Denali National Park encompasses more than 6 million acres, compared to Yellowstone National Park at 2.2 million acres. The park's main feature is Mt. McKinley, which was named Denali (the great one) by natives. Some still like to call it Denali, while others use McKinley. Whatever you call it, it is the highest mountain in North America at slightly more than 20,000 feet. An interesting fact is that the portion that is visible above the surrounding land (referred to as prominence) is almost the entire elevation. By this measure, it is the highest in the world.
The park has many spectacular mountains, rivers, lakes and tons of wildlife. Since visitors are allowed to drive only a short distance into the park, most people ride the bus that goes some sixty miles into the park with multiple stops along the way. One may depart the bus at any stop and catch any departing bus on the way out. We chose to stay with the bus for the entire trip, which takes the full day.
Most of the wildlife we saw was too far away for photos, but this wolf trotted right past our bus, never seeming to even notice it was there.
Since Mt. McKinley makes its own weather, it is surrounded by cloud cover much of the time. We were told the mountain is visible only one day out of four, on average, but we were fortunate to see it on three of our four days there.
Not satisfied with views from the ground, we wanted to see the park from the air. The quirky little village of Talkeetna is where flights leave to give tours of the mountains and glaciers in the park.
Our flight was supposed to go over Mt. McKinley but, due to excessive turbulence, we only circled the mountain. However, what we were able to see was plenty scenic, and most of us staggered off the plane after landing. It was the only time I've been close to airsick.
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