ALASKA
Denali National Park
July 2023
DENALI !!
Today features the amazing Tundra Wilderness Tour. This all-day, fully narrated sightseeing excursion took us into the heart of Denali National Park. Location 63°43'N 148°55'W
Since the scheduled tours do not stop at the Visitor Center, I took the free shuttle from the resort into the park in the morning. The visitor center has very cool exhibits of the park and a large gift shop along with a restaurant. There is no running water elsewhere in the park, so this is the only place to get food.
For our tour, we were picked up at the resort. We boarded National Park Service buses (converted school buses) (decidedly NOT deluxe motorcoaches ... LOL ... but serviceable for the journey) (also these buses are used because they are lighter in weight than motorcoaches and don't cause as much damage to the road in the park) and headed into Denali National Park & Preserve. The tour included a snack package in a cool Denali tote bag. The tour guide provided great information about the park and the sites we were seeing.
Denali National Park & Preserve was formerly named Mount McKinley National Park. (The name was officially changed under President Obama.) The park was established on February 26, 1917. The park and contiguous preserve encompass over 6 million acres (9446 square miles) which is larger than the state of New Hampshire. Denali is the highest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet. It towers three and a half vertical miles above its base, making it a mile taller from base to summit than Mount Everest. This vertical relief (distance from base to peak) of 18,000 feet is the highest of any mountain in the world. The word Denali means "the great one" in the native Koyukon Athabaskan language and refers to the mountain itself.
Denali is growing taller at a rate of half a millimeter a year due to tectonic forces. Denali has a subarctic climate and averages under 16 inches of rain and around 76 inches of snow annually. The average highs in July are in the mid 60s with the average lows in the mid 40s, but it can often be cool and damp.
The Denali Park Road (which is 92 miles long) parallels the Alaska Range and travels through low valleys and high mountain passes in the park. (See the road elevation profile below.) It is the only road in the park. Along its route, beautiful landscapes can be seen at every turn, and there are many opportunities to view Denali ... although cloudy skies are very common in the park.
We made a stop about 90 minutes into the tour at Toklat River at Mile 30.
Due to the ongoing Pretty Rocks landslide at Polychrome Pass near Mile 45, the tour buses cannot go past Mile 43 on the park road. Other private vehicles are only permitted to drive to Mile 15, so the tour bus is definitely the best way to see the most of the park. Normally, the tour would go to Mile 62. Beyond Mile 15, the road is also not paved.
Denali is the only national park in the US to have canine rangers. The park acquired its first sled dogs in 1922 to help patrol the newly established park and protect the Dall sheep from poachers.
Denali is unusual as a national park in that for the most part it does not have defined trails. The idea is since it's such a large and wild place, that the impact of visitors will be less if hikers disperse rather than having designated trails. There are a few trails around the visitor center.
Denali gets very little precipitation annually. Less than 16 inches. However, the permafrost keeps the park greener than it would otherwise be as the permafrost melts somewhat in the summer and keeps the ground moisture high.
Denali is home to 169 bird species, 39 mammal species, 14 fish species, 1 amphibian species, and 0 reptile species. We saw caribou, arctic ground squirrels, and Dall sheep along with a variety of birds.
We didn't see the wood frog, but it is in the sole amphibian species in Denali. It survives the winter by freezing! Its heart stops beating and its lungs stop breathing ... all the way until spring!
What a spectacular and magical place this is!! I am immensely grateful that it has been protected and preserved and that I was able to experience it in person.
"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls." - John Muir
Tomorrow, I will be heading south to Anchorage, Alaska (about 240 miles south) aboard a sightseeing train with a glass domed roof.
Polychrome Mountains in Denali National Park
