Denali National Park is the highest and one of the most spectacular preserves in the United States, offering eye-popping views of lakes, peaks, wildlife, and tundra. At 20,320 feet Denali’s Mt McKinley is the highest peak in North America. In 1794 explorer George Vancouver saw the distant mountain covered with snow from Cook Inlet near Anchorage. The ancient Athabaskan people called it Denali, “the Great One.” Other princely peaks include the 17,400-foot Mt Foraker, the 13,220-foot Silverthrone and Mt Russell, at 11,670 feet. It would be more than a century after Vancouver’s glimpse before the interior of Alaska became more than a mystery to the outside world. In 1896 prospector William Dickey took out his transit and made some crude measurements from the headwaters of the Chulitna River. He was amazed to discover that the peak in his viewfinder climbed more than 20,000 feet, making it the highest mountain north of the Andes. Much speculation followed about the presence of precious metals in the vertical relief and uplift of this staggering geography.

In 1906 gold was discovered and the Kantishna gold stampede brought more than 2,000 miners into the Moose Creek and Wonder Lake area. As a result, the goldminers and those who hunted big game exploited this immense natural wonderland with no thought of preserving it for the future, until self-made millionaire and conservationist Charles Sheldon intervened to protect it. It took a decade of determination and tireless pursuit of his dream for the philanthropical Sheldon to persuade President Woodrow Wilson to sign a bill that in 1917 established the area as a national park. Once little known due to its remoteness, the summit of Mt McKinley is today a treacherous mountain-climbing prize for crampon and ice-axe enthusiasts from around the world. Several attempts at reaching the summit were made at the beginning of the last century, including one in 1910 by four climbers who called themselves the Sourdough Expedition. They managed to scale the 19,470-foot North Peak and thought they had reached the top. However, three years later, another four-man team made up of Episcopalian minister Hudson Stuck, Robert Tatum, Walter Harper, and Henry Karstens passed the 14-foot flagpole left by the Sourdoughs and reached the South Peak—the real summit.

In the 1930s, against the wisdom of its expert advisor, zoologist Adolph Murie, the park service embarked on a drastic program of exterminating wolves so that the numbers of dall sheep, moose, and caribou would increase. As a result, caribou populations initially soared, but the survival of their weak, infirm, and old members later reduced their strength drastically, a fate from which they’re still recovering.

In 1980 the Alaska National Interest Land Act enlarged the park from 4,000,000 to its present 6,000,000 acres and changed its name from McKinley to Denali National Park and Preserve. The mountain itself is still officially known as McKinley, although it is commonly referred to as Denali. Hunting is prohibited except for subsistence hunting by Native Americans in outer portions of the park.

Complementing the exceptional scenery is an impressive variety of wildlife that is the northern equivalent to Africa’s bounty. Thirty-seven species of mammals live in this 9,375-square-mile wilderness, including wolves, brown and black bears, caribou, and moose. It is possible to see some of these from the shuttle buses that traverse the territory, or during hiking and backpacking expeditions. As well, lynxes, marmots, dall sheep, foxes, and snowshoe hares cavort beneath the gaze of the soaring golden eagle, one of approximately 130 bird species that have been spotted here. Black and white conifers line the ridges, with thickets of dwarf birch on lower slopes and valleys, and boggy meadows are interspersed with twisted and stunted black spruce. Higher up, forests give way to vast stretches of wet tundra that support shrubby plants above the permafrost. Even higher, blankets of dry alpine tundra rise into the clouds.

From late June to late August, Denali National Park is a busy and popular place, regardless of the cool weather, which can include long periods of overcast skies and drizzle. Despite its size, Mt McKinley is elusive because clouds hide the summit about 75 percent of the summer and 60 percent of the year; on average, only 20 percent of visitors are fortunate enough to actually see the peak, which is an overwhelming sight as it rises from an elevation of 2,000 feet so that more than 3 vertical miles of rock, snow, and glaciers are visible.

Denali can be reached by car, bus, or train but entry into the park itself is restricted to shuttle buses, tour buses, official park vehicles, and cars of property owners. It is necessary to make reservations in advance, because about 65 percent of the bus seats and campsites are taken in advance. Without a booking during the high season, a minimum of four days is needed to obtain a bus ticket, and four to seven days for interior camping and hiking. In early June and September visitor numbers are not such a crucial factor. September is also a good month to visit because the bugs are less prevalent and the autumn foliage colors of reds and yellows are spectacular. However, shuttle buses stop running in the middle of the month with the coming of snow, returning at the start of June. Shuttle buses run through the park with drivers doubling as park guides and naturalists. The 66-mile ride to Eielson Visitor Center is an 8-hour round-trip journey, and the 88-mile ride to Wonder Lake is an 11-hour round-trip. Hikers can get off buses to walk around and then flag down other buses to continue their motorized journeys, although seats may be scarce during the high season.

Backpacking permits are issued only a day in advance from the visitor access center and may take several days to secure. Cycling is increasingly popular in the park, with bicycle rentals available in the park and in Talkeetna. A bus ticket is not necessary for entering the park by bicycle. However, the subarctic climate, rough road, gravel flung by bus wheels, and an occasional grizzly bear can make this a tougher adventure than many anticipate. A number of campgrounds exist inside Denali. The Environmental Education and Science Center at the entrance was once the park hotel but now only campsites are available for overnight stays. At the western end of the park are three places that offer wilderness lodging. Camp Denali is a resort-type retreat that offers wildlife observation, photography, rafting, fishing, gold-panning, and hiking. Kantishna Roadhouse has 28 cabins, and offers gold-panning, hiking, and photography. Denali Backcountry Lodge is at the end of the road. These need to be booked well ahead of time. People arriving at the park without reservations are given a list of private lodgings outside the park, which include recreational vehicle parks, campgrounds, cabins, B&Bs, inns, and houses.

A number of activities take place near the park and good hiking trails exist near the park entrance. A dogsled exhibition is given every day at the kennels for the Denali dogsled team near the visitor center. The Class III rapids of the Nenana River are located near the park entrance, where there are several outfitters. Flightseeing tours, either by helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft, are operated from near the park entrance. Running east from the park for 135 miles between Cantwell and Paxson is the largely unpaved Denali Hwy, which parallels the Alaska Range. Along the way are trails, canoe routes, campgrounds, and several traditional roadhouses that provide food, lodging, and gasoline. This is a good road for stopping for picnics, taking photos of scenery and wildlife, and observing geological features. It also provides an opportunity to see the Alaska Range without park restrictions. Caribou, moose, dall sheep, grizzlies, black bears, wolves, foxes, coyotes, lynxes, golden eagles, and ptarmigans can all be observed here and, with the exception of Mt McKinley, the subarctic scenery is similar to the park’s. Much of the area along the road is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which has a multi-purpose philosophy, rather than the national park philosophy of preserving land and wildlife with minimum human interference.

Nenana (population 435) is the only town between Denali and Fairbanks and is accessible by car, bus, and train. It is home to the Alaska State Railroad Museum, restored in 1988 and on the National Register of Historic Places. Outside the visitor center, a log cabin with a sod roof that is planted with flowers in the summer, is the Taku Chief, a river tugboat that pushed barges up the Tanana River. In town, fish wheels, or traditional fish traps, scoop salmon out of the river as they swim upstream.