National Parks have awed tourists and even locals for years. They provide an escape from the ordinary and relief from the everyday stress of society. National Parks provide insight into a simpler time where our ancestors were surrounded by the beauty of nature instead of the concrete jungles of modern day metropolitan areas. Few of these wonderful parks provide the same seclusion as Denali National Park in Alaska. It’s sights and sounds have fascinated many and will continue to provide a great escape from everyday life.
The original Mount McKinley National Park was established on February 26, 1917(Denali). It was originally founded as a wilderness area. In 1980, the park was renamed Denali National Park. This new Denali National Park was created to merge Mount McKinley National Park with Denali National Preserve. The word Denali literally means “great one”(qtd. in Encyclopedia Americana). The Native Americans referred to the great mountain as Denali. Most climbers still refer to Mount McKinley as Denali(Denali).
Denali’s location makes it a wonderful place to escape the ordinary. Denali National Park is situated in the central part of Alaska. The two major cities closest to it are Fairbanks, Alaska and Anchorage, Alaska. “There is one road entrance into Denali. The entrance is along Alaska Highway 3(also called George Parks Highway) about 240 miles north of Anchorage, 120 miles south of Fairbanks, and 12 miles south of Healy- the nearest year-round community.”(Plan Your Visit). The National Park is an 8,899 square mile protected area(Encyclopedia Americana). It provides an opportunity to view nature up close or from the comfort of a shuttle bus.
The weather at Denali adds to the beauty and mystery of the park itself. Accord...
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... Service - Experience Your America. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. .
"Denali, the summit of North America. The seven summits, the highest peaks of the 7 continents! Trips, Statistics & information!." The seven summits, the highest peaks of the 7 continents: Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, Carstensz! Trips, Statistics & information!. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. .
"Mount McKinley." World Book. M ed. 2011. Print.
Our national parks: America's spectacular wilderness heritage.. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest Association, 1985. Print.
"What to Do at Denali - National Geographic." Travel & Cultures -- National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. .
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Katmai National Park is located in the southern part of Alaska. It was established on September 24th, 1918 to protect the recently devastated region. President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill, entering it as a national park.
Peter. "Chris McCandless from an Alaska Park Ranger's Perspective." Chris McCandless from an Alaska Park Ranger's Perspective. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
In the foreword to "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, A Photographic Journey," former US President Jimmy Carter voices strong opposition to proposals that aim to industrialize areas of natural tundra in Alaska. He urges readers to look beyond short term financial gain and to protect nature’s innate beauty. In order to persuade his audience that the Arctic Refuge should be preserved, Carter develops pathetic appeal through the use of personal anecdotes, precise word choice, and evocative imagery.
Scientists believe that the ice in Glacier bay during the first ice age could have been nearly 1000 feet thick! And as the original glacier has diminished in size from that time, it has left 20 separate glaciers, of which two are tidewater glaciers that calve into the bay. And as recently as 200 years ago, in almost all of Glacier Bay, a fjord was covered by the Grand Pacific Glacier; since then the ice has been retreating and Glacier Bay, now 65 miles long, has taken it’s present form. When Captain Lester A. Berdslee of the U.S. Navy was in it in 1980, its beauty took him away. He gave it the name “Glacier Bay” because of it’s striking locality. This was also the same year when it was declared an national park and preserve. Though years earlier it was proclaimed a national monument in 1925. And then in 1992 it was designed a UNESCO World Heritage site. Today, the park’s headquarters are at Gustavuas, near the mouth of the bay. The bay, which is studded with many largely treeless islands that are used a rookeries by thousands of seabirds, has fjord like inlets that terminate at ice cliffs or sheer faces of the glaciers. It contains at 16 active glaciers that descend from the St. Elias Mountains to the east and Fair-weather Rage to the west. The park and reserve cover an area of 5,129 square miles and includes Glacier Bay itself, the northern, southern, and western slopes of Mount Fairweather, and the U.S. portion of the Alsek
National Parks are the cornerstone of every country because it preserves the rich cultural and natural resources of a nation, such as Yellowstone in the United States of America. Yellowstone National Park is the World’s First National Park which brings millions of attraction each year, it is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combine and have over a thousand species of plants and animal (Yellowstone Media). However, a very important type of species has been missing in Yellowstone National Park for a very long time. Wolves, which got reintroduce back into Yellowstone National Park, should stay there because without them the ecosystem would be out of balance.
Yellowstone park was the first national park in the United States. The park dates back as far as 11,000 years ago, when the Native Americans were the first to stumble upon the
We are so fortunate to live in California and have access to so many of the properties operated by the National Park Service. There are thirteen national parks in California and I have been to seven of them. Enjoying the outdoors is something that is innate to our family. Even before our children could walk they were enjoying hikes through Yosemite in backpacks. This is an amazing fact that I learned from the map given to me in Sequoia National Park; “The only place Giant Sequoias grow now is on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. The 75 distinct groves are found within a narrow band about 260 miles long and 15 miles wide, at its widest point.” (Sequoia National Park, 2012). Without the National Park Service protecting and maintaining parks like Sequoia National Park, there may not be any place like this for my children to learn about this beautiful country that we live
The history behind this Alaskan national park is interesting. In 1786, the first european arrived at the glacier region. His name is Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse and he came across with Native Americans living there in Alaska. Later on, Russia declared the Alaskan land theirs in 1788. In the 1890’s, Americans began to grow interest in the land for the gold located there.
For most Americans, traveling to and from home is relatively simple. Travel in most of the United States is on paved roadways, and most roadways draw very little attention from conservationist groups. This, however, is not the case for residents in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
By placing this emphasis on beauty in the wilderness the American people expected to see a beautiful wilderness, although in reality these two are not mutually exclusive. Muir supported a form of natural improvement in which alterations to the natural world are made, but not with any economic value in mind. Interestingly, Muir suggests that our wildness is a commodity to which, we are glad to see how much of even the most destructible kind is still unspoiled”. (Muir) By the time the National Park Service was founded in 1916 the American people wanted to be entertained by, and in, nature
...e, and a quaint town only five minutes from the national park, there is always something to keep you entertained. As one of the last, nearly intact, temperate ecosystems on Earth it is home to a very unstable, diverse ecosystem. Come to this magnificently beautiful mountain range, and witness all its beauty and serenity first hand.
Somewhere in Nova Scotia, there exist a beautiful park with fascinating scenery. It is in an island that’s surrounded by bodies of water that sparkles like crystals as the sun shine on it. This park must be a creation of aphrodite and it is also known as Cape Breton Highlands Park. It is located at Cheticamp and Ingonish, Cape Breton island, Nova Scotia. It has an area of
gravel road open to the public that is in the park, but very few people
The North Cascades became a national park on October 2, 1968. It is located in the north central area of Washington. Since it’s inception the park’s mission statement has evolved to include concerns of the entire ecosystem. (www.seattleinsider.com) When you go to the North Cascades in Washington, you can visit and do a variety of things. Some major tourist attractions are the beautiful ice sculpted, jagged mountains, which rise above deep-forested valleys-terrain carved by moving ice. The Park Complex contains more glaciers than any other national park in the United States outside Alaska. These glaciers are an important source of water for salmon, other wildlife, plants, and people in the Puget Sound region. The cascading waters, which provide a large and expanding nearby population with a wide variety of recreational opportunities, from boating and camping to climbing and backpacking. The vast wildlife also is a major attraction because it is the core of one of the largest protected wild areas in the United States and is a substantial portion of it is designated wilderness. Humans here are visitors, who come to enjoy nature on nature's terms. The park provides a habitat for one of the greatest diversities of plant life in North America including rare and sensitive species. Some wildlife that live here are a variety of fish, deer, moose, geese, all kinds of birds, horses, bald eagles, wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, mountain goats and black bears. Ancient forest holds millions of living organisms and thousands of diverse life forms. The history of the park in general is also a tourist attraction for the park its was after all home to at least 4 tribes whose descendants now live nearby and includes, within its boundaries, three contemporary communities. (www.northcascades.net)