Denali is the highest peak, 20,310 feet high, in North America. It is situated in the central area of Alaska 237 miles north of Anchorage, and 120 miles south of Fairbanks. Mount Denali has a north and south summit. They were both snow-capped at the time of our last visit. However climate change has altered this and suggests that the view we had is unlikely to be repeated.
It is also the name of the National Park. Denali National Park is 6 million acres(24,000sq Km) of wild land, with one winding road. We call it the road to nowhere!!
We have been fortunate to visit it several times. On arriving in the town, the first time, we went to a show which was not only very well acted but also very informative.
We decided to do a full day trip into the park. Half day trips transverse the lowest elevations which is mostly forestry areas for approximately 15 mi (24 km) of the road. These lower elevations are covered in trees and contribute to the fact that in Alaska there are at least 40,000 trees for each Alaskan resident. Through our experience we have learnt that this lower elevation area doesn’t attract as much wild life as you can see deeper into the National Park. We have seen occasional Moose, Caribou and Grizzly Bears this low.
A full days tour in a school bus, goes deeper into the park on to the tundra of the middle elevations. Several portions of the road run alongside sheer cliffs that drop hundreds of feet at the edges. There are no crash barriers. As a result of the danger involved, and because most of the gravel road is only one lane wide, drivers have to be trained in procedures for navigating the sharp mountain curves and yielding the right of way to wild life, opposing buses and park vehicles. On one occasion we got in a traffic queue with a slow moving Caribou who walked down the middle of the road for several kilometres with our bus trundling along behind it.
This park road runs north of and roughly parallel to the imposing Alaska Range. Only the start of the road is paved because both permafrost and the freeze-thaw annual cycle would create a very expensive maintenance programme for a paved road.
Denali National park was formally known as Mount McKinley National Park. The name was subject to local criticism, as the mountain was originally named after a newly elected US president in 1897 and the park was named Mount McKinley National Park when it was created in 1917. The local Alaskan people wanted it called Denali because it means “the great one” or “the high one,” Denali plays a central role in the creation myth of the Koyukon Athabascans, a Native Alaskan group that has lived in the region for centuries. For many years the local people tried to get the name changed. Much to most peoples delight on August 30, 2015 President Barak Obama directed the Secretary of the Interior to rename the mountain Denali. The higher elevations of the park are covered with snow, glaciers and bare rock. In the winter people dog-sledge, cross-country ski and snowmobile in the park which is home to numerous wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, foxes, moose and Caribou.
The top of Mount Denali is often shrouded in cloud, we have, however, been fortunate to see it on a couple of occasions on beautiful clear days.
2 J's World of Adventure 