Pristine parkland, magnificent wildlife, and the towering Denali are highlights of this world-famous national park. The granite peaks and snowy summits of Denali National Park and Preserve cover 160 miles of the Alaska Range and are so tall they are often lost in the clouds.

See Denali's Wildlife Many of those species can be spotted from bus tours, and people who want to get off the road system can hike the trails for the opportunity to view even more wildlife. Some of the wildlife that can be spotted in the park includes moose, caribou, mountain goats, wolves, and bears.

Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is an American national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America.

Denali mountain is composed primarily of igneous rocks crystallized from magma and metamorphic rocks. Metamorphic rocks are rocks that were changed or altered from their original state into something new, due to intense amounts of heat or pressure.

Early Denali Culture In the last 500 years, the park was inhabited primarily by the Koyukon, Tanana and Dena'ina people. They all called Denali mountain by a different word in their own languages. It was the Koyukon Athabaskans who referred to the huge, towering mountain as Dinale, which means “tall one.”

Activities Near or On the Park Road Discover trails in Denali, or learn about hiking off-trail in the wilderness. Whether you join an adventurous, off-trail "Discovery Hike," or one of our trail walks or campground talks, let us be your guide to Denali.

If the mountain is "out," the deck at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge has a wide-open view of the Alaska Range. You can also see Denali from the Talkeetna Riverfront Park at the end of Main Street and at the overlook pullout just before town on the Talkeetna Spur Road.

The park was established as Mt. McKinley National Park on Feb. 26, 1917. The original park was designated a wilderness area, the first national park created specifically to protect wildlife, and incorporated into Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980.

In 1980, momentum continued to favor the name Denali after the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act changed the park's name to Denali National Park and Preserve. But the official name of the mountain remained Mount McKinley.

The name “Denali” is derived from the Koyukon language and means “tall.” During the period in which Alaska was colonized by Russia, the Russians referred to the mountain as “Bolshaya Gora,” meaning “big mountain.” The first European believed to have sighted Denali was British explorer George Vancouver.

6.1 million acres Denali National Park and & Preserve (6.1 million acres) centers on Denali, the tallest peak in North America, and protects vast glaciers and boreal forests.

Denali National Park is an incredible place where you have the chance to see wildlife, gaze upon the continent's tallest mountain, admire stunning and virtually untouched scenery, and explore on hiking trails or across the tundra.