A Week in Denali National Park - 1
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Mount McKinley National Park was created by Congress In 1917 for a singular reason: to protect Dall sheep. Over the years, the park’s boundaries have significantly expanded to include Denali National Monument and Denali Preserve with the goal of protecting North America's tallest mountain as well as providing a place for public wilderness recreation. As the third largest park in the US National Park system, the park and preserve now encompass 6,045,153 acres (9,446 sq mi)… larger than New Hampshire; or New Jersey; or Rhode Island and Connecticut combined.
Denali, in the native Athabaskan tongue, equates to ‘the great one’ or ‘the tall one’ and North America’s tallest mountain at 20, 310’ is indeed magnificent. From 1896 till 2015, this mountain, sacred to the Athabaskan people, was called Mt. McKinley, named for the 25th US President who was assassinated in 1901. The name McKinley certainly held no significance for the native people and meant very little to Alaskans. They would have preferred the original name of Denali, but the name Mt. McKinley prevailed.
According to the NPS website, “In 1975, the name controversy reemerged when the State of Alaska petitioned the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (USBGN) to change the name of the mountain to Denali officially. Unfortunately for Alaskans, the Ohio congressional delegation (representing former-President McKinley’s home state) blocked their efforts for the next four decades. Alaskans, by the way, ignored this and officially changed the state name of the mountain to the original Denali.” In 2015, just prior to the US National Park Service’s centennial anniversary, the name was officially changed to Denali by executive order of President Obama.
After a week at Denali State Park‘s K’esugi Ken Campground, we drove ~100 miles north on the Parks Highway to Denali National Park and Preserve for three days of reserved sites. Par for the course for us, we had made campground reservations at the last minute… about 1-1/2 weeks in advance which is waaaay far in advance for us, but luckily, there was still room.
After several days of being spoiled by beautiful weather, clear skies and magnificent views of Denali at K’esugi Ken, the last couple of days had been less than spectacular and our departure day dawned overcast and gray. Just as we turned onto the Parks Highway, we spotted a bull moose grazing on the side of the road which we took as a good omen.
We stopped briefly en route at the Alaskan Veteran’s Memorial near Byer’s Lake. It’s a quiet, respectful place, an elegant, fitting tribute to Alaskan citizens who have served their country and given their lives in service. Our visit was cut short by hordes of mosquitoes out for blood.
After consulting the Milepost guide for sights to see along the way, it appeared we were required to stop at Miller’s Ice Cream for a cone. You gotta do what you gotta do.
We saw the turnoff sign for the national park, but since food supplies were low, we needed to replenish the larder. Denali Village is only a mile or two north of the park entrance opposite the Nenana River. There are all sorts of shops, tours, rafting companies, hotels and convenience stores, but shopping for groceries there was not an option. Instead, we headed to Healy, the noted ‘supply town for Denali’ about 14 miles north.
We took a couple of minutes to stroll along the boardwalk above the Nenana River and stretch our legs.
The highway along the river and through a canyon was very scenic. We could see the tracks of the Alaska Railroad snaking its way along the river, under the bridge and through the canyon.
Three Bears Grocery which we remembered from Tok, is the supermarket in Healy and though expensive, it offered most of what we needed. The Vitus gas station and convenience store across the street provided the rest. We noted for future reference that 49th State Brewing Company had a brewery/restaurant along the route.
Larder full and wallet significantly lighter, we retraced our route back to the national park and checked in at the Park Mercantile adjacent to the Riley Creek Campground in the late afternoon. The Mercantile is a pretty cool place. In addition to check-ins, it’s a camp store offering souvenirs, some food basics and snacks like milk, beer, soda, chips, firewood., basic camping gear and, best of all, enormous scooped ice cream in waffle cones for $4! (Photo credit: Alaska Local Guide)
The ablution block is also located next to the Mercantile and offers toilets, hot showers ($4.50/each for 10 minute shower - tokens available at the Mercantile) and laundry ($2 wash/$2 dry - quarters - there’s a change machine). A large deck area with picnic tables and benches has cell coverage as well as power for charging electronics. We had cell coverage in the campground as well.
There are two types of campsites available. Type A are larger sites for big rigs (30’+ / $45) and Type B for vans and campers (<30’ / $35). All camping fees are half price for Senior and Annual Pass holders. There are no hook-ups, but fresh water is available. Once checked in, the sites are first come/first serve, so you can choose whichever site you’d like depending on what you’ve paid for (A or B). Since we made our reservations late, we had a B site for night 1, an A site for night 2, and a B site for night 3 which meant we needed to move each morning. As it turned out, it wasn’t a big deal at all. We liked it there so much after one night, we were able to tag on an additional ‘B’ night… again we were lucky to secure an available site on such short notice.
We wasted no time the first day getting chores done… showers were critical as was laundry and some basic van cleaning. We planned our subsequent days well to take advantage of what the park offered. Each night, we sat by the campfire and soaked up more of Denali’s magic.
After switching campsites the next morning, we walked the 1.5 miles to the Visitors’ Center on the gravel Roadside Hiking/Biking Trail. Regularly scheduled shuttle buses are available in case folks would prefer to ride. The Alaska Railroad also has a station next to the Visitor Center on its Anchorage-Fairbanks route.
Though crowded and a bit frenetic, the Visitors’ Center is beautiful. Two videos were showing. There were several exhibits and dioramas highlighting Denali’s history, geology, flora and fauna.
We picked up park trail maps and a general information brochure and headed over to the Morino Grill, the park’s only restaurant, for a late lunch.
Afterwards, we wandered around in the Park Store sussing out souvenir options before returning to the campground via the same trail. Evening ice cream cones topped off the day.
One activity offered at the park is a visit to the Sled Dog Kennels. We’d seen the sign for the shuttle schedule at the Visitors’ Center and headed to the shuttle stop the next day to attend the presentation.
We toured the open air dog kennels and had the opportunity to see the dogs, even pet them, before the presentation began.
A newbie-ranger provided an introduction to the Sled Dog Program at Denali, a tradition at the park for over a century. “These are the only sled dogs in the United States that help protect a national park and the wildlife, scenery, and wilderness therein, and it has been this way since the birth of the park.” There are over two million acres of preserved land that the dog teams can explore, and there are approximately 35 working dogs in the preserve. The dog sled teams allow the land to be maintained at minimal to no damage to the natural terrain. The goal? Preserve the wilderness.
Then the dogs, barking and excited, were hitched to a cart and whoosh… they took off like a shot, a ranger/musher giving only verbal commands as the team sped along a track and came to a halt directly in front of the crowd. Pretty impressive.
The musher then released each of the dogs in turn from the harness and they raced back to the kennels.
Enough excitement for one day. We walked back to the campground via a network of different trails and treated ourselves to an ice cream cone. Delightful decadence!
Denali National Park has just one road, the Denali Park Road. A 15-mile paved section leads to the Savage River Trailhead and it’s the only section of the 92-mile long road that is accessible to private vehicles other than those vehicles heading to a specified campground with reservations.
Shuttle buses and park tour buses provide the transportation for visitors to travel deeper into the park.
Since 2021, however, due to the Pretty Rocks Landslide at Mile 45.4, the tours end at Mile 43. Interestingly, the landslide area had been slowly deteriorating since the 1960s and probably before that. “Before 2014, the landslide only caused small cracks in the road surface and required moderate maintenance every 2–3 years. However, in 2014, road maintenance crews noticed a substantial speed up. By 2016 the movement had increased further, a slump had developed in the road, and a monitoring program was begun. The rate of road movement within the landslide evolved from inches per year prior to 2014, to inches per month in 2017, inches per week in 2018, inches per day in 2019, and up to 0.65 inches per hour in 2021.” Photo: Denali NPS
Construction of a 475’ long bridge and restoration of the Polychrome Pass/Pretty Rocks area has begun and completion is scheduled for some time in 2026 at an estimated cost of $100,000,000! Below a rending of the proposed bridge-Denali NPS.
Taking a full school bus for a 43-mile, 5-1/2 hour narrated tour at $141.25/pp on a gravel road didn’t seem all that appealing to us. What did appeal, however, was a 3-day stay at the Teklanika Campground at Mile 29.
Join us next time as we explore more of Denali by foot and bicycle.