Denali National Park

Flying into Anchorage, our first destination was Denali, and the drive itself felt like the beginning of the adventure. Leaving the city behind, the road quickly opened into vast stretches of wilderness where the scale of Alaska became unmistakable. The Parks Highway winds north through wide valleys and uninterrupted views that seem to stretch forever.

Our first stop inside the park was the Denali Visitor Center, where rangers made one think clear: we are guests here. The land is shaped and ruled by wildlife. Wolves, grizzly bears, moose and Dalli sheep move freely across the terrain, and the park’s systems are designed to protect them. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson set this land aside as Mount McKinley National Park with the primary purpose of preserving wildlife and wilderness. In 1980, the park was expanded and renamed Denali National Park and Preserve, restoring its traditional Athabascan name.

Access to the park is carefully managed. Rathan than driving freely, visitors ride park buses along the Denali Park Road, which limits human impact and keeps the interior largely untouched. The bus carried us into the park along a gravel road through the tundra.

Along the way, the land is open and unconfined with wildlife visible along the way. We saw wolves, bears and sheep moving across their landscape. On a clear day, Denali rises above the surrounding ranges. At over 20,000 feet, it is North America’s tallest peak, and its presence dominates the horizon

Denali is an extraordinary place where humans are simply visitors.