See Denali National Park, Mt. McKinley

and the wildlife of Alaska.                                                                                        Print This Page

Travel via scenic domed railcars; deluxe, restroom-equipped motorcoaches;

Overnight at deluxe “rustic” lodges; great wildlife and scenery only on an Alaska cruisetour

can you experience all that Alaska has to offer.

Denali National Park

When you plan your Alaskan vacation, do you plan to encounter a striking landscape, a place so expansive that it shelters more than six hundred-fifty species of flowering plants and thirty-seven mammal species? Do you envision your Alaskan tour to include a dizzying six million acres filled with large caribou, moose, and grizzly bears, and offset with startlingly small flowers, miniaturized to suit Alaska's short growth season? Of course we're talking about Denali National Park, the  focal point of an Alaska Cruisetour.

Denali National Park is located 240 miles north of Anchorage, and encompasses 6 million acres of forests, tundra, glaciers and mountains - that's larger than the entire state of Massachusetts. Yet only 90 miles of main road traverses the park, leaving the moose, caribou, sheep and bears free to roam a wide area of land untouched by man. Denali National Park has long been a place of refuge for those with the will to survive its rugged terrain. Indeed, only the strongest plants flourish in this world of sub-artic wilderness. Species of mosses, lichens, fungi, algae, and others spangle the slopes and valleys of Denali. Deep pools of frost collect just beneath the park's surfaces, and only the thinnest sheen of topsoil thaws enough each year to stimulate new life. But the fragile nature of the region leads to continuous rebirth. New rivers can spurt up in days and flowers bloom just in time to serve as supper for hungry wildlife.

How exciting to watch this stunning Alaskan ecosystem adapt and change to suit its environment right before visitors delighted eyes. And of course all this primitive landscape is only a backdrop to the crown jewel of Denali, the regal massif Mount McKinley, the largest mountain in North America.

Denali National Park Video

It was this mountain that drew people to the area in ancient times. Before Denali National Park was created to serve as a wildlife refuge, the land offered recluse for the Athabascan native people, from whose language Denali, or "high one" gets its name. Historically, the land that now protects animals was a refuge for these people, a place where nomadic bands of Athabascans could hunt the low hills for caribou, sheep, and moose. They gathered fish, berries, and edible plants from the area's rich supply during the spring through fall seasons, and when harsh winter approached, the low elevations of the river's valley formed perfect crevices in which the natives could shelter themselves.

The park itself was dreamt up by a naturalist named Charles Sheldon in 1907, who was struck by the beauty of the area during his own Alaskan travels, but it wasn't established as we know it now until the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act was approved by Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Undoubtedly Denali National Park is a diamond of the vast Alaskan landscape, a focal point of any complete Alaskan cruisetour. One of the best ways to get in on the action is through a combined cruise and land package, an amazing deal that lets you tour Alaska's interior by rail and then drops you off for a stays in local lodges. Take a tour of Alaska's primitive heartlands, the package includes a train ride and an overnight for example at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge or the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.  After an exciting rail tour, experience an evening snuggled into a cozy wilderness lodge with Mount McKinley as your moon. You will sleep in the shadow of the great mountain, whose vast boundaries you have just began to glimpse, creating the perfect dreamscape for tomorrow's big adventure.