Denali National Park and Preserve is a protected area in Interior Alaska, centred on Denali — at 6,190 metres, North America’s highest peak. The park was originally established as Mount McKinley National Park before being renamed and significantly expanded in 1980.
Spanning more than 24,000 square kilometres — an area larger than New Hampshire — Denali encompasses extraordinary ecological diversity. Forest and deciduous taiga cover the lowest elevations, giving way to tundra at middle altitudes and finally to glaciers, snowfields and exposed rock near the summits. The Kahiltna Glacier is the longest in the park. More than two million acres of designated wilderness lie within its boundaries. Winter brings opportunities for dog sledding, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling, while summer draws hundreds of thousands of visitors: the park recorded nearly 595,000 recreational visits in 2018. Denali remains one of the planet’s most intact subarctic mountain ecosystems, home to grizzly bears, caribou, wolves and Dall sheep.
