Denali Wilderness

Native Athabascans have always referred to Mount McKinley as Denali, "The High One." The mammoth mountain is the centerpiece of Denali Wilderness, which comprises about one-third of Denali National Park and Preserve. The Wilderness encompasses the high heart of the Alaska Range, including Mount Denali — at 20,320 feet the highest point in North America and, the source notes, the tallest mountain on Earth when measured from base to summit. Formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, the park's name changed with its Wilderness designation and it tripled in size. The entire unit is now bigger than the state of Massachusetts. Mountaineers have long been irresistibly drawn to this fabulous land of perpetual snow and danger. The upthrust of the range creates its own weather, usually frigid and windy, with clouds that hide the mountains as much as 75 percent of the time. On the northern slopes of the Alaska Range, the Wilderness drops to tundra, a world of dwarf shrubs and miniature wildflowers adapted to the short growing season. Tundra gives way to taiga, a Russian word for "land of little sticks," and here scant tree growth lines many miles of river. Tundra and taiga provide homes for 37 recorded species of mammals, including Dall sheep, caribou, grizzly bears, and moose. Smaller mammals include foxes, weasels, lynx, martens, marmots, pikas, voles, and lemmings. Flowering plants number more than 430 species, and 159 species of birds have been sighted, including the ptarmigan, which changes from brown to snow-white.