In Depth- Denali. National Park

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Denali National Park, Alaska
Denali is one of the top five national parks in this country. It is certainly one of the more difficult ones to get to. Once you get to Alaska and drive to the park, you better have arranged for bus tickets to get into the park. You will not be allowed in with a private vehicle unless you are a professional photographer (and you make at least 50% of your income from it- bring tax forms to prove it), or unless you are there the last three days the park is open in the fall.

The best bus ride is the one that leaves at (yawn) 6:00am. You will see more wildlife early in the morning, and your pictures will be better. Denali is frequently covered by clouds. We were extremely fortunate to see it completely visible the entire day. After spending most of the day in the park, we then left and flew back in on a flightseeing tour- getting closer to Denali (the former Mt. McKinley) than we could on the ground (not being mountain climbers).

While on the bus tour, we saw caribou, Dall sheep, mountain goats, a grizzly bear, eagles, a wolf, a fox, and countless other birds. For more photos in the park and from the air, click on the Denali button below.

Denali, which in Athabascan (an old local language) means "The Great One," is the tallest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet (6250m). In terms of vertical relief, it appears to be the tallest mountain in the world. No where else, including Mt. Everest, is the vertical change in height this great- over 18,000 feet (5600 m)

When visiting Denali, you really need to plan 3-4 months in advance to make your trip hassle free. It has limited facilities, and those can get overloaded.


Southern Alaska. This map shows Denali's relation to Anchorage, and the highlighted section shows the location in Denali that is detailed to the right.	Denali National Park. This only shows the portion of the park with the road. Again, the highlighted section is further blown up below.

Close-up. The purple spot marks approximately where in the park this shot was taken from. The arrow shows the direction of Denali.

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