Established as Mount McKinley National Park in 1917, redesignated in 1980.
The park encompasses a scenic region of the Alaska Range and contains Mount
McKinley, or Denali, the highest peak in North America, at 6,194 m (20,320 ft).
Numerous active glaciers continue to shape a landscape of broad, U-shaped
valleys and small kettle lakes.
Most of the park lies above the timberline, where vegetation is mainly lichens,
mosses, and sedges. The park’s plentiful wildlife includes caribou, moose, brown
bear, timber wolf, and the mountain-dwelling Dall sheep. Area, 2,458,509
hectares (6,075,107 acres).
McKinley, Mount, also Denali, mountain, south central Alaska,
in the Alaska Range, in Denali National Park and Preserve. The mountain rises
6,194 m (20,320 ft) above sea level and is the highest peak in North America.
Known to the Native Americans as Denali (The High One), the mountain was named
for President William McKinley in 1896. The summit of Mount McKinley was first
reached in 1913 by the Anglo-American clergyman and explorer Hudson Stuck and
three companions.
