msm NATIONAL PARK Alaska Contents Season—June 1 to September 15 Page Page GLACIERS . 3 PARK ROAD 14 MOUNTAIN CLIMBING . 5 TRAILS 15 CLIMATE . 5 How To REACH THE PARK . 15 PLANTLIFE .... 5 ACCOMMODATIONS .... 15 Mount McKinley WILDLIFE . 6 CAMPGROUNDS 15 MAMMALS . 7 MISSION 66 15 . 12 ADMINISTRATION .... 15 FISHING . 13 HELP US PROTECT THIS PARK 16 NATIONAL PARK Historic Events MOUNT MCKINLEY NATIONAL PARK in Alaska Range. Jagged spires, knife- south-central Alaska covers more than sharp ridges, and broad U-shaped valleys 1896 W. A. Dickey, impressed by the mountain while on a prospecting 3,000 square miles of wilderness. are all results of glaciation. During the trip, estimated its height at 20,000 feet. Through a magazine Ice Age, called the Pleistocene Epoch, article he later kindled the imagination of the world, and gave the Sheathed in ice and snow, winter and mountain its name—Mount McKinley. summer, mighty Mount McKinley is the glaciers advanced and retreated, met and 1902 Alfred H. Brooks and D. L. Raeburn of the U. S. Geological Survey principal scenic feature of the park. remet in the lowlands filling and over­ studied the geology of the Alaska Range and were the first white Denali, "The High One," was the name flowing many of the valleys with large men to set foot upon the slopes of Mount McKinley. given by the Indian to this impressive rivers of ice. Often these ice masses 1903 Judge James Wickersham of Fairbanks led the first, but unsuccess­ mountain, North America's highest peak. were hundreds of feet thick. Huge pol­ ful, attempt to reach the summit. The sheer north face, the route Majestically the mountain thrusts its ished boulders, carried many miles by he chose, has never been conquered. snow-covered head high into the clouds, ice, are now found high on ridges and 1905 Discovery of placer gold along the Kantishma River brought sev­ reaching a height of 20,320 feet. Mc­ mark the level of these early glaciers. eral thousand hopeful prospectors and miners to the area north of Wonder Lake. Kinley is crowned by two peaks. The Glaciers are still plentiful in Mount 1906 Charles Sheldon, noted hunter-naturalist, visited the McKinley area South Peak, the true summit, is 2 miles McKinley National Park. They are not to study Dall sheep. He believed that the outstanding wilderness distant from the neighboring North Peak remnants of the Ice Age, but valley wonders of the area should be protected. Working unrelentingly which rises to an elevation of 19,470 glaciers resulting from today's climate. toward that goal, he was the prime mover in having Mount feet. The greatest glaciers in the park are on McKinley established as a National Park. Although there are but few really the southern slope of the Alaska Range, 1910 Alaskan sourdoughs William Taylor and Pete Anderson pioneered which is exposed to the moisture-laden the "Muldrow Glacier Route" and made the first successful ascent high mountains in the Alaska Range, winds of the Pacific. These glaciers lie of Mount McKinley's north peak. many peaks near Mount McKinley are in the basin of the Yentna and Chulitna 1913 First party under Archdeacon Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens impressive. Mount Foraker, with an reached summit of south peak of the mountain. elevation of 17,395 feet; Mount Silver- Rivers. With sources high in the moun­ 1917 Mount McKinley established as a National Park by act of Congress. thorne, 13,170 feet; and Mount Russell, tains, they extend to the lowland valleys far beyond the southern boundaries of 1932 The Lindley-Liek party was the first to climb both the north and rising to 11,500 feet, add their mass and the park. south peaks. beauty to the wild mountain scene. 1934 First ascent made of both peaks of Mount Foraker by C. S. Houston, Many small valley glaciers may be Dr. T. G. Brown, and G. C. Waterston. Glaciers viewed from the park road, but as the 1942 Both peaks of Mount McKinley reached by seven members of the northern slope of the range receives rel­ Army Test Expedition, who lived on the glaciers and on the moun­ For tens of thousands of years glaciers atively little moisture, only the highest tain while testing winter equipment and supplies. have sculptured the mountains of the mountains can support large north- 1947 Mrs. Washburn, wife of group leader Bradford Washburn, was first woman to reach the top of Mount McKinley. This ascent was part of "Operation White Tower," organized for scientific observa­ The National Park System, of which this park is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the tions and for motion-picture recording of a climbing group. scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and enjoy­ Denali Highway completed, linking park road to Alaskan road 1957 ment of its people. system, and permitting automobile access to the park. Mountain Climbing large areas of the park are underlain with beds of permafrost—ground that Mount McKinley, North America's has been frozen for thousands of years. highest peak, with its abruptly rising icy Only the few inches of topsoil that thaw slopes, is a bold challenge to mountain during the summer supports plantlife. climbers. Because of the hazards, you Trees, unable to sink taproots into the must obtain the superintendent's permis­ frozen earth, are restricted to permafrost- sion to attempt an ascent. Skill in the free areas, or must rely on spreading, techniques of ice climbing must be dem­ lateral roots for support. onstrated, because treacherous, crevass- White spruce with somber green fo­ scarred glaciers must be crossed, and liage and tawny cones is well adapted to avalanches of snow, rock, and ice are the cold environment, and is the com­ constant dangers. monest tree in the park. Scattered Only by careful planning and organi­ spruce forests are found along the major zation can the rigorous conditions of rivers, and extend up the more sheltered high altitude and subzero cold be con­ slopes to timberline at about 3,000 feet. quered. Even the best prepared parties At lower elevations, a few cottonwoods may be defeated by prolonged blizzards. grow on old river bars, or where perma­ frost is not present. Here, too, are Climate thickets of aspen, willow, and graceful The climate in Mount McKinley Na­ white birch. In low, boggy meadows the tional Park is typical of subarctic Alaska. stunted, twisted black spruce grows. Daylight lasts for more than 18 hours a Tundra. Above the river valleys the day in summer. Most of the annual pre­ spruce forests give way abruptly to vast cipitation of about 15 inches falls as rain stretches of tundra—treeless permafrost during the summer and as snow on the terrain of the arctic. Mount McKinley higher mountains. As cool, cloudy National Park contains two types of weather predominates in summer, warm alpine tundra—the "wet tundra" of clothing is a "must." shrubby plants at lower elevations, and Chill nights of late August bring out "dry tundra" of mat-like plants covering the flaming yellows and reds of the alder, the windswept ridges. Caribou bull. Photo by Charles f. Oil. dwarf birch, Cottonwood, willow, and The tundra is truly the home of the aspen. By mid-September the first willow. More than 30 types are found flowing glaciers. Among these are the dropped as the glacier melts. Lakes may snows of winter may block the low passes growing in the park. In sheltered loca­ Herron Glacier, having its source in the be found on these moraines resting only of the park road. Soon the park is stilled tions, some of them may reach the heights snowfields of Mount Foraker; Peters a few feet above solid ice. The fronts under a soft blanket of snow, broken of small trees, but most are hardy shrubs Glacier, which encircles the northwest of the larger glaciers may be completely only by dark-green patches of spruce. of the open tundra. Several species of end of Mount McKinley; and the larg­ covered by vegetation, and many animals Winter nights are long and cold, but willows, in order to escape the rigors of est, Muldrow Glacier, fed by snows in find their homes there. This was true are enlivened by the ever-changing climate, hide their tortuous woody stems the unsurveyed heart of the range, and of the Muldrow Glacier, but during the moods of playful northern lights. underground, thrusting only the catkins extending nearly 35 miles from between winter of 1956 large waves of ice de­ of their flowers and a few leathery leaves the twin peaks of McKinley to within scended on the inactive front and thrust Plantlife to the surface. several miles of the park road. up towering spires of ice right to its toe. Only plants that are adapted to the Another prominent shrub of the tun­ The fronts of most of these glaciers Impressive views of the Muldrow Gla­ harsh climate of the subarctic can survive dra is dwarf birch, a dull green in sum­ are deeply buried by morainal debris— cier and this recent spectacular activity in Mount McKinley National Park. In mer but flaming scarlet and orange at rocks that have been carried by ice and await you at the Eielson Visitor Center. addition to long, bitter cold winters, the touch of frost. 4 vivid blues of larkspur and monkshood able to endure the climate of Mount Lambing grounds, used year after enrich the tundra scene, while Alaska McKinley. year, are in sheltered nooks protected by cotton waves gaily in the summer breeze- Mammals overhanging cliffs.