forests grow in a mix of patterns because of fires that happen regularly.
In the tundra, layers of soil build up on broken rocks that have been moved by glaciers over thousands of years. Mosses, ferns, grasses, and fungi grow on the soil. In areas called muskeg, small hills called tussocks form and may hold algae. The word "muskeg" includes soft, wet tussocks and deep pools of water covered by moss that looks solid. Wild blueberries and soap berries grow in the tundra and are a main food source for bears in Denali.
More than 450 types of flowering plants live in the park and can be seen blooming during the summer. Pictures of goldenrod, fireweed, bluebell, and gentian filling the valleys of Denali are often used on postcards and in artwork.
Denali is home to many North American birds and mammals. About 300 to 350 grizzly bears live on the north side of the Alaska Range (70 bears per 1,000 square miles), and about 2,700 black bears live in the park (334 per 1,000 square miles). As of 2014, park scientists were tracking about 51 wolves in 13 packs (7.4 wolves per 1,000 square miles). Surveys in 2013 counted about 2,230 caribou, and in 2011, about 1,477 moose lived in the park. Dall sheep are often seen on mountain slopes. Smaller animals like coyotes, hoary marmots, shrews, Arctic ground squirrels, beavers, pikas, and snowshoe hares are common. Red and Arctic foxes, martens, Canada lynx, and wolverines also live in the park but are rarely seen because they are shy.
Many types of migratory birds live in the park during late spring and summer. These include waxwings, Arctic warblers, pine grosbeaks, northern wheatears, ptarmigan, and tundra swans. Birds of prey in the park include hawks, owls, gyrfalcons, and the common golden eagles.
Ten types of fish, including trout, salmon, and Arctic grayling, live in the park’s rivers and lakes. Many of these waterways are fed by glaciers, and the cold water and glacial silt slow the fish’s growth, making them smaller than usual. One type of amphibian, the wood frog, also lives near the park’s lakes.
Several non-native plants grow in the park, including common dandelion, narrowleaf hawksbeard, white sweet clover, bird vetch, yellow toadflax, and scentless false mayweed. There are 28 invasive plant species in the park, and 15 of these are considered a threat. Volunteers and rangers work to keep these plants from spreading too much.
Denali park rangers help keep wildlife wild by limiting human interactions with animals. Feeding any animal is not allowed because it can harm their natural eating habits. Visitors are encouraged to watch animals from a safe distance. In August 2012, the park had its first known fatal bear attack when a hiker startled a large male grizzly bear while taking photos. Evidence suggests the hiker broke park rules about encountering bears in the backcountry, which all permit holders are informed about. Some areas of the park are closed sometimes because of unusual wildlife activity, such as wolf and bear dens or recent kill sites.
Access and recreation
The park is connected to by the 92-mile (148-kilometer) long Denali Park Road. This road starts at the George Parks Highway and runs west, next to the Alaska Range, ending at Kantishna. The park road is the only way vehicles can enter the park. Only 15 miles (24 kilometers) of the road, up to the Savage River Bridge and a loop trail, is paved. The rest of the road is unpaved because frozen ground (permafrost) and the freezing and thawing process would make it very expensive to keep a paved road in good condition. Private cars are not allowed past this point. To reach the interior of the park, visitors must use tour or shuttle buses.
The Pretty Rocks landslide has affected the road at Polychrome Pass, near Mile 45.4. The National Park Service believes the landslide has been active since before the road was built, but only needed some maintenance every 2–3 years. Starting in 2014, the landslide began moving faster as permafrost melted. Workers had to spread 100 truckloads of gravel each week to keep the road open until August 2021. At that time, the park closed the road past Mile 45 until at least summer 2026.
The Denali Bus Depot is located 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) inside the park. It sells tickets for bus trips into the park and is the main place for visitors to get information about campgrounds. All shuttle buses and some tours begin here. The Denali Visitor Center is at mile marker 1.5 and includes an exhibit hall and ranger-led programs. It is also near the Murie Science and Learning Center, the Denali National Park railroad depot, and the McKinley National Park Airport. The railroad station offers service for the Alaska Railroad’s Denali Star route from mid-May to mid-September.
Three campgrounds near the park entrance—Riley Creek, Savage River, and Teklanika River—are accessible by private vehicles. Camper buses transport visitors to campgrounds in the park’s interior, including Sanctuary River, Igloo Creek, and Wonder Lake. All shuttle and tour buses stop at the Toklat River Contact Station at mile 53. The Eielson Visitor Center is located four hours into the park (at mile marker 66). It offers ranger-led programs during the summer and provides views of Denali and the Alaska Range on clear days. Wonder Lake and Kantishna are six hours by bus from the Denali Visitor Center. The Park Road is closed to vehicles from October to April due to snow, but the park remains open for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and dogsledding.
Kantishna has backcountry lodges that can be reached by private air taxi flights to Kantishna Airport. Lodging, restaurants, and other services are in the community of Denali Park, which is one mile north of the park entrance on the George Parks Highway.
The main park road runs through the Denali Wilderness. The national preserve areas on the northwest and southwest ends of the park, and parts of the park not designated as wilderness, are even harder to reach because there are no roads. The far north of the park, with hills and rivers, is accessed from the east by the Stampede Trail, a dirt road that ends near the former location of the Into the Wild bus. The rugged south portion of the park, with large glacier-filled canyons, is reached by Petersville Road, a dirt road that stops about 5 miles (8 kilometers) outside the park. The mountains are most easily accessed by air taxis that land on glaciers.
Visitors who want to climb Denali must first get a climbing permit and attend an orientation at the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station in Talkeetna, Alaska, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the park entrance. This center is the main place for mountaineering activities.
Maintained hiking trails are located at Savage River, Eielson Visitor Center, Wonder Lake, and Riley Creek. The park also allows hiking on trails that are not officially marked.
Denali has the only federal government-owned sled dog kennel, where sled dogs are raised and trained. Sled dogs were first used in the park in 1922 to help stop poaching and support park development. Park rangers continue to breed Alaskan huskies for the traditional activity of mushing, especially during snowy winters. In summer, the kennel offers dog sledding demonstrations for visitors. The kennel is part of the Mount McKinley National Park Headquarters District, which also includes administrative buildings.