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TOWNS SOUTH OF DENALI PARK

• Cantwell
27 miles south of Denali

The Cantwell region’s plentiful game shaped this area’s history. Years ago, the Copper River people traveled west across what is now the Denali Highway to Cantwell to hunt. In the early 1900’s, to satisfy the need for food in the town of Fairbanks, ‘market hunters’ shot wild sheep and caribou and shipped large quantities north. By 1908, a hunter-conservationist (and Boone and Crockett Club member) named Charles Sheldon grew so alarmed by the large-scale implications of market hunting that he urged Congress to create a game sanctuary. That sanctuary became Mt. McKinley National Park, 90 years ago, in 1917.

Providing food to Alaskans was still a huge problem, so the U.S. government tapped into a reindeer herding project on Alaska’s far-away western coast, and in 1921 herded more than a thousand reindeer, cross-country, to the Cantwell area. Reindeer are domesticated caribou, and the open alpine tundra seemed well suited to solving the territory’s food problems by commercially ‘farming’ the tame reindeer – as the Laplanders do. But the idea didn’t work – partly because local people found it more lucrative to work for the Alaska Railroad. There were problems, too, with marauding wolves. But the final straw was when reindeer became romantically entangled with roaming wild caribou and escaped into the wilderness. Surprisingly, the reindeer project made a strange comeback in 1968, when reindeer were enlisted for a research station that was started in Cantwell to study fallout from nuclear tests, and how fallout affected the arctic food chain. The research station continued into the 1980’s. Today, many Cantwell businesses line the Parks Highway, while residents live along side roads to the east and west.

• Denali Highway
27 miles south of Denali Park

The Denali Highway is a 135-mile long road that follows along the south side of the Alaska Range, and links Paxson, on the Richardson Highway, to Cantwell, on the Parks Highway. Mostly unpaved to this day, the Denali Highway follows an ancient migration route along the south side of the Alaska Range. Some of the land is protected by the Bureau of Land Management because of its archaeological importance. It is said that perhaps the oldest evidence of human habitation in America – 10,000 years – is on the Denali Highway. The Ahtna, or Copper River, people traveled between Paxson and Cantwell to hunt, and eventually, to work on the railroad.

The trail became a highway in 1957 and people began to drive across it to get to the park. The Denali Highway is truly scenic and is a favorite road for many Alaskans. It is still mostly dirt, and can get bumpy, dusty and rough. But it is an excellent place to view wild animals, pick berries, and camp. In many ways it is much like the road into Denali Park, starting at treeline in Cantwell and changing into alpine tundra, with wide, sweeping vistas. Highbush cranberries and short shrubs turn scarlet in August, making this a photographer’s dream.

• Denali State Park
105 miles south of Denali Park

On your way to or from Anchorage, you pass through a large Alaskan state park. It has three nice campgrounds and a long, high, rugged trail system, with 4 trailhead access points. Denali State Park also has a well-staffed visitor center at a large veterans’ memorial. But Denali State Park is primarily known for its magnificent views of Denali and the Alaska Range. (See page 3.)

• Trapper Creek/Petersville Road
122 miles south of Denali Park

After World War II, the federal government opened up homesteading in Alaska. One of the more popular places to build a home was the Trapper Creek area. The region already had a lively history when gold was found in this Athabascan Indian territory in 1906. A wagon road ran from Talkeetna to the claims at Cache Creek. Homesteaders came from Detroit, Michigan in 1959. They dubbed themselves “The Fifty-Niners” and turned their backs on big city life to build their log cabins. There are now over 400 residents in the Trapper Creek area. The 18-mile Petersville Road starts in Trapper Creek and heads west over wild countryside, with grand views of Mt. McKinley.

• Talkeetna
124 miles south of Denali Park

The old railroad town of Talkeetna is where miners, prospectors and adventurers used to live. It’s at the junction of the broad Talkeetna, Susitna and Chulitna Rivers. The word Talkeetna means “where the rivers join,” in the local Athabascan dialect. The town was built along the river and the railroad track. Today, Mt. McKinley has become the focus of the town. It has evolved into the place where mountain climbers prepare for their trips. This is where they ‘jump off’ (leave) to the base camp for the West Buttress route.

There are 30 possible routes up McKinley, but 90% of the climbers take the West Buttress. This route was first mapped out by Bradford Washburn who was looking for a safer route to the top in 1951. Getting to this route required flying into the Kahiltna Glacier in a small plane. By 1954, Don Sheldon, a famed local Talkeetna pilot, had perfected the glacier landing on Kahiltna Glacier. Most climbers now fly that same route, from Talkeetna to the 7,200 foot level of the glacier, which is known as Base Camp. They then slowly move up to 14,200 feet. If they climb too quickly, they can get altitude sickness – such as pulmonary or cerebral edema.

Climbing season runs from late April to early July. During those months, rangers live on the mountain in tents to help monitor climbers, and render assistance if necessary. Rangers are taken off McKinley in early July, when the summer snow becomes soft, and it becomes dangerous to cross the crevasses. Nowadays, about 1,200 people try each year to climb McKinley. Around 50% of them get to the summit. Meanwhile, on nearby Mt. Foraker, which is considered more technically difficult, there is no ranger station. Only about 30 people a year climb Mt. Foraker. The Athabascan name for Mt. Foraker means ‘Denali’s Wife.’

Because of the higher latitude of Alaska, McKinley is colder than other mountains, so more gear is needed to climb it. Water is a big problem on McKinley. Frostbite can be prevented if a climber is hydrated, so climbers must drink 4 liters of water a day, melting it from snow. It’s a time-consuming process melting snow – and it requires the climbers to carry a lot of fuel.

You can’t miss Talkeetna’s ties to the mountain when you visit. In May and June, you can see the climbers returning from the mountain, with heavy beards and sunburn. The airport is busy all summer long with flightseeing trips, as well as hauling mountaineers and their gear. There are mountain lectures at the Talkeetna Ranger Station, which is considered the park service’s mountaineering headquarters. At the Talkeetna Museum, there’s a scale model of Mt. McKinley, donated from the Boston Museum of Science.

The model represents 22 miles on each side, and every 100 foot rise in elevation is shown as a contour.

At the museum, you can also see the heavy clothing that was originally used by mountain climbers, including canvas tents, wool, leather, fur, standard household ropes, reindeer and wolf hide sleeping bags, and wood and rawhide snowshoes.

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