The word "Denali" means "the high one" in the native Athabaskan language and refers to the mountain (Mt McKinley). The park covers over 9,000 sq mi, larger than the state of Massachusetts.

We took the National Park bus tour abut 60 miles into Denali. The road starts in a spruce forest, but quidkly transitions to open tundra. The scenery through the mmountains and tundra was beautiful. Several portions of the road run alongside sheer cliffs that drop hundreds of feet at the edges where there are no guardrails. Wildlife sightings were numerous along the way. We were very disappointed that the low clouds prevented us from seeing Mt McKinley, or any of the snow capped mountains of the Alaska Range. A clear view of the mountain is only possible about 20% of the time during the summer.

The next day we returned to Anchorage with a stop at the Happy Trails Kennel, home of 4 time Iditarod sled dog race winner Martin Buser and his numerous sled dogs in training. The Iditarod teams with 12 - 16 dogs cover 1150 miles from Anchorage to Nome in 10 - 17 days.