Denali National Park

Denali National Park
Denali and Reflection Pond
Coordinates: 63 ° 15 ′ 48 ″  N , 151 ° 8 ′ 59 ″  W.
Location:	Alaska , United States
Next city:	Healy (Alaska)
Surface:	19,185.79 km²
Founding:	February 26, 1917
Visitors:	594,660 (2018)

The almost 20,000 km² Denali National Park ( English Denali National Park and Preserve ) is located in Central Alaska ( USA ). The name is derived from the Indian name Denali (the high) for the highest mountain in North America with 6190 meters , around which the national park was built.

The park was founded on February 26, 1917 as Mount McKinley National Park after the name of the mountain at that time and renamed Denali National Park on December 2, 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and expanded by almost 10,000 km². The extension areas have the lower protection status of a National Preserve , in them hunting is permitted. In 1976 the area was designated an international biosphere reserve . The park is managed by the World Conservation Union in category V ( Protected Landscape ).

Today the park is visited by over 400,000 people annually and is known for wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and hiking. Parkstraße (and therefore the public in the park) is open from mid-May to mid-September.

View of Denali from Park Street

Grizzly in Denali National Park

Denali National Park in September

The park entrance can be reached by the Alaska Railroad , airplane, or the George Parks Highway, which runs between Anchorage and Fairbanks . A 92-mile long road to Kantishna leads into the interior of the park , which branches off the George Parks Highway and runs in an east-west direction along the Alaska Range . Only the first 15 miles of the road are paved and private vehicles are allowed on it. Visitors can get inside the park with one of the many shuttle buses that regularly drive the park road from May to September, on foot, by bike or as part of guided bus tours. A mobile home can also be driven up to certain tent sites.

There are paved paths only in the entrance area of ​​the park and at the visitor center named after Carl Ben Eielson . With the exception of a few permanent or temporary restricted areas, the park is freely accessible. In order to spend the night in the wilderness outside of the few designated campsites on Parkstrasse, a (free) permit and a briefing by the park ranger is required, which explains, among other things, correct behavior towards bears. At the end of the park road is Wonder Lake , which offers a good view of Denali Mountain when the weather is clear.

The vegetation in the park consists of mixed forest in the lower regions , tundra at medium altitudes and glaciers such as the Ruth Glacier and rock with little vegetation at higher altitudes . In the summer, grizzly bears , moose (the American species called "mosses"), caribou and wolves can be seen. On the mountain slopes, especially at the Polychrome Pass , you can see Dall sheep up close.

In winter there are opportunities to go dog sledding, ski hiking or snowmobiling.

The subarctic climate of the national park is characterized by long, extremely cold winters and short warm summers. Even in summer, precipitation can fall as snow, albeit rarely. Due to the location only about 300 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle , it doesn't get dark at the end of June / beginning of July, but the daylight times at the end of December are extremely short.

Others

A US Army helicopter flew the so-called "Magic Bus" out of the national park in June 2020. The bus is known for the movie Into the Wild . The young dropout Christopher McCandless lived alone in the abandoned bus in 1992. The beginning snowmelt cut his way back over the Teklanika River and he died. After the film was released in 2007, the bus became a place of pilgrimage for outdoor fans and adventure seekers. A dozen people had to be rescued on the way to the "Magic Bus" every season. Crossing the mountain river is particularly dangerous. A Swiss woman died in 2010 and a Belarusian woman died in 2019.

Movie

• Günther Goldmann and Phil Coles: Alaska's world of giants - Denali National Park (45 minutes)

Web links

Commons : Denali National Park  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• National Park Service: Denali National Park (official site; English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ World Database on Protected Areas - Denali National Park and Preserve (English)
2. ^ "Into the Wild" -Bus removed from Wilderness Süddeutsche from June 19, 2020, accessed on June 22, 2020