Denali National Park & Preserve It's more than a mountain. Denali National Park & Preserve features North America's highest mountain, 20,320-foot tall Mount McKinley. The Alaska Range also includes countless other spectacular mountains and many large glaciers. Denali's more than 6 million acres also encompass a complete sub-arctic eco-system with large mammals such as grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, and moose.
The park was established as Mt. McKinley National Park on Feb. 26, 1917. The original park was designated a wilderness area and incorporated into Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980. The Park was designated an international biosphere reserve in 1976.
Today the park accommodates a wide variety of visitor use including wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking. It continues to provide a laboratory for research in the natural sciences.
Fort Egbert The Fort is a former Yukon River U.S. Army post, which was established in 1899 to bring law and order to the Fortymile country during the Klondike gold rush. After the boom, an Army Signal Corps was established here to operate a telegraphy and wireless station until about 1925. Currently, BLM manages 5 restored structures in cooperation with the local Eagle Historical Society. Exhibits and tours are available in the summer. An interpretive trail on the Fort grounds provides access to the ruins of other structures. Fort Egbert National Historic Landmark includes the Fort as well as structures in the adjacent community of Eagle.
Fortymile National Wild and Scenic River Fortymile River is an extensive network of creeks and rivers in east-central Alaska, 392 miles of which have been given a National Wild and Scenic or Recreational River designation. Boaters have many choices for recreational trips through deep, winding canyons lined by forests of birch, spruce and aspen. Remnants of past mining operations dot the river banks as mementos of the area's rich mining history.
Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve By establishing Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve (GAAR) in Alaska's Brooks Range, Congress has reserved a vast and essentially untouched area of superlative natural beauty and exceptional scientific value - a maze of glaciated valleys and gaunt, rugged mountains covered with boreal forest and arctic tundra vegetation, cut by wild rivers, and inhabited by far-ranging populations of caribou, Dall sheep, wolves, and bears (barren-ground grizzlies and black bears). Congress recognized that a special value of the Park and Preserve is its wild and undeveloped character, and the opportunities it affords for solitude, wilderness travel, and adventure. Gates of the Arctic encompasses several congressionally recognized elements, including the national park, national preserve, wilderness, six Wild Rivers and two National Natural Landmarks. The National Park Service is entrusted to manage this area to protect its physical resources and to maintain the intangible qualities of the wilderness and the opportunity it provides for people to learn and renew its values.
Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve The marine wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve provides opportunities for adventure, a living laboratory for observing the ebb and flow of glaciers, and a chance to study life as it returns in the wake of retreating ice. Amidst majestic scenery, Glacier Bay offers us now, and for all time, a connection to a powerful and wild landscape.
The park has snow-capped mountain ranges rising to over 15,000 feet, coastal beaches with protected coves, deep fjords, tidewater glaciers, coastal and estuarine waters, and freshwater lakes. These diverse land and seascapes host a mosaic of plant communities ranging from pioneer species in areas recently exposed by receding glaciers, to climax communities in older coastal and alpine ecosystems. Diverse habitats support a variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife, with opportunities for viewing and research that allow us to learn more about the natural world.
Gulkana National Wild and Scenic River The Gulkana is one of the 5 most used rivers in Alaska, primarily because of its easy access at the put-in and take-out points. The river is known for its recreational values, including excellent sport fishing, particularly for chinook (king) salmon during late June and early July. The Gulkana also contains sockeye salmon, grayling, and rainbow trout, as well as the northernmost population of steelhead trout in North America.
