Denali National Park Alaska
Denali National Park is an unspoiled, sub-artic, wilderness in central
Alaska centered on Mt. McKinley. Mt. McKinly, at 20,320 feet is the
highest peak on the north American continent. With the steepest
elevation gain from its surroundings, Mt. McKinely, is the largest
moutain in the world, above the sea. McKinley, seen here, commands its own
weather, and often hides itself behind clouds.
Denali is near the artic circle and the winters are stretched to nine months of the year. The other seasons must crowd into the remaining three months. Each May the long, exhausting, winter retreats up to the mountain tops allowing a brief summer in the valleys. Spring brings green to the tundra as the days get longer. Summer is brief, and sometimes suprisingly hot- but the mountains always retain thier snow-caps. Winter is always hovering above, often dusting the higher hills with snow. Mid-august brings fall, and the tundra catches fire with the colors of autumn. By October the orange and red embers fade under a blanket of smothering snow.
The daylight varies with the season, 18 hours of night in the winter, and sunlight almost all day long in the summer. Each day in the winter follows the pattern of the whole year; a long dark and then a brief light. Each day in the summer struggles against the pattern, with a long light followed by a brief dark.
The timberline is low here, and as the mountain slopes rise above it, the green shades of the forest and trundra quickly give way to the colors of raw rock: dark gray, muddy yellow, and flat black. At a slightly higher elevation, these earthy colors abruptly change again to the pure white of the snowpack. The sharp contrast of the brillant white snow and these dark tones gives the scene the appearance of a photographic negative.
Denali boasts the best wildlife viewing of any U.S. national park. Dall Sheep, Caribou, Moose are seen easily. Grizzly Bear, and foxes are less common but still likely. Only wolves, wolverines, and lynx are reserved for the lucky. This red fox was resting by the side of the road.
Denali is mountain country. Mountains wall every horizion, blueing with distance. On a rare, clear, day Mt. McKinely towers above all. In the lowlands, the moss and shrub covered tundra rises and fall in waves of hills. The evergreen trees are few, bunched into sparse forests, known as Taiga. The thinly scatterd trees, shrinking toward the horizion, mark off the distances for the eye.
All images ©John Donohue 1995,1996,2002