Denali National Preserve ⓘ

Prehistoric and historic objects and places are preserved for the education, inspiration, and enjoyment of all. They forge connections between the present and past. The National Park Service cares for some of the largest and most diverse natural and cultural history collections in the world. It also keeps records and lists of our most treasured historic places.

Historic Photographs; Natural History Specimens; Archeological Artifacts; Geological Specimens; Archives; Paleontological Specimens; Ethnological Objects; Art Work; Maps; Drawings; Oral Histories; Motion Picture Film; Mountaineering Records; Historic Kennel Records

Denali's Museum Collection consists of nearly 26,000 cultural resources objects, just over 10,000 natural history specimens, and approximately 218 linear feet of archives—from an impressive herbarium collection to the many journals, letters, and personal objects associated with eminent people who have lived and worked at the park, including Harry Karstens, Charles Sheldon, Adolf Murie, and Bradford Washburn.

The park’s curator cares for over 2,000 historic photographs and slides, a rich collection of oral history interviews, fossils, archives, preserved small mammals, archeological artifacts collected during park surveys, and other items reflecting the cultural and natural history of this unique place.

These park resources have been collected, preserved, and protected over the lifetime of the park by the efforts of park staff, researchers, park partners, and a variety of individuals and institutions. Many items are fragile and require special conservation. The museum curator at Denali ensures that these irreplaceable pieces of the past will be available to future generations.

Exploring the museum collections at Denali National Park and Preserve is like touching history. The Museum Curator stands in the collections vault and slowly opens one of the cabinet drawers. What lies in the drawer, protected for years to come, is the parka that Barbara Washburn wore as the first woman to successfully summit Mount McKinley in 1947. A few cabinets away, another pulled drawer reveals willow ptarmigan in winter and summer plumage.

Such moments of Denali’s history are tucked away in the vault. Sometimes the stories behind the objects held in the collections are never fully known, but frequently, with information gleaned from letters, handwritten notes on photographs, and from researchers who provide collection data following Research and Collecting Permit protocols, stories can be woven around the objects to provide a special legacy of Denali’s past.

The Denali collections vault contains approximately 850 square feet of climate-controlled storage space that houses over 370,000 items from eight different disciplines: archeology, ethnology, history, archives, art, biology, paleontology, and geology. Outside the vault is a workroom where new acquisitions are checked for pests, accessioned and cataloged, and assigned space in the storage vault. Some collections are on loan to other institutions for research or display.

It is NPS policy to collect, protect, preserve, provide access to, and use of, park collections to aid understanding and advance knowledge. Collections play an important role in resource management, research, and interpretive programs; and function as baseline data for park natural and cultural resources. Each national park aims to meet the same legal mandates, and the standards and policies that have been set Service-wide, for museum collections. These uniform requirements protect the collections from inhospitable relative humidity, temperature, light, dust, water damage, and pests, as well as loss and deterioration over time.

Almost as important as protecting the objects, is documenting information about the objects, such as “who, what, when, where, why.” Objects separated from their associated data are less valuable to the historical record and thus to the telling of Denali’s stories.

A suite of plans directs the operations of Denali’s museum collections: a Scope of Collections (defines the purpose of the park’s museum collections), a Condition Assessment, and plans for management, storage, integrated pest management, and emergency operations. Each year, the Museum Curator generates a list of about 200 randomly-selected objects from the collections database, in order to make spot checks on the objects, making sure they are accounted for and properly preserved.

As early as 1943, there was a museum at Denali that housed exhibits of collected and borrowed objects. Later, collections were displayed in a building referred to as the “exhibit room.” In 1960, a new “exhibit room” was opened adjacent to a park entrance station. Park interpretive activities included exhibit room talks. At some point, the collections were stored, removing them from public view. In 2001, rehabilitation of a storage space in the Resources Building was completed, and the collections were transferred there, where they remain today.

The museum collections are open to anyone, by appointment, wishing to use the materials for non-consumptive, on-site study and research. Annually, the Museum Curator accommodates approximately 100 requests to use the collections. Tours can be arranged, if the Curator’s schedule allows, and volunteer opportunities are available. Donated items, to enhance the museum collections, are welcomed.

NPS Photo, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection, DENA 23554. For reuse information, please contact Denali's Museum Curator.

In 1922, the beginning of the route that would become the Denali Park Road was first brushed and surveyed. Over the next several years, park staff acquired funding and worked with the Alaska Road Commission (ARC) to blast rock, move gravel, and construct bridges to create the park road. Flooding and ice frequently damaged the road and many sections had to be repaired or rebuilt along the way.

This 92-mile ribbon of road—winding west from the park entrance to Kantishna—was eventually completed in 1938. From its inception, the park road has provided the primary access to the park. Going west, the road character makes transitions from a modern two-lane paved road (Mile 0–15), to a gravel two-lane road (Mile 15–31), to a rustic one-lane gravel road (Mile 31–92).

Since the 1972 opening of the George Parks Highway, park managers have been challenged to balance the growing demand for visitor opportunities to tour the road with the need to ensure that park resources are protected and visitors continue to have a safe, high-quality experience. A new park regulation was put in place in 1972 to restrict private vehicle travel beyond the Savage River and to institute a public transportation system. In 1986, managers set an annual limit of 10,512 vehicle trips (from the Saturday before Memorial Day to the second Thursday after Labor Day or September 15, whichever comes first).

For more on history of the park road, browse the Crown Jewel of the North (a park history in chapters)

The subsistence program at Denali helps protect the opportunity for qualified local rural residents to continue traditional subsistence activities. The program ensures management of park resources to be consistent with conservation of unimpaired ecosystems and natural and healthy populations of fish and wildlife. Management incorporates traditional ecological knowledge with scientific data and principles. Learn more about subsistence use of animals and the land in Denali.

The Cultural Resources program at Denali documents and shares the stories of people and the land, now and in the past, and helps preserve places and objects with special history. People have made their homes on lands now within park boundaries for perhaps as long as 12,000 years.

To protect the historic look of the park's historic headquarters district, a design document provides guidance and recommended treatments for work on historic structures in the Mt. McKinley Headquarters Historic District. Download Denali's Historic Design Guidelines .

A requirement of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) Section 106 process is that the public be aware of projects happening in parks, and their NHPA Assessment of Effect. If you have any questions, concerns, or would like any additional information about the NHPA assessment of effect for any of the projects listed in the documents below, please contact Denali's Section 106 Coordinator . 2026 NHPA Assessment of Effects for proposed projects at Denali 2025 NHPA Assessment of Effects for proposed projects at Denali 2024 NHPA Assessment of Effects for proposed projects at Denali

Denali's avifauna includes migratory birds from all over the globe and a hardy group of residents. The abundance of birds in Denali ebbs and flows across the seasons, increasing significantly as migrants return to Denali in spring and decreasing when they depart on their autumn migration. Summer birding in Denali rewards visitors with opportunities to view these migratory species in this spectacular northern environment. Birding in winter is slim by the numbers, but high in rewards as observations of pine grosbeaks, mixed flocks of ptarmigan, and perhaps a gyrfalcon or northern goshawk awaits the hardy winter birder. Explore the sections below to learn more about Denali’s birds and current research projects happening in the park.

Over 160 bird species call Denali home. Discover what birds you may see throughout the year and what habitats they may call home.

Explore a checklist of Denali's birds and plan what birds you'll try and spot in the park.

The Critical Connections Program is an effort to expand our knowledge about the year-round needs of migratory wildlife in National Parks.

Explore how Canada jays survive year-round in Denali's harsh environment and how they may indicate changes in climate.

Find out why golden eagles are monitored across interior Alaska as an important vital sign of ecosystem health.

Discover why tiny songbirds across interior Alaska have been studied since the early 1990's and the important role they play.

What do snowshoe hares and ptarmigans have in common? Find out more about the cycles of these important prey species.

Scientists in Denali have documented 39 species of mammals that range in size from tiny shrews that can weigh as little as a penny to enormous moose that can weigh over 1,200+ pounds.

For many visitors adventuring to the park, a major goal is to see wildlife. Five mammals in particular capture visitor's imaginations and are so popular they are now referred to as the big five. The assortment includes gawky moose browsing in the willow, throngs of caribou loping across the tundra, the iconic Dall sheep nestled high on the hillsides, formidable wolves on the prowl, and lumbering grizzly bears devouring blueberries.

Other mammals in Denali may be less alluring but are no less interesting and important. Sit on a talus slope and you might discover a collared pika gathering food for winter, a hoary marmot lounging in the sun on a rock, or a red fox carrying an arctic ground squirrel back to its den. If you venture to the park during the icy winter months, you may see all-white snowshoe hares hiding quietly amidst the snow piles, a wolverine bounding across the hillside hunting for its next meal, or perhaps you will hear voles and shrews scurrying beneath your feet in the space between the ground and the snow. No matter whether you hope to see a black bear or are happy watching scurrying red squirrels, Denali undoubtedly has a wide array of mammals that will help foster your connection with nature.

American robins are one of the most commonly seen birds in North America. Denali National Park scientists are tracking their migration through the Critical Connections project .

American robins live in Denali during the late spring, summer, and early fall. Look for them in forested areas, such as the park entrance and lower-elevation river valleys throughout the park.

Arctic warblers almost exclusively spend their summers in Alaska. They use grass, leaves, and moss to create domed-shaped nests on the ground. Arctic warblers spend the winter in eastern Eurasia. Their migration journey is studied through the park's Critical Connections project .

Arctic warblers breed in Denali during the late spring, summer, and early fall. They prefer thickets of willow, birch, and alder, near streams. Many such areas can be found near the Denali Park Road between Savage River (Mile 15) and Teklanika River (Mile 30), as well as creeks around Toklat River (Mile 53).

Black-billed magpies range across western North America. They build distinct large, globular nests out of sticks and twigs.

Black-billed magpies stay in Denali year-round. They are most commonly found in streamside groves and developed areas.

Blackpoll warblers take an incredible migratory journey each fall. They travel from Denali National Park to South America, often flying nonstop for over 72 hours. Blackpoll warbler migration is being monitored through the park's Critical Connections program.

Blackpoll warblers call the park home in the late spring, summer, and early fall. Find them nesting in the boreal forest or alder thickets. Such areas can be found throughout most of the first 40 miles of the park road, as well as the western-most 15 miles of the road.

Common ravens are incredibly adaptable. They live in habitats from tundra to desert across North America. Visitors often hear their croaking call.

Common ravens stay in Denali year-round. They can be found in the boreal forest or open tundra.

Golden eagles are an apex predator, hunting everything from ptarmigan to snowshoe hare. A golden eagle in Denali may travel over 250,000 miles in its lifetime. Park researchers study the habitat, migration, and behavior of these magnificent birds.

Golden eagles nest in Denali during mid-spring to late fall. Look for them on the open tundra or steep cliffs, like Polychrome Mountain (~ Miles 45 to 51) and near Eielson Visitor Center (Mile 66).

Canada jays are some of the hardiest residents of Denali National Park. They store extra food in scattered caches to feed off during the winter. Park research on Canada jays has revealed more about these birds and how they may be influenced by climate change.

Canada jays can be seen year-round in Denali. You can find them in the boreal forests. Most of the entrance area of Denali is boreal forest, as well as many river valleys throughout the park.

Gyrfalcons are powerful arctic predators. They may start laying eggs as soon as late winter. Park scientists are studying gyrfalcons to better understand their life cycle.

Gyrfalcons live in Denali year-round. They prefer open tundra for hunting and steep cliffs for nesting sites. Open tundra occurs at any elevation in the park above about 3,200', such as between Toklat River (Mile 53) and Eielson Visitor Center (Mile 66).

Long-tailed Jaegers spend most of their lives over the open ocean. They gather to the tundra of Denali however, to find mates and nest. Denali park scientists collaborate with The Migratory Connectivity Project to GPS tag and map long-tailed jaeger migration.

Long-tailed jaegers arrive in the park in late spring and remain until fall. They are usually spotted hunting or nesting in the open tundra. Open tundra occurs at any elevation in the park above about 3,200', such as between Toklat River (Mile 53) and Eielson Visitor Center (Mile 66).

Northern hawk owls live in remote northern regions of North America. Unlike many owls, they mainly hunt by day. They use their sharp eyesight and hearing to catch rodents and small birds.

Northern hawk owls are permanent residents of Denali. Look for them in open forested areas and around the edges of clearings. Some likely spots are the edges of forests along the Sanctuary and Teklanika Rivers.

Surfbirds spend the winter on rocky coastlines stretching from southeast Alaska to southern Chile. They migrate to localized areas in Alaska each summer however to breed and raise their young.

Surfbirds can be seen in Denali during the summer. They build their nests in rocky tundra, often above the tree line. Any of the mountains on the north side of the Denali Park Road are good areas to search.

Swainson's thrush travel to Denali from rainforests in Central and South America. Their migration pathway is studied through the park's Critical Connections project .

Swainson's thrush reside in Denali late spring to mid-fall. They can usually be found in forested areas with dense undergrowth. Anywhere low-elevation area between the park entrance and Park Headquarters (Mile 3) is a decent place to look, particularly some of the lower stretches of the Triple Lakes Trail .

Willow ptarmigans are one of the mostly commonly noticed birds on the Denali Park Road. These camouflaged birds molt their feathers twice a year - going from white in winter to brown in the summer. Park research has shown that willow ptarmigan population varies in cycles.

Willow ptarmigans live in Denali year-round. They are usually spotted in wet tundra, near willow scrub. The hills south of the park road between Savage River (Mile 15) and Sanctuary River (~ Mile 22) are good areas to search, although their favored terrain usually makes for uncomfortable hiking. It's also not uncommon to see ptarmigan on the side of the park road in many different areas.