Denali National Park of Alaska.

Denali National Park and Preserve is located in the central part of Alaska. It was established as Mount McKinley National Park in 1917 and re-designated in 1980. The park contains one of the most scenic regions of the Alaska Range and contains Mount McKinley, or Denali, the highest peak in North America, at 20,320 feet.

There are many things to do at the Denali National Park and Preserve, including, wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking. It continues to provide a laboratory for research in the natural sciences.

Numerous active glaciers continue to shape a landscape of broad, U-shaped valleys and small kettle lakes. Most of the park lies above the timberline, where vegetation is mainly lichens, mosses, and sedges. The park’s plentiful wildlife includes caribou, moose, brown bear, timber wolf, and the mountain-dwelling Dall sheep.

More then 650 species of flowering plants as well as many species of mosses, lichens, fungi, algae, and others grace the slops and valleys of Denali. Only plants adapted to long, bitterly cold winters can survive in this sub arctic wilderness. Deep beds of intermittent permafrost - ground frozen for thousands of years - underlie portions of the park and preserve. Only the thinnest layer of the topsoil thaws each summer to support life.

Denali National Park & Preserve features North America's highest mountain, 20,320-foot tall Mount McKinley. The Alaska Range also includes countless other spectacular mountains and many large glaciers. Denali's more than 6 million acres also encompass a complete sub-arctic eco-system with large mammals such as grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, and moose.

Today the park accommodates a wide variety of visitor use including wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking. It continues to provide a laboratory for research in the natural sciences.