Day 23 - Denali – “The Big One”


At 20,000+ feet tall Denali is the tallest mountain on the North American Continent. It is so tall that it makes its own weather, much like Mt. Rainier does. However, especially in the summer it is rare to see the whole mountain at one time. We were lucky enough to see almost all of it this trip. Just the south summit remained hidden from view. The mountains in the foreground of this photo are just tiny foothills of the massive Denali which lies roughly 80 miles to the southwest.

The park was established in 1917 as Mt. McKinley National Park. It wasn’t until 1980 that it was designated as a park and preserve and was renamed Denali National Park. Denali was what the native people called the mountain. It meant “The Big One”. One thing we learned this trip is that the park was established to protect Dall’s Sheep which were hunted extensively to feed the prospectors during the gold rush era. We caught a glimpse of a couple of these sheep high up on a ridge. Can you find the two little white dots in the picture?

The park covers about 6 million acres and has only one road. All other travel is on foot, snowshoes, snow skis, or dogsled. The park has an active working kennel of dog teams. During summer months, there are daily presentations that describe the dogs and their purpose. During winter months using a sled dog team is the only way the park rangers can patrol the park and its boundaries – no motorized vehicles are allowed within the park, except on the park road.

During the dogsled presentation, one set of dogs get harnessed to the summer “training cart”. Boy, do those dogs know what the ranger is saying, because as soon as she mentioned that a team would be demonstrating how they pull the cart, all of the dogs in the kennel started barking like crazy. Over 20 dogs barking puts out quite a racket!  It is like they were all shouting, “Pick me, pick me, I want to run, pick meeee!"

How lucky they are to have a job that they love to do! 
I am not sure if I mean the dogs 
or the rangers who work with them :-)






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