Denali refers to the highest mountain peak in all of North America (formerly known as Mount McKinley), which towers like an icy sentinel over 6 million acres of pure Alaskan wilderness that make up Denali National Park and Preserve, in the southern part of the state. On a clear day it’s possible to see Denali, whose glaciated slopes pierce the clouds at 20,310 feet, all the way from Anchorage, more than 200 miles away. But if you’re lucky enough to be heading into the national park by bus — the only way to access the wilderness past mile marker 15 along the Denali Park Road — you’re in for a true adventure. HOW DID DENALI NATIONAL PARK GET ITS NAME? To Alaska’s indigenous Athabascan people, Denali has always been Denali. But in 1896, the peak was renamed Mount McKinley to honor President William McKinley, who was from Ohio and had never visited the mountain nor had any noteworthy connection to it or Alaska.
Later, in 1917, legislation passed to create what was originally called Mount McKinley National Park. Then, in 1980, the national park was renamed Denali National Park and Preserve thanks to the Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act. But it wasn’t until 2015 that Alaskan politicians’ efforts to rename the mountain itself paid off, and the Obama Administration officially gave Denali back its indigenous name “in recognition of the traditions of Alaska Natives and the strong support of the people of Alaska,” according to a statement made by then-U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell.
Tohill, a local photographer and the owner of Old Sourdough Studio inside McKinley Chalet Resort, at the edge of the national park. “People think they won’t see much on a bus tour and wonder if it will be good,” he says. “But you go into the park and it’s a whole different feeling.” “You drive in through the forest then cross several mountain passes that carry you into the high tundra, back into the forest and across rivers through mountainous terrain,” said Tohill. And because there are no cars past mile marker 15, you’re almost guaranteed to see wildlife, since it’s not being harassed, he said. “Usually you will see grizzlies, there are almost always caribou,” said Tohill. “Moose and wolves would be a special sighting.” And look for Dall sheep, with their curly horns, too. And while Denali itself is often hidden by clouds (the mountain is so high it creates its own weather system), “you can go out on a cloudy morning and think you won’t see it, then go around a corner and there it is,” said Tohill. In addition to the park’s wildlife, where grizzly bears can sometimes be seen up to five miles away, Denali National Park and Preserve’s sheer size makes a big impression on visitors, says Sharon Stiteler, the park’s public affair officer, who calls it “a true wilderness that demands your full attention.”
A NATIONAL PARK BUS TOUR LIKE NO OTHER
Inside Denali National Park and Preserve — a raw, unfenced wilderness of taiga forest, alpine tundra and mountainous terrain larger than the state of New Hampshire — glacier-fed rivers tie braids through landscapes roamed by grizzly bears, caribou, wolves and lynx, among other predators and prey. There is only one road into the park. And after mile marker 15, only busses contracted by the National Park Service—including narrated buses with naturalists for guides as well as transit busses that make frequent stops in both directions—are allowed to carry visitors deeper into the park. Travelers to the park who expect its wild side to be buffed smooth by the organized bus ride in are always surprised, said Jimmy
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