Library image #2030
: Mount McKinley and the autumn tundra along Savage River in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska Range.
The United States Congress designated the Denali Wilderness (map
) in 1980 and it now has a total of 2,124,783 acres
All of this wilderness is located in Alaska
and is managed by the National Park Service.
Native Athabascans have always referred to Mount McKinley as Denali, or "The High One." The mammoth mountain is the centerpiece of Denali National Park Wilderness, which comprises about one-third of Denali National Park and Preserve. Formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, it was established first as a wildlife refuge in 1917, then designated Wilderness in 1980 at the same time the size of the park was tripled and the name was changed. At six million acres, the entire unit is now bigger than the state of Massachusetts.
The Wilderness encompasses the high heart of the Alaska Range, including Mount McKinley. At 20,320 feet, McKinley is the highest point in North America and the tallest mountain on Earth when measured from base to summit. Mountaineers have long been irresistibly drawn to this fabulous land of perpetual snow and danger. The upthrust of the range creates its own weather, usually frigid and windy, with clouds that hide the mountains as much as 75 percent of the time. On the northern slopes of the Alaska Range, the Wilderness drops to tundra, a world of dwarf shrubs and miniature wildflowers adapted to the short growing season. Tundra gives way to taiga, a Russian word for "land of little sticks," and here scant tree growth lines many miles of river.
Tundra and taiga provide homes for 37 recorded species of mammals, including Dall sheep, caribou, grizzly bears, and moose. Smaller mammals include foxes, weasels, lynx, martens, marmots, pikas, voles, and lemmings. Flowering plants number more than 430 species, and 159 species of birds have been sighted, including the ptarmigan, which changes from brown to snow-white. Denali remains a subarctic Wilderness of unparalleled proportions.