Protecting the country around the mountain came early. Driven by the conservation advocate Charles Sheldon, who wanted to safeguard the region's Dall sheep and wildlife, Congress established the park in 1917 as Mount McKinley National Park. The Alaska Railroad soon carried the first visitors north, lodges and a single park road followed, and the place grew slowly into one of the great wilderness parks of the country. In 1980 it was vastly expanded and renamed Denali National Park and Preserve — the official name it still carries — restoring Denali, at least, to the land around the peak.
The name on the map, by contrast, has gone back and forth. In 1896 a gold prospector attached the name Mount McKinley to the peak, and the federal government made it official in 1917. Alaskans kept calling it Denali, and the state recognized that name in 1975; the federal name became Denali in 2015, then reverted to Mount McKinley in 2025. Through all of it the mountain never moved and the Athabascan name never went away — which is why, to most who know it, the peak has always simply been Denali, the Great One, whatever the paperwork said.
Why People Visit Denali
Denali offers North America's highest peak above a vast, living subarctic ecosystem — wilderness on a scale that is genuinely humbling. Visitors come for the Great One, the wildlife, and the Park Road, and stay for the quiet hikes, the railroad journey, and the immense scenery of the Alaska Range. From the gateway lodges to the tundra at the end of the road, it rewards both a quick stop and a long stay. It is immense, wild, and unforgettable in every season.
