Journey to the Center of the Park

"We who are gathered here may represent a particularly elite, not of money and power, but of concern for the earth for the earth's sake."

~Ansel Adams

Things have been happening fast here in Denali National Park and Preserve. I’ve now been at work for two weeks, which is usually just enough time to start settling into my living situation, the environment, and the responsibilities of my job. Nature is making changes, too. Cotton from the aspen trees drifts through the air like snow, collecting on the ground in blankets of fuzz. Wildflowers are in full bloom in some areas nearby, including arctic lupines and dogwood flowers. Today was our first day of full sunshine this week, and it was much needed. As a part of my two-day interpretation training, a ranger drove me, three Student Conservation Association (SCA) interns, and three high school interns into the park.

For a national park, Denali is very unique.

First, there are three parts to the park: 1) the original 2 million acres designated as a national park in 1917 is now “wilderness”, the highest designation of conservation a piece of land can have, 2) the national park, and 3) the preserve. All of these areas added together make up the 6 million acre National Park Service (NPS) unit.

NPS photo

Second, there is one 92-mile road that travels into the park (when you look at a full-size map, you can see how much expansive wilderness is still left untouched). But here’s the catch: personal vehicles are only allowed to drive up until mile 15. The rest may be traveled by narrated tour bus, shuttles, or camper buses. Denali was one of the first national parks to create this shuttling system. It came as a result of the completion of the highway connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks in 1972. In order to reduce impact on wildlife and scenery, the NPS created the mass transport system in anticipation of an increase in visitors. The first year the highway was completed, visitor count doubled.

The large white mountain on the left of the photo is Denali.It is often
obscured by clouds and is visible only 30% of the time.The mountain
is still over 80 miles away from where I took this picture.

Today I traveled into Eielson Visitor Center at Mile 66. Because of the winding nature of the road, driving this distance took nearly 3 ½ hours. The views and wildlife were worth it. Within 20 miles, we spotted a mama grizzly bear and her two yearling cubs off the side of the road in the willows brush. Later, we were able to see many caribou, a moose, and a Dall sheep resting on a cliff. The grand mountain Denali even presented itself today.

View from the Eielson Visitor Center

On to the final reason that Denali is so unique...

The Denali Kennels

Highlight of last weekend: I finally achieved my dream of adopting a sled dog! (Just kidding.) It's only for the summer, but this is my new walking buddy for the next three months. Three times a week I head down to the kennels and take him for a walk. His name is Lucor and he's an official sled dog ranger for Denali National Park and Preserve. You can check out his bio on the official kennels page!

The Denali kennels are special--they are the only operating sled dog kennels within the National Park Service. Harry Karstens, the first ranger and superintendent in what was then known as Mt. McKinley National Park, used his teams of sled dogs to control poaching within the two million acres of wilderness in the park's early days. The kennels continued to grow throughout the 1920s and 30s as sled dogs aided rangers on patrol and hauled supplies to construct backcountry winter cabins.

In 1980, Mt. McKinley National Park was renamed to Denali National Park and Preserve and tripled in size. The original two million acres became wilderness, "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." In other words: no motorized transport or equipment within the wilderness area during the winter season. In the last few decades, the Denali kennels have been restored in full force as the sled dog teams continue to patrol the park, stock backcountry cabins, and transport scientific research equipment throughout varies parts of the landscape. The park wouldn't be where it is today without them.

This barely scratches the surface of how much I have learned here in the last two weeks. I can't wait to see what else I will discover in this beautiful environment. I hope this will be the first of many deep excursions into the park!

Stay tuned!

Lindsey

P.S. I attached a few more photos taken today to the bottom of this post. J

There is a small white dot on the edge of the brown cliff--a Dall sheep!

The fox and the magpie