Bolshaia Gora; Doleyka; Traleyka; Denali; Mount McKinley. By any name, it demands superlatives. By any name, it is "the high one." Rising to 20,320 feet in elevation, Mount McKinley is the highest mountain in North America and, when measured from its 2,000-foot base, it boasts one of the tallest vertical reliefs of any mountain in the world. Many an experienced mountaineer has asserted that even the highest peaks of the Himalayas do not consistently harbor the high winds, piercing cold, and extreme arctic conditions that are the norm on Mount McKinley. But there is much more here than the mountain which dominates the landscape.
Below Mount McKinley and the high peaks of the Alaska Range, the core of Denali National Park and Preserve is a vibrant and diverse ecosystem of flora and fauna. It was this complete ecosystem of plants and animals--not the height of the mountain--which prompted the setting aside of this land as a national park. Naturalist Charles Sheldon first observed the wonders of the wilderness he called Denali in 1906. Determined to preserve this land in its natural state, Sheldon spent ten years persistently lobbying Congress for its protection.
In 1917, Congress established Mount McKinley National Park. The mountain had been climbed to the summit only once, but the grizzly bears, wolves, golden eagles, paper birch, Arctic lupine, caribou, Dall sheep, and more--the wilderness this act would preserve--had been here for thousands of years. Biologist Adolph Murie wrote of Sheldon: "He sought simplicity, solitude, the feel of the weather, and a close acquaintance with animals in the remote mountains of the Alaska Range." Thanks to SheldonΓÇÖs foresight and persistence, you can experience much of the same.
Visitors traveling the park road from the entrance to Eielson Visitor Center or Wonder Lake are apt to see moose, caribou, and Dall sheep, perhaps a grizzly bear, and maybe even one of DenaliΓÇÖs elusive wolves. The 89-mile park road was completed in 1938, but saw light traffic until the completion of the highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks in 1972. That year, the Park Service implemented a shuttle bus system to allow more people to travel the road while minimizing impacts on wildlife.
Other activities in Denali National Park include backcountry hiking and backpacking, lessons in geology or the life zones of the taiga or tundra, or a visit with the famous sled dogs of Denali. Of course, Mount McKinley has always been a testing ground for American alpinism. Today, more than 1,000 climbers a season attempt to reach its summit--most via the West Buttress route from the Kahiltna Glacier.
Venture any distance beyond the park road and you will quickly learn that this is not a land for the timid. Indeed, the development pressures which threaten this land demand that strong voices be raised to ensure its preservation. As Robert Service wrote in The Law of the Yukon, "Send not your foolish or feeble. . . only the strong shall survive." Come north with us. Come north to the top of the continent and experience the wilderness of Denali. Come to know that it is in the preservation of such wilderness as this, that the Last Frontier shall be an everlasting one.
