Mt. McKinley / DENALI

Denali NP is big, really big. Something like 6 millions acres. But it couldn't be different, when you have to make space to the tallest mountain in North America. The native were used to call it Denali, which means The Big One / The Big Mountain. The Americans renamed it Mt. McKinley to honor a politician who became also US president. But now even the National Park Service did change name to the National Park and from Mt. McKinley NP we have now Denali NP. Mt. McKinley / Denali is approximately 20,320 feet (6,194 m). But what is interesting is that Denali is a taller Mountain than Mt. Everest. In fact, even if Mt. Everest is about 9,000 feet (2,700 m) higher as measured from sea level, its base sits on the Tibetan Plateau wich is much higher than the base of Mt. McKinley / Denali. As a consequence Mt. Everest has a real vertical rise of little more than 12,000 feet (3,700) and Mt. McKinley / Denali has an actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m). An other curious thing is that, it is the coldest mountain and with the lower oxygen in the World. This is due to its latitude. But what is really important to keep in mind if you are a tourist is that most of the time the mountain it is not visible because of the clouds. Yes, you need to consider yourself lucky if you come here and you can see Mt. McKinley / Denali. The rule of thumb is that in average, you see it 1 day out of 3. We spent 4 days in Denali NP, and we saw it for 4 days. So I think we were really lucky. Although we saw it from really far away. The closest point on the road is 26 miles away. And I don't have a great zoom in my camera, but I took anyways some pictures for my memory and for your enjoyment. Here they are. The first one is from outside the park. All the others are from inside the park ...