The Park and Preserve are open year round. It is best to call each office prior to arrival to confirm current operational hours.

Fairbanks Headquarters: Open Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Closed on Holidays. (907) 457-5752

Bettles Ranger Station / Visitor Center: From mid-June to Labor Day: Open 7 days a week, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (sometimes closed noon – 1:00pm for lunch). Remainder of Year: Open Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – Noon / 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Closed on Holidays. (907) 692-5495

Coldfoot Visitor Center: Open year-round Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. – noon / 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Closed on Holidays. (907) 678-4227

Arctic Interagency Visitor Center: Open Memorial Day to Labor Day, 7 days a week, 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. (907) 678-5209

Anaktuvuk Pass Ranger Station: Outside display is open year-round; call for ranger station hours.  (907) 661-3520.

Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is a wilderness designated region. Therefore there are no campgrounds, roads, established hiking or backpacking trails or other maintained visitor facilities within its boundaries. When Congress established Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in 1980, it protected a vast and undeveloped area of superlative natural beauty and intact ecosystems.

These parklands represent a variety of ecotypes ranging from the lowland lakes and rivers of the forested south slopes across the gaunt spine of the continent to the rolling, treeless tundra of the northern foothills of the Arctic Slope. The wilderness values of this area are of paramount importance. Robert Marshall first extolled the qualities of the unmapped Central Brooks Range and the diverse inhabitants of Wiseman in the 1930s in his popular books about his sojourns and about the social structures in this isolated region causing it to become a landscape of inspiration for people around the world. Two sites within Gates of the Arctic were designated national natural landmarks in April 1968—Arrigetch Peaks (37,400 acres) and Walker Lake (181,120 acres). The entire Noatak River drainage, of which the headwaters are in Gates of the Arctic, is internationally recognized as a biosphere reserve in the United Nations’ “Man in the Biosphere” program.

Taken in a regional context, the park is a centerpiece in nearly 35 million acres of protected areas spanning the 700 mile expanse of the Brooks Range. Ten small communities are within the subsistence resident zone for the park and are home to approximately 1,500 residents. Many of these residents continue to depend on resources within the park to sustain a subsistence way of life and maintain cultural traditions. For the Nunamiut Eskimos of Anaktuvuk Pass, the Kobuk Eskimos, and the northern-most Koyukon Indians the hunt continues. Their cultures are still rooted in traditional subsistence ways of life; their hunting and fishing places are respected within the parkland. Subsistence activities occur throughout the year and expand significantly with the relative ease of overland travel in the winter months.

Northern Alaska is not the trackless wilderness that many people perceive it to be. Humans have continuously explored and lived in the region and used its resources for more than 12,500 years. It was across the Bering Land Bridge and later across the strait itself that groups of people entered northwest Alaska. For untold centuries it has been the homeland of Athapaskan and Inupiat people who used resources and occupied the land in a manner that preserved its integrity for the benefit of all Americans now and in the future.

The earliest traces of human occupation in the central Brooks Range are still somewhat controversial. Artifacts from the Brooks Range, similar to those found in Paleo-Indian sites of temperate North America which contain the remains of extinct mammoths and bison, have led some to argue for an ancient Indian tradition over 12,000 years in age. Other archeologists believe these finds to be later in time, or only about 8,000 years old. The Putu site, located just northeast of the park and estimated to be over 11,000 years old, may be an example of a Paleo-Indian site in the vicinity of the park and preserve.

The controversy aside, the first demonstrable use of the area is by people of the American Paleo-Arctic tradition, which probably has its origins in northern Asia. They were nomadic hunters and gatherers, living off the land and traveling in small groups. Unlike many later groups, these early people did not depend on sea mammal hunting for their subsistence, but hunted caribou and other land animals. Northern Alaskan examples of this tradition include the Akmak and Kobuk assemblages from the Onion Portage site on the Kobuk River that are between 7,800 and 9,600 years old, and an assemblage from the Galagher Flint Station, just northeast of the park, that is 10,500 years old.

The next wave of people apparently moved into northern Alaska from the forested regions to the south and east. These Northern Archaic people arriving about 6,500 years ago, had a distinctively different material culture, and apparently depended on caribou and fishing in rivers and streams for their livelihood, staying inland and near the trees most of the time. Many archeologists believe that these people represent an Indian culture rather than an Eskimo culture.

At Onion Portage the Northern Archaic tradition persists from 6,000 to 4,200 years ago. Within the park the Tuktu-Naiyuk site (near Anaktuvuk Pass), with radiocarbon dates from 6,500 years ago is a site from this time. Elsewhere within the unit, undated sites relating to the Northern archaic tradition have been found along the upper Kobuk and the North Fork of the Koyukuk rivers, Kurupa Lake, and others.

About 4,200 years ago, arctic-oriented cultures again appeared in northern Alaska. Either a new wave of people or new ideas came into Alaska from Asia. The Arctic Small Tool tradition, so named because of their finely made stone tools, was a dynamic one, adapting to make efficient use of a wide range of arctic resources. The earliest culture of this tradition spread as far south as Bristol Bay and as far eastward as Greenland, occupying interior and coastal areas. These people moved throughout the arctic over a long time span (the tradition lasted over 1,000 years). They were adept at the use of both the coast and the interior.

The earliest of these cultures, the Denbigh Flint complex, lasted at Onion Portage from 4,200 to 3,800 years ago, while at Mosquito Lake, just northeast of the park, it has been dated at about 2,200 years. The Ipiutak complex, the last complex of the Arctic Small Tool tradition, is represented at sites as Itkillik Lake and near Anaktuvuk Pass and continued until about 1,500 years ago.

By about 1,000 years ago, with the development of the Western Thule culture, the beginnings of modern Eskimo culture became visible in the archeological record. Over the centuries, these people learned to fully exploit both the resources of the coast and the interior. They spread across the arctic, eventually reaching as far eastward as Greenland and Labrador and as far south as the Alaska Peninsula. Local specializations developed. The people who lived along the coast of the Arctic Ocean were the Northern Maritime culture, while those who lived along the Noatak and Kobuk rivers are named the Arctic Woodland culture. The group that lived mostly in the interior part of the northern Alaska—in the Brooks Range and on the North Slope—is called the Arctic Tundra culture.

Within the park area, the historic Nunamiut Eskimos were the descendants of these groups. They spent most of their time in the mountains and on the tundra. However, they maintained cultural ties, through extensive travel and trading, with other groups in northern Alaska.

Athabaskan peoples have inhabited the south side of the Brooks Range and central Alaska for at least a thousand years. Several times in those centuries Athabaskan groups have moved into the Brooks Range. In historic times, such groups as the Dihai Kutchin also lived in the central Brooks Range and on its southern flanks.

Thus, the park and preserve contain archeological sites representative of every cultural tradition known in northern Alaska. This important record will be expanded in the coming years, providing a more complete understanding of the complicated history of human use of the region.

In 1850 the central Brooks Range was still largely isolated from influences from European and Euro-American culture. Kobuk Eskimos and Koyukon and Kutchin Athabaskans made seasonal journeys into the area from the Kobuk, Koyukuk, and Chandalar River basins. Principal native activities within the area were hunting and fishing, which followed the seasonal movement of game and fish. Trading among these coastal people along travel routes allowed cultural exchange and the exchange of inland and coastal products, particularly caribou skins and seal oil. What is now Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve was an area of shifting cultural boundaries and periodic migrations to richer river and coastal environments when game concentrations shifted.

In the mid-1880s American explorers began probing the central Brooks Range. In 1885 and 1886, Lt. G.M. Stoney and the U.S. Navy’s expedition ascended the Kobuk River and explored the western and central Brooks Range, traveling near Anaktuvuk Pass. Lt. John Cantwell’s Revenue Marine Service expedition explored the region via Kobuk and Noatak rivers at the same time. The first white men to enter the Koyukuk River drainage north of the Arctic Circle were Lt. Henry Allen and Pvt. Fred Fickett of the U.S. Army in 1885. In some cases, native people guided these explorers. Allen’s expedition resulted in the beginning of prospecting on the Upper Koyukuk River. Gold was discovered in paying quantities at Tramway Bar on the Middle Fork of the Koyukuk River in 1893. Trading posts and riverboats began to appear on the mid-reaches of the Koyukuk, and the stage was set for the gold rushes of 1898, which overflowed from the Klondike to the Kobuk and Koyukuk rivers. In sequence, “Old Bettles”, Coldfoot, and Wiseman became established mining and trading camps. For the next three decades miners scoured the southern flanks of the central Brooks Range with varying success. A marginal lobe of mining activity centered on the North Fork of the Koyukuk and its tributary Glacier River within the southeastern sector of what is now the national park.

These placer workings were relatively unimportant compared to those on the Middle and South Forks of the Koyukuk and the upper Chandalar just to the east.

Also, around the turn of the century, prospectors reached the area of the Noatak River headwaters. Records of miners are left in place names of the region, such as Midas and Lucky Six creeks. These names were based on hope rather than results because no worthwhile gold strikes were ever made in the area.

Cabins from the various waves of miners and trappers who followed provide the few tangible historic resources of the park area. Most have been rendered to ruins by time and weather. To date, numerous ruins have been identified as well as two sanding cabins, the Yale cabin on the Glacier River built by a prospector and the Vincent Knorr cabin on Mascot Creek, a carefully constructed early miner’s cabin.

The flurry of mining activity triggered a series of significant U.S. Geological Survey expeditions. Beginning with the F.C. Gerdine expedition in the Chandalar/Koyukuk region in 1899, a heroic tradition of surface transits of the central Brooks Range was established by the leading field men of the Geological Survey. Mendenhall, Maddren, Mertie, and P.S. Smith are only a few of those who, with Schrader and Gerdine, mark this period of scientific exploration. Paralleling the geographic, geologic, and mineral studies and mapping of the Geological Survey, the work of noted biologists, such as the Murie brothers, and later anthropological studies furthered the scientific tradition in this vast mountain laboratory.

A profound event in the Brooks Range was the exploratory saga of Robert Marshall. Beginning in 1929 he joined some of the old hands in extensive explorations into the North Fork country and, at the mountain portal leading to the inner recesses of the range, bestowed the name Gates of the Arctic. Based largely on information gathered from local informant, he wrote popular books about his sojourns and about the social structures in this isolated region. More than this, Marshall employed a philosophy and a literature of ultimate wilderness for the central Brooks Range. His work and perceptions over an intense decade before his early death influenced the development of wilderness preservation ideals in America and the creation of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.

The boundary of the National Park and Preserve includes about 8.2 million acres of public land with approximately 7.2 million acres designated as wilderness. Contiguous with the 5.6 million acres of designated wilderness in the Noatak National Preserve to the west, this rugged landscape is one of the world’s largest protected areas. Taken in a regional context, the park is a centerpiece in nearly 35 million acres of protected areas spanning the 700 mile expanse of the Brooks Range.

The central Brooks Range is a remote area of rugged, glaciated east-trending ridges that rise to elevations of 8,500 feet. The range is part of the Rocky Mountain system that stretches completely across the northern part of Alaska. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve spreads across three land classifications: Arctic Foothills, Arctic Mountains, and Western Alaska. Two primary mountain ranges make up the central Brooks Range—the Endicott and Schwatka Mountains. Uplift, erosion, and heavy glaciations account for the rugged mountain profiles and U-shaped valleys evident today. Metamorphic rocks, primarily quartz mica schist and chloritic schist, belt the south flank of the range. There are also a few small bodies of marble and dolomites. Granitic intrusion created the rugged Arrigetch Peaks and Mt. Igikpak areas. The primary metallic minerals found within the region include copper, gold, lead, and zinc. The major known deposits of minerals occur in a schist belt that generally lies south and west of the park in the Ambler mining district and may extend into the park. The only known mineral produced in the park is gold. Placer mines operated historically in the Nolan-Hammond River areas near Wiseman, the North Fork, Wild Lake, and Mascot Creek. There has also been some limited gold production in the Noatak River drainage near Midas Creek.

Four major glaciations have been recognized within this region of the Brooks Range. The first glaciation (Anaktuvuk River) took place more than one-half million years ago. The second (Sagavanirktok River) is thought to be broadly equivalent to the Illinoian glaciation of central North America. The last two glacial periods (Itkillik and Walker Lake) are thought to correlate with the Wisconsin advance in central North America. Glaciers were generated at relatively high altitudes near the crest of the range during the more extensive glaciations. Ice flowed from these sources southward through the major valley systems to terminate at and beyond the south flank of the range. Most all-terminal moraines created natural dams that allowed the forming of large lakes along the southern foothills.

The northern portion of the park has petroliferous rocks within drilling depths. The principal reservoir rock in this area is the upper Paleozoic Lilburn formation. There are some potentially large hydrocarbon-bearing structures north of the range front, and petroleum may also exist in Cretaceous or Devonian formations.

The paleontological resources of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve consist of small fossils of invertebrates, shells, and corals found in the metamorphosed rocks of the Brooks Range. A few plant fossils have been found in sandstones near the divide. Most of these fossils are inconspicuous and difficult to identify. The value of these fossils is largely scientific. They have been examined and collected by scientists, particularly by members of the U.S. Geological Survey, over the past 30 years. They provide information useful in dating rocks and establishing the geological sequence related to life forms.

Permafrost, or ground that remains frozen for more than two years, lies under virtually all of the park and preserve. Atop the permafrost lies a thin layer of ground that thaws during the summer. This thin mantle, ranging from 6 inches to several feet in depth, supports plants that tend to hold the thawing soil in place, or at least slow and modify its movement. Solifluction (soil creep) is common, even on moderate slopes.

Tributaries of four major river systems originate in the park and preserve. To the north the Nigu, Killik, Chandler, Anaktuvuk, and Itkillik rivers drain to the Colville River. The Noatak River flows west and the Kobuk River southwest, both from the headwaters in the western part of the park. The John, Alatna and North Fork of the Koyukuk rivers drain south to the Yukon. There are only a few small glaciers in the park, so the rivers normally run clear except after rains and during spring breakup.

The Alatna River was dedicated a wild and scenic river on December 2, 1980. The main stem of the river lies within Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. It drains the central Brooks Range. Wildlife viewing, spectacular scenery and interesting geologic features abound along the river corridor. The John River was dedicated a wild and scenic river on December 2, 1980. Flowing south from Anaktuvuk Pass through Alaska’s Brooks Range it terminates at the Koyukuk River just below Bettles Field/Evansville. The valley of the John River is an important migration route for the Arctic caribou herd. From its headwaters in the Endicott Mountains and Walker Lake, the Kobuk River courses south and west through a wide valley and passes through two scenic canyons. It has one of largest concentrations of sheefish and one of the largest continuous spruce forest areas in the Brooks Range. The Noatak River drains the largest mountain ringed river basin in America that is still virtually unaffected by human activities. The North Fork of the Koyukuk flows from the south flank on the Arctic Divide through broad, glacially carved valleys in the rugged Endicott Mountains of the Central Brooks Range. It passes between the “Gates of the Arctic” at Boreal Mountain and Frigid Crags. The Tinayguk is the largest tributary of the North Fork of the Koyukuk.

Three warm springs are located within the park and preserve. The Reed River spring is located near the headwaters of the Reed River and had a measured water temperature of 122ºF at the warmest pool (NPS, USDI 1982). A warm spring is also located on the lower Kugrak River and another near the Alatna River.

Alluvial deposits are the principal aquifers for groundwater, which is greatly restricted by permafrost. When under pressure from frost, groundwater bursts to the surface in places, forming conical hills of mud and debris called pingos. Examples of these can be seen in the upper valley of the North Fork of the Koyukuk and the upper Noatak River Valley.

Three major vegetation associations occur in the park and preserve—the taiga (boreal forest), tundra and shrub thicket. Alpine and moist tundra are the most extensive vegetation types. The taiga reaches its northernmost limit along the southern flanks of the Brooks Range within the park.

Alpine tundra communities occur in mountainous areas and along well-drained rocky ridges. The soils tend to be coarse, rocky, and dry. A community of low, mat-forming heather vegetation is characteristic of much of the area. Exposed outcrops of talus sustain sparse islands of cushion plants, such as moss campion and saxifrage, interspersed with lichens. The low-growth forms of these plants protect them from snow and sand abrasion in this windswept environment. Other important plants include dryas, willows, heather, lichens, and especially reindeer lichens. Grasses, sedges, and herbs are also present.

The taiga, or boreal forest, reaches its northern limit at about latitude 67º30′N along the river valleys of the south slope of the Brooks Range. The extensive forest cover found south of the mountains thins into scattered stands of spruce mixed with hardwoods that follow the river valleys north into the mountains to an elevation of about 2,100 feet. This spruce-hardwood forest takes two forms. White spruce usually in association with scattered birch or aspen is commonly found on moderate south-facing slopes. Heaths, such as bearberry, crowberry, Labrador tea, blueberry, and cranberry are common as are willows. Lichens and mosses cover the forest floor along with a variety of herbs. Some large, pure stands of white spruce occur along rivers such as the Kobuk and balsam poplar are also found in such areas. On the north-facing slopes and on poorly drained lowlands, black spruce is predominant. These trees, which grow very slowly, are usually stunted and often scattered. It is not uncommon to find a 2-inch diameter tree that is 100 years old. The under story in these areas is spongy moss and low brush.

As the tree line is approached, the forest thins out until spruce are scattered among the shrub thicket community. In one type of shrub thicket, dwarf and resin birch, willows and alder may be extremely dense or open and interspersed with reindeer lichens, low heath-type shrubs, or patches of alpine tundra. Alder is usually found on moister sites and birch on drier sites. Such shrub thickets typically occur up to 3,000 feet in elevation. A second type of shrub thicket association occurs along the alluvial plain and gravel bars of braided or meandering streams. Willows and alders predominate and are associated with dwarf fireweed, horsetails, prickly rose, and other herbs and shrubs. These thickets develop rapidly in floodplains that are newly exposed after breakup and spring flooding.

Arctic tundra can be divided into two main groups, dry and moist. Dry tundra is dominated by mat-forming shrubs, and is commonly found on higher, well drained “terraces”. While showing reasonable resistance to recreational use, dry tundra is still considered fragile, and susceptible to damage with moderate use. Moist tundra is found in low-lying, poorly drained areas where the permafrost is close to the surface, in the foothills and in pockets of moderately drained soils on hillsides and along river valleys. Moist tundra is often dominated by a variety of sedges such as tussock cottongrass 6-10 inches high. Tussocks form as a Cottongrass clump, which grows then, dies back each year, accumulating dead leaves that decompose slowly in the cold temperatures. Mosses and lichens grow in the moist channels between the tussocks. Other plants include grasses, small shrubs (dwarf birch, willow, and Labrador tea), and a few herbs. The soils underlying moist tundra are easily reduced to muck by foot or vehicle traffic.

Recreational visitors make their way into the park and preserve annually to float rivers, base camp on remote lakes or backpack through countless passes connecting drainages. Backcountry visitors stay for an average of 11 days during the long hours of light from June through September. Generally, these small, self-sufficient groups rely on bush planes with highly skilled pilots to drop them off and pick them up. Use increases in the autumn in the two preserve units where general hunting and angling is allowed. Winter recreational trips are a rarity and tend to occur from mid-February to May with the return of the sun.

There are six wild rivers in the park, giving you ample opportunities for wilderness area exploration and loads of adventure travel. The Alatna River was dedicated a wild and scenic river and offers wildlife, spectacular scenery and interesting geologic features along the river corridor. The John River, also a wild and scenic river, offers family float stream, excellent hiking and backpacking in upper river area and wildlife viewing. The Kobuk River is an exceptional float river for canoeing or kayaking, with a few short stretches of extremely rugged rapids (up to class V); has good opportunities for sport hunting (in Preserve only); wildlife observation and backpacking; one of largest concentrations of sheefish for superb Alaska fishing opportunities; wintering grounds for Western Arctic caribou herd; and one of the largest continuous spruce forest areas in the Brooks Range. One of the longest designated wild rivers in Alaska, the Noatak River has good floating/boating, sightseeing, and wildlife viewing opportunities. The North Fork of the Koyukuk offers outstanding wilderness backpacking; clear water and challenging whitewater rafting and kayaking; and is a major caribou migration route. The Tinayguk is the largest tributary of the North Fork of the Koyukuk. Both lie entirely within the pristine environment of Gates of the Arctic National Park. High potential for hiking and backpacking trips exists, although access is more difficult than North Fork of Koyukuk.

Sport hunting for moose along the Kobuk River in the preserve is becoming a more popular activity. Hunters gain access by air or boat. Dall sheep are widespread throughout the mountainous alpine areas of the park and preserve. Recreational fishing is primarily for arctic grayling, arctic char, sheefish, and lake trout.

Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve offers a unique arctic environment to study climatic shifts, geologic processes, and more recently human caused factors such as air and water pollution, introduced and exotic species and the role of fire in a natural environment. In addition, because the region is so remote and inaccessible, the major routes people use for access and transportation provide opportunities to study the recovery of disturbed lands.

Interior Alaska is a lightning fire region. Wildfire plays an important role in maintaining a variety of habitats. Successional plant communities, which are beneficial for wildlife habitat and diversity, are induced by fire. Fire also plays a role in recycling nutrients. The successional stages that follow a fire vary, depending primarily on topography, seed source, severity of the burn, and moisture. Generally, successional stages following a fire include pioneer species such as fireweed, Labrador tea, willows and alders, followed by quaking aspen on upland, south facing slopes, paper birch on east- or west-facing slopes, and balsam poplars on the river plain. Eventually the white or black spruce association will invade and begin to dominate. The recovery rate of the boreal forest zone is relatively slow, spruce and reindeer lichen may require 100-150 years to recover. The forests within the park boundaries are not considered commercially valuable. Trees are occasionally harvested under permit for house logs, and local residents cut firewood.

In 2002, field surveys were conducted to look for exotic vascular plant species in Alaska National Park units. The National Park Service (NPS) defines exotic species as those occurring in a given area as a result of human actions (Densmore et. al 2001). These species are of concern to the NPS because they can out-compete native species, thereby altering the natural landscape, decreasing biodiversity, degrading habitats for native flora and fauna, and jeopardizing the genetic integrity of the affected parks (Allen and Hansen 1999). The purpose of the current study is to survey areas of current or historical human use within Alaska National Parks and compile a database of the locations and identities of any exotic vascular plants encountered in these areas.

While comprehensive data have not been collected in this region, the air quality of the park and preserve and surrounding area is generally considered excellent. Smoke from forest and tundra fires can degrade air quality from June to August.

Although the average summer temperatures can be quite mild, it can snow at any time of the year in the Brooks Range. The month of August is usually the rainy season. The central Brooks Range has long severe winters and relatively short cool summers. The south side of the Brooks Range below 2,500 feet is generally a sub-arctic climate zone. Precipitation is low, averaging 12-18 inches in the west and 8-12 inches in the east. Snow falls 8 to 9 months of the year, averaging 60-80 inches. The average maximum and minimum July temperatures are 70ºF and 46ºF, respectively. Thunderstorm activity is common during June and July, and June through September is the wettest time of year. Prevailing winds are out of the north. Average maximum and minimum January temperatures are -10ºF and -30ºF.

The north side of the Brooks Range has an arctic climate. Mean annual temperatures are colder than on the south side. Maximum and minimum February temperatures range from 33ºF to -47ºF. The warmest month, July, has 60ºF maximum and 40ºF minimum. Precipitation is extremely light, about 5-10 inches a year, making this essentially an “arctic desert.” Snow has been recorded in every month of the year, and the annual average is 45 inches. Prevailing winds from the east in summer and west in winter are greatly modified by local terrain.

Current Weather

With the remoteness and no facilities within the park each visitor must be well prepared and self sufficient. Equipment, supplies, and even emergency services may not be available. Wilderness skills are essential. In many areas of the park it may be weeks before you encounter another person. Planning your route is an important part of your adventure. The Brooks Range is a vast area and will require you to spend some time with topographic maps planning your trip. Leave your specific itinerary (including a complete description of gear carried and skill levels) with a dependable person before venturing into the wilderness. Be prepared for emergencies and for radical changes in the weather. Always carry enough food for extra days because inclement weather can delay air service. You should allow for extra time and alternate itineraries; you could conceivably wait days for decent flying weather. Your guide/air taxi operator can provide you with options, and help you formulate realistic plans and expectations.

Make certain that your equipment is sturdy and functional, and that you have adequate field repair kits. First aid knowledge and supplies are a must. Signaling devices such as smoke flares, mirrors, strobes, or signal cloths should be carried for emergencies. If you carry a ground to air radio or personal emergency locating device, realize that they are to be used in serious emergencies only. Personal Emergency Locator Beacons (PELBs) are available for sale or rent in Anchorage and Fairbanks but are quite pricey. The device that has proven most useful over the years (here and in other remote regions around Alaska) is the least technologically advanced – the signal mirror. This along with ground markings (rocks, tarps, clothing, etc. spelling HELP or SOS) will most likely be seen by pilots flying through the area. An air-to-ground radio is a device that enables communication with a pilot in your area. Some air-taxi services provide these to their clients to allow them to speak with their pilot on the day of pick-up or in an EMERGENCY situation. These are not intended for casual conversation with pilots flying through the area. During the extended periods of 24-hour sunlight or in heavy overcast skies, flares have not always proven to be visible to pilots flying overhead. At present, only limited means of technologically advanced communication work effectively in the backcountry. Cell phones do not work in Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve. Leave your specific itinerary (including a complete description of gear carried and skill levels) with a dependable person before venturing into the wilderness. Let them know when you return from your trip. Inform your air taxi operator how to reach your emergency contact if necessary.

Tree growth in the Arctic is very slow; a spruce tree only inches in diameter may be hundreds of years old. In some areas wood may be scarce or nonexistent. Because of this, gas or propane stoves for cooking are strongly recommended. A gas or propane stove is also good for emergencies since it is easy to light. If you need an open fire, it should be built on exposed inorganic soil. Fire at other locations will kill the vegetation and create long-lasting scars. Only dead and downed wood should be burned. Avoid using rocks to construct fire rings. All traces of the fire should be erased before you leave. Remove all bits of foil, wire and other unburned materials from the ashes and pack them out. All ashes and charcoal should be deposited in the main current of a river if possible. A fire pan can be easily carried and it will prevent fire scars. If these steps are taken, others will not be attracted to camp repeatedly at the same location, allowing the site to recover.

In the backcountry you could also use this backpacking list: compass, GPS, tent, a warm sleeping bag, campstove, fuel, good hiking boots, warm, layered clothing (not cotton), cooking and eating utensils, water, or tablets to treat water if you are not going to boil it for one minute, flashlight if traveling when there is area darkness, good quality backpack, rain gear, waterproof bags for supplies, multiuse tool, knife, extra set of clothes, incase you get wet, matches,  garbage bags, hiking rope, topographical maps, extra food as already mentioned, sunglasses, and if hiking into the mountains, ice axe or snow shoes.

The mosquitoes are out in large numbers from mid-June to mid-August. Other pesky insects can be around throughout September. The entire region receives continuous sunlight during the summer for at least 30 days. Conversely, winter residents and visitors will experience long periods of darkness and twilight. Mosquito head nets and repellent are strongly suggested.

Carry a collapsible water jug to cut down on trips for water, thereby reducing trail formation. Bathe and wash dishes at least 100 feet from sources of drinking water and use biodegradable soaps. Water may contain Giardia lamblia, or other intestinal parasites. It is recommended that you drink only boiled, filtered or chemically treated water.

Human feces carry harmful micro-organisms. Bury feces at least 200 feet from all potential water sources. To promote decomposition, choose a site in organic soil. Dig a small hole 6 to 8 inches deep. After use, bury completely and replace the tundra. Mosses, leaves, and snow make for natural toilet papers. All paper products, including feminine hygiene products should be packed out or burned.

Arctic tundra can be divided into two main groups, dry and moist. Dry tundra is dominated by mat-forming shrubs, and is commonly found on higher, well drained “terraces”. These areas can attract significant recreation since they provide easier walking and better camping than the heavily tussocked moist tundra. While showing reasonable resistance to recreational use, dry tundra is still considered fragile, and susceptible to damage with moderate use. Moist tundra is found in low-lying, poorly drained areas where the permafrost is close to the surface. Moist tundra is often dominated by a variety of sedges such as tussock cottongrass. The soils underlying moist tundra are easily reduced to muck by foot or vehicle traffic. The practice of Leave No Trace principles is essential to minimizing impacts to the tundra regions of northern Alaska. Travel and camp on durable surfaces and properly dispose of waste (pack it in, pack it out). The cumulative impact of large groups on the environment is especially noticeable and lasting in Arctic eco-systems. A group of 4 to 6 people strikes a good balance between safety and environmental concerns. Hike on existing trails to minimize disturbance to soil and vegetation. Avoid multiple trail formation. If no trails exist, a group should travel in a fan pattern whenever possible. Above all, leave your trail unmarked.

The lakes at the various put in and take out points of float trips are receiving heavy camping use (Twelvemile Slough, Portage Lake, Nelson Walker Lake, Pingo Lake and Lake Matcharak). Vegetation around the lakes is being destroyed and the impact is detracting from the area’s wild character. After arriving, move directly to the river to camp on gravel bars. Use existing trails between lakes and the river. Do not build fires on the tundra.

When crossing rivers, use the following precautions. First, plan well, by choosing a careful route and a good technique. Stream currents are swift and cold and the water level can rise significantly within a few hours, making a slow stream an impassable torrent. Silt carried in the rivers can prevent a clear view of the obstacles along the bottom. Second, pick a route through the widest channels or where there are many channels instead of just one. As water disperses it’ll run more slowly and shallow out. Spend time walking up and downstream, or climbing to a high point, in order to find a crossing site suitable for the entire group. Thirdly, watch the water’s surface while choosing a route, since this may offer the most reliable information about depth and riverbed composition. Do not cross through standing waves. There the bottom is uneven and water is deep. Do cross where there are small, closely spaced ripples. There the water is shallow over a smooth bottom. Keep in mind that Brooks Range rivers are often deeper after the warmest part of the day due to melting of snow pack high in the mountains. Next, check your choice by throwing big rocks into the water. A hollow “ka-thump” sounds in deep water. If the rock moves downstream before sinking to the bottom, or if submerged rocks can be heard rolling downstream, the current may be too swift to cross at that point. Finally, always include an option for a retreat back to shore should the crossing become too difficult. Never over commit yourself to one route. Seal all essential items, such as dry clothing and sleeping bags, in watertight, plastic bags. Do not cross barefoot or in socks alone! Shoes protect your feet from rocks, and allow you to hop along with the current. Release the waist and sternum belts of your pack. Should you fall, you must be able to jettison the pack before it fills up with water and drags you down. As you cross, remember to keep your eyes on the far shore. You may become dizzy if you look down at the water. Solo crossings are not recommended; however, if you have no other options, cross downstream at an angle using a long, sturdy stick for support. Although an un-bridged river presents many challenges, it is also part of true wilderness hiking.

Private land and cabins are scattered throughout Alaskan parks and refuges. Though travel may be through remote country, you may encounter private property. Cabins, caches, trap lines and fishnets should be respected and not disturbed. Check with the land manager of the area you are visiting for land status. You may also encounter prehistoric or historic sites. These sites usually hold great significance for the local Native people. Respect their heritage and leave the site undisturbed. During your trip in the Arctic, you will most likely visit rural communities. Invasion of community privacy is a concern of many rural residents. Be sensitive to local lifestyle activities. Ask before photographing.

Natural objects of beauty or interest, such as antlers or fossils, should be left for others to discover and enjoy. Antlers also provide an important calcium source for small mammals. It is illegal to remove most natural objects, including plants and flowers, from any National Park Service lands. And items that may look old to you (e.g. traps, tools, firepots, etc.) may actually be used by local residents or have cultural significance.

The wildlife of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is representative of northern Alaska and the Brooks Range. Species are relatively few, and their populations are frequently low compared to numbers in more temperate regions. The populations of some animals such as lynx and hare are characterized by ups and downs called cycles. These may be annual or spread over several years. There are no known endangered wildlife species within the park and preserve.

The parkland’s broad scope is essential for perpetuation of its primitive character, its far-ranging wildlife, and the fragile veneer of vegetation–nourished by a thin mantle of frost-based soil. Thousands of migrating caribou sift through the mountain passes. The lichens upon which the caribou feed may take decades to grow an inch, so these animals must constantly migrate to conserve their own range. Twice each year the caribou respond to almost imperceptible forces that trigger their nomadic instincts-the length of the days and the texture of snow crust. Calf survival depends upon precisely timed arrival of the pregnant females at Arctic Slope calving grounds just then bursting with nutritious cotton grass. The parkland is also prime habitat for wolves, grizzlies, and Dall sheep. The howling chorus, the plate-sized paw print on the river bar, the white flecks of white on distant slope continually reminds one of elusive life all around. Birds from Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and tropic archipelagos congregate here to breed and nest in summers’ rushing moments providing bountiful bird watching material for a brief period of time.

A total of 36 species of mammals occur within the park, ranging in size from voles and lemmings to brown bears and moose. Singing, tundra, and red-backed voles and brown and collared lemmings are some of the smaller rodents found here. Larger rodents include the arctic ground squirrel and Alaskan marmot. Marten and lynx are mostly limited to the forested areas in the southern half of the park, while beaver, mink, and river otter are present but limited by a scarcity of suitable aquatic habitats. Red foxes, including the silver, black and cross fox color phases, occur throughout the area, and arctic foxes occur occasionally in the northernmost parts of the park. Wolverines are present throughout. The most important species trapped by subsistence users within the park are marten, lynx, beaver, fox, and wolf.

Wolves occur throughout the park and preserve, traveling in packs of family groups as they hunt. The main prey of wolves in the central Brooks Range and on the arctic slope is caribou; however, other prey species may be used extensively if caribou are not available, principally Dall sheep, small mammals, moose, snowshoe hare, and beaver.

Brown bears (barren-ground grizzlies) occur throughout the park and preserve. They are among the earth’s largest predators, but in the Brooks Range they feed mostly as vegetarians, eating berries, sedges, hedysarum, and other plants. They also feed on small mammals and may spend hours excavating ground squirrel burrows, locally disrupting much of the ground surface in the pursuit of their prey. The bears will kill moose calves and caribou fawns and occasionally adults. Some scavenging also occurs. Brown bear populations concentrate along most of the major streams and rivers within the park. Although brown bears range through all habitat types, they are most commonly found in open alpine or tundra habitats. Black bears, which are more common in the southern-forested regions, have similar food habitats and behavior. Black bears are creatures of opportunity when it comes to matters of food. Upon emergence from hibernation in the spring, freshly sprouted green vegetation is the main food item, but black bears will readily take anything they encounter. Things such as winterkilled animals are readily eaten, but carrion is apparently taken only if little else is available. As summer progresses, feeding shifts to salmon, if they are available. In areas without salmon, bears rely primarily on vegetation throughout the year. Berries, especially blueberries, are an important late summer-fall food item. Bears are cannibalistic on occasion.

Moose, Dall sheep, and caribou are the three ungulate mammals occurring in the area. Moose are most common in the forested regions south of the range, but their range extends up mountain valleys into the larger northern drainages wherever trees and shrubs provide food and winter habitat. In summer moose frequently move into alpine habitat, but they are uncommon at the crest of the range. Dall sheep are widespread throughout the mountainous alpine areas of the park and preserve. Rugged terrain with cliffs, steep slopes and rocky outcrops are essential escape habitat. Mineral licks are seasonally very important, and the sheep may travel some distance to reach a lick site. Sheep find critical winter forage on windblown ridges where the snow has been blown away, leaving the vegetation exposed.

Caribou of the western arctic herd today range over the entire region. The herd migrates through the park and preserve as it moves from wintering grounds south and west of the park to calving areas northwest of the park and to summer range north of the park. Some of the animals use summer range along the northern reaches of the park, and some winter in the southern part of the park, especially in the Kobuk River valley. Spring movement to summer ranges begins in March, when bands of females travel northward up the Alatna, John, and North Fork of the Koyukuk drainages, and cross the summit of the Brooks Range into the valleys of such rivers as the Killik, Chandler, and Anaktuvuk, which they follow or cross in a generally westward movement to calving grounds at the head of the Utukok and Colville Rivers. Males and some yearlings begin moving somewhat later. After calving in late May, the animals join increasingly larger groups to move to higher country on the North Slope and in the foothills of the Brooks Range. Once there they gradually disperse, using summer range from the Arctic Ocean to the summits of the Brooks Range by late July. A southward drifting of caribou begins in August, and in the park it is directed toward the Anaktuvuk Pass and Killik River areas. Migration continues through the rut in October, until the wintering grounds are reached. Caribou have historically played an important role in human survival in arctic regions. Subsistence users still rely heavily on caribou.

A total of 133 species of birds have been observed in the park and preserve over the past 25-30 years, making bird watching a legitimate pastime here. Nearly half of those recorded are normally associated with aquatic habitats. Raptors inhabiting the park include species of eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls, three jaegers, and the northern shrike. Because of their place high in the food chain, raptors are more susceptible to environmental disturbance and population fluctuations. Arctic peregrine falcons, a threatened species only recently removed from the endangered list, nest in the area.

The fish populations in arctic waters, although seemingly abundant, have very low growth rates and productivity, and are therefore highly susceptible to over fishing. The most widespread species in the park and preserve is the arctic grayling, which is found in nearly all permanent watercourses and those lakes that have an outlet stream. Lake trout, northern pike, arctic char, whitefish, sheefish, salmon, long-nosed sucker, burbot, nine-spined stickleback, and slimy sculpin also occur. The Kobuk and Koyukuk Rivers are the major chum salmon spawning streams. Sheefish also spawn in the Kobuk. These fish, along with the whitefish, are the most important subsistence fishes. Some lake trout and arctic char are also taken from lakes for subsistence use.

The bears of the Brooks Range are wild creatures, free to behave as they wish. If annoyed or surprised, these solitary animals can be dangerous to intruders. Be alert at all times, in all places. Bears are active both day and night and can be found anywhere. Watch for their tracks and scat, as well as diggings and carcasses they may be feeding upon. See the Wildlife Precautions page. Report all bear encounters and incidents to a park ranger. Park rangers and biologists need this information to document bear behavior for research and management purposes. Firearms should never be used as an alternative to common sense and sound bear avoidance principle. They are to be used for protection only as a last resort when an attack is imminent. Bears will sometime approach to within 10 feet before turning and running away. It is legal to shoot a bear in defense of life or property in Alaska ONLY if you have made efforts to avoid problems in the first place. Note: In the event a bear is killed for self-protection, you are responsible for ending your planned itinerary and transporting the skull and properly skinned hide to the State of Alaska. Further information on these regulations is available from the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game.

There is no fee to enter the park.

Selection of a campsite is probably the most critical decision you will make in trying to minimize your impact. Gravel bars make excellent campsites because they are durable and well-drained, often have fewer mosquitoes than other sites, and high water will erase signs of your presence. Remember that high water can occur at any time so locate your camp well above current water levels. If you must choose a vegetated site, select a location with hardier vegetation such as grasses and sedges, rather than more fragile lichens and mosses. Move camp every 2-3 days or before signs of your presence become noticeable. Wearing soft-soled shoes around camp will minimize impacts. Trenching for tents is unnecessary as is using branches for beds or caches. Before you leave, make every effort to return the campsite to a natural appearance.

Tree growth in the Arctic is very slow; spruce tree only inches in diameter may be hundreds of years old. In some areas wood may be scarce or nonexistent. Because of this, gas or propane stoves for cooking are strongly recommended. A gas or propane stove is also good for emergencies since it is easy to light. If you need an open fire, it should be built on exposed inorganic soil. Fire at other locations will kill the vegetation and create long-lasting scars. Only dead and downed wood should be burned. Avoid using rocks to construct fire rings. All traces of the fire should be erased before you leave. Remove all bits of foil, wire and other unburned materials from the ashes and pack them out. All ashes and charcoal should be deposited in the main current of a river if possible. A fire pan can be easily carried and it will prevent fire scars. If these steps are taken, others will not be attracted to camp repeatedly at the same location, allowing the site to recover.

Human feces carry harmful micro-organisms. Bury feces at least 200 feet from all potential water sources. To promote decomposition, choose a site in organic soil. Dig a small hole 6 to 8 inches deep. After use, bury completely and replace the tundra. Mosses, leaves, and snow make for natural toilet papers. All paper products, including feminine hygiene products should be packed out or burned. If you burn your toilet paper, be cautious NOT to ignite any wildfires. If you pack it in, pack it out. If you find litter, carry it out whenever possible. Buried garbage will only resurface due to frost action or curious animals. If a bear digs up garbage and begins associating people with food you may be creating a dangerous situation. Check with local residents before disposing of garbage at a rural community.

Carry a collapsible water jug to cut down on trips for water, thereby reducing trail formation. Bathe and wash dishes at least 100 feet from sources of drinking water and use biodegradable soaps. Water may contain Giardia lamblia, or other intestinal parasites. It is recommended that you drink only boiled, filtered or chemically treated water. Visitors to Gates of the Arctic’s backcountry are required to store their food and garbage in special Bear (Animal) Resistant Food/Garbage Containers (BRFC’s**). These containers are lightweight, cylindrical canisters specifically designed to keep bears from obtaining food and garbage from people in the backcountry.These ( BRFCs) can be loaned out free of charge, to visitors who contact our Ranger Station in Bettles, Anaktuvuk Pass or Marion Creek.

Twelvemile Slough, Portage Lake, Nelson Walker Lake, Pingo Lake and Lake Matcharak are receiving heavy camping at take-off places. Vegetation around the lakes is being destroyed and the impact is detracting from the area’s wild character. After arriving, move directly to the river to camp on gravel bars. Use existing trails between lakes and the river. Do not build fires on the tundra. Arctic ground squirrels occur primarily on well-drained soils among rivers or on slopes. They are commonly observed and can often be a problem at cabins, food caches, and camps.

Noatak National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Kobuk Valley National Park, all part of the Northwest Alaska Area’s along with Gates of the Arctic, Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge, Selawik N.W.R., Koyukuk N.W.R. and Inupiat Heritage Center are all close to this park.

Scheduled air taxis from Fairbanks serve Anaktuvuk Pass, Bettles, and Coldfoot. Charter flights may also be arranged. Bush charters are available from Bettles and Coldfoot into the park and preserve boundaries. Travelers to Anaktuvuk Pass can hike into the park and preserve boundaries, but anticipate covering no more than one mile per hour.

There are no roads in the park, although the Dalton Highway comes within about 5 miles of the park’s eastern boundary. Other than hiking in from the Dalton Highway (across one or two rivers then over the mountain passes, normally at a maximum rate of one mile per hour) access is generally by air.

Bettles Ranger Station (Field Ops), P.O. Box 26030, Bettles, AK 99726
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National Park Service (Fairbanks Hqrts), 201 First Avenue, Fairbanks, AK 99701
Visitor Information 907-692-5494 (BTT)
Headquarters 907-457-5752(FAI)
Visitor Information 907-661-3520 (AKP)
Visitor Information 907-678-5209 (CXF)
Visitor Information 907-678-2004 (MAR)

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President Harry S Truman formally dedicated Everglades National Park on December 6, 1947 in a ceremony held at Everglades City, to protect its magnificent biological resources. Protection of wading birds and their rookeries from commercial exploitation and encroachments was the prime reason for setting the park aside. Although habitat changes have reduced historic numbers, tens of thousands of birds feed and nest within the Everglades, providing visitors with opportunities of a lifetime of bird watching. It encompasses 1,508,538 acres and attracts approximately 1,181,000 visitors a year, with visitation being highest from December through April and lowest May through November.

This is almost exclusively a biological park dedicated to the preservation of a complex and precisely ordered living mechanism. It lays at the interface between temperate and sub-tropical America, giving a rich diversity of species, many at the limit of their ranges. The topography is so subdued that a broad sheet of water slowly flows over and through the porous limestone bedrock on its way to the sea, rather than following well-defined valleys. Most of the park is actually covered with water during normal wet seasons, while dry winters cause fresh water to dwindle to a few open areas crowded with wildlife.
The great floral variety of the Everglades is one of the key resources of the park. Among its more prominent and colorful plants are Bromeliads and epiphytic orchids. As many as 25 varieties of orchids are known to occur in the park, in addition to over 1000 other kinds of seed-bearing plants and 120 species of trees. The park is so much more then what you see portrayed on TV shows and movies.

Visitor centers are located at the main entrance (west of Homestead), Royal Palm, Flamingo, Shark Valley, and Gulf Coast (south of Everglades City). They are all open year round. Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, Shark Valley Visitor Center, and Gulf Coast Visitor Center all have varying hours for winter and summer, but are mostly open 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The Ernest Coe Visitor Center at the park entrance near Homestead is fully accessible to wheelchairs. There are audio programs available, as well as a captioned film “Everglades: River of Life.” The Coe Visitor Center is a good place to get oriented to all the park has to offer. The Royal Palm Visitor Center is also fully accessible and has a wheelchair available for loan on a first come, first served basis. This is an excellent place to view alligators on nearby boardwalks. The Flamingo Visitor Center is accessible by a steep ramp from the parking area. It contains a museum exhibit with both print and audio displays. A free wheelchair is available for loan on a first come, first served basis. The Eco Pond Trail is nearby and accessible to wheelchairs. The Shark Valley Visitor Center is fully accessible and has a wheelchair available for loan on a first come, first served basis. The Gulf Coast Visitor Center is accessible by elevator from the parking area. It contains a museum exhibit with print and captioned video displays.

Throughout the winter numerous activities from slide shows to canoe trips are offered by rangers in various areas of the park. At least half of these are accessible by wheelchair. Check the list of current ranger-led activities at a visitor center for information on programs and accessibility. The best way to experience the Everglades is on one of the many trails, many of which are paved or wooden boardwalks. All of the following are wheelchair accessible and less than 3/4 mile long: Anhinga Trail, Gumbo-Limbo Trail, Pinelands Trail, Pahayokee Overlook, Mahogany Hammock Trail, West Lake Trail, and Bobcat Hammock, so don’t miss out on any adventure.

Chickees, used for camping, are located along interior rivers and bays where no dry land exists. Miccosukee Indians describe a chickee as an open-air structure which allows wind to blow through for comfort on hot days and to keep insects away. Everglades Wilderness chickees serve a similar purpose. Some ground sites are old Indian mounds. Coastal aboriginals, who lived here well before the Seminoles, constructed mounds of shell or soil as dry dwelling sites amidst the mangroves. Others, such as the Lopez River campsite and the Watson Place, were cleared by early settlers. Beach sites are located on coastal shell beaches. Most of south Florida’s natural beach is built up from the shells of multitudes of marine organisms. While some shells are fragmented, many can be discovered completely intact. Some beaches, such as Highland Beach and Cape Sable, serve as essential nesting sites for the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta).

Sandfly Island, on the Gulf Coast, has a long human history. The island itself is a shell mound created by Calusa Indians, who arrived in this area over 2,000 years ago. In the early 1900s, settlers had a home, tomato farm, and even a store on the island. Today nature has reclaimed the island and few signs of human settlement remain. You can canoe to it and then if you walk quietly on the island, you may see raccoons, turtles, mangrove crabs or birds. Sandfly Island has a dock and a one mile (1600 m) loop walking trail. To go onto the island it is best to land on the shore and walk to the trail, rather than attempting to get out on the dock. After your walk you may want to continue exploring south of the island along Sandfly Pass.

Everglades National Park has many miles of biking and hiking trails. Bicycling is permitted along the main park roads, on the Shark Valley tram road, on the Old Ingraham Highway, on Long Pine Key Nature Trail, and on the Snake Bight and Rowdy Bend trails at Flamingo. Both hiking and biking make excellent adventure travel in this park.

Once, water flowed freely from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, a “river of grass” 120 miles long and 50 miles wide, but less than a foot deep. In this flat landscape, even a few inches of elevation meant the difference between wet marsh and dry ground. Today, the Everglades are an ecosystem in danger. Canals and levees capture and divert its water for human needs, including drinking water, irrigation, and flood control. Often, too much water is withheld from the Everglades during the wet season, or too much is diverted into it during the winter drought, disrupting the natural cycles of feeding and nesting which depend on these patterns. Sometimes the water is contaminated by pollutants. Faced with loss of habitat, disruption of water flow, and the invasion of non-native species, many animals have declined dramatically in number. Some have virtually disappeared. Fortunately, in recent years the park has grown more aware of these threats, and of the importance of resolving them. Major efforts are under way to restore the natural flow of water through the river of grass. Research projects help to better understand the Everglades, and what it will take to protect it.

The Everglades is mild and pleasant from December through April, though rare cold fronts may create near freezing conditions. Summers are hot and humid, with temperatures around 90 degrees (32°C) and humidity over 90%. Afternoon thunderstorms are common. The Atlantic Hurricane Season is June-November. Tropical storms or hurricanes may affect the area. The rainy season is June through October (mosquito season coincides with the rainy season).

Mosquitoes are very prevalent June through October! Be prepared, so you can enjoy this unique park, with repellent, sunscreen, and loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts and pants in summer or try the new insect repellent clothing now available. In winter, wear comfortable sportswear. Information on mosquito levels during the summer is available at (305) 242-7700 (8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST).

Visitors are advised to bring drinking water and snacks since these items are sparsely located. Do not leave food unattended. Store food in a secure compartment aboard a vessel or in a hard-sided cooler (not foam). Raccoons are aggressive and may chew through plastic jugs containing fresh water. Raccoons will also tear into a tent to obtain food.

Wilderness permits are required for all overnight camping, except in auto campgrounds or when sleeping aboard boats. There is a fee for processing of the permit. They may be obtained in person up to 24 hours before the day your trip begins. Please display your permit on your tent. Upon completion of your trip, turn your permit in to a Ranger Station or Visitor Center. Insect conditions are so severe during summer months that wilderness use is minimal and permit writing desks may not be staffed. Permits are still required – follow self-registration instruction at the Flamingo or Gulf Coast Visitor Centers, or the Key Largo Ranger Station (usually May to November). Winter wilderness users originating from the Florida Keys will be able to obtain permits by phone by calling 239-695-2945, no more than 24 hours prior to the start of their trip, for the following locations only: North Nest Key, Little Rabbit Key, Carl Ross Key, and the Cape Sable Beaches.
Practice Leave-No-Trace principles. Wilderness ethics dictate that visitors to the area try to leave no trace of their passage. Bring all trash out of the backcountry with you. Do not bury it or dispose of it in toilets. Use toilets where provided, for human waste only. Bring a small plastic trowel for use at other times. Where there is no toilet, dig a hole at least six inches deep and cover it after use or, better yet, pack human waste and toilet paper to the nearest toilet. At beach and coastal ground sites, urinate directly in the water. To avoid soap pollution in local waters, wash dishes (and yourself) away from waterways and sprinkle the gray water over the ground to soak in. International laws prohibit dumping trash at sea. Pets are not permitted at backcountry campsites, beaches, or ashore anywhere in the backcountry. Pets can disrupt feeding, nesting, and mating activities of wildlife.

Campers and boaters, carry fresh water (1 gallon / 4 liters per person per day), food, compass, nautical charts, topographical maps, anchor, sunscreen, sunglasses, rain gear, insect repellent, and tent (with insect netting). Safely exploring a wilderness by water requires careful preparation and planning. Plan at least two routes before arriving at the park in case your first choice is already filled. Leave a float plan with family or friends. If you require assistance planning your trip, call or stop by the Gulf Coast (Everglades City) or Flamingo Visitor Centers. The Flamingo Visitor Center is staffed intermittently during the summer. Flamingo Marina, open year-round, can accommodate more than 50 boats with electric and water hookups. The channel will accept a four foot maximum draft. Boat fuel is available for sale. Boat ramps are located at Flamingo, West Lake, and Little Blackwater Sound on Key Largo. All motors are prohibited on all freshwater lakes; however, water craft with engines of 6 horsepower or less are permitted on West Lake. Power boaters should reduce speed in narrow channels. They should idle past canoeists and avoid approaching canoeists too closely. Vessels within 100 yards (90 m) of any backcountry campsite need to approach sites at idle speed to avoid prop dredging and excessive wave action. Watch for manatees! Please check with the park for full boating regulations. All vessels must conform to Coast Guard regulations. Obey all posted signs regarding closures, no wake zones, etc.

Canoeing is an excellent way to explore the Everglades, because more than one third of the park is made up of marine areas and shallow estuaries. Check at the Flamingo or Gulf Coast Visitor Centers for maps and directions. Canoes may be rented at Flamingo and Gulf Coast. Don’t overestimate your abilities. Suggested equipment includes flotation devices (required by law), paddles, a bailer, bow and stern lines, waterproof bags for gear, a tide chart, water (1 gallon / 4 liters per person), long shirt and pants for sun and insect protection, a wide-brimmed hat, shoes that can get wet, sunglasses, sunscreen, and insect repellent. Boats more than 18 feet (5.5 m) long or with high cabins or windshields should not attempt the trip because of narrow channels and overhanging vegetation. Nautical charts are necessary for finding your way in the coastal zone, and are useful in planning your trip.

Here are a few boating safety tips while traveling in the Everglades. Beware of swift currents and tides when securing vessels overnight; tidal ranges can exceed 4 feet (1.2 m) in some locations. Beach canoes above the high tide line or anchor from three points at landings/docks. Tides can also be used to your advantage in travel. Tide tables are available at the Flamingo and Gulf Coast Visitor Centers. Numerous canoes and boats have been swamped by rough seas on windy days. Prepare for sudden wind and weather changes at any time. Anchor or tie your boat securely. Tides and winds can make canoeing difficult. Most canoeists plan to travel between 10 and 12 miles (16-19 km) per day, so keep track of your miles. If you are in trouble, stay with your vessel near a navigational marker or campsite. Set anchor immediately. Try to attract the attention of other boaters. The Gulf Coast Ranger Station and the Flamingo Ranger Station both monitor radio Channel 16 during daylight hours. Please use this channel for emergencies. The U.S. Coast Guard monitors the radio 24 hours per day.

This lists just a few of the fishing rules and recommendations. Anglers may have four (4) fillets per person for immediate consumption at designated campsites or on board vessels equipped with cooking facilities. All other fish must remain whole while on park waters. A Florida freshwater fishing license is required to fish in freshwater or to possess fresh water species. Live or dead fish (including minnows and shiners) or amphibians, and non-preserved fish eggs or roe, are prohibited. Digging for bait inside the park is not permitted. No fishing is allowed at the Ernest F. Coe (Main) Visitor Center lakes, Royal Palm Visitor Center area and trails, Chekika Lake, along the first 3 miles of the Main Park Road, including Taylor Slough, or along the Shark Valley Tram Road. High levels of mercury have been found in Everglades’s bass and in some fish species in northern Florida Bay. Do not eat bass caught north of the Main Park Road. Do not eat bass caught south of the Main Park Road more than once a week. Children and pregnant women should not eat any bass.

The following saltwater species caught in northern Florida Bay should not be consumed more than once per week by adults or once per month by women of child-bearing age and children: spotted seatrout, gafftopsail, catfish, bluefish, crevalle jack, or ladyfish. A Florida saltwater fishing license is required to fish in saltwater or to possess saltwater species. Bait, except for mullet and shrimp, is not included in bag limits. Saltwater bait can be shrimp, minnows, pilchards, pinfish, mullet, mojarras (shad), or ballyhoo. Bait may be taken with hook and line, dip net (not wider than 3 feet / 0.9 m), and cast net. No fishing is allowed in Eco, Mrazek or Coot Bay Ponds at any time. No fishing is allowed from the boardwalk at West Lake, or at the Flamingo Marina during daylight hours.

Remember that collecting plants and animals in Everglades National Park is prohibited. This includes such things as orchids, airplants, seahorses, starfish, conch, tropical fish, coral, sponges, and driftwood (except for fuel). One quart of non-occupied sea shells may be collected per person. The taking and possession of lobster and queen conch is prohibited.

The towing of persons by vessels utilizing water skis, hydra slides, knee boards or other similar types of equipment is prohibited so that manatees, crocodiles, and nesting birds will not be disturbed. The operation of “personal watercraft” also known as “wet bikes®”, “jet skis®”, and other trade names, is prohibited.

Current Weather

Do not approach or harass alligators and crocodiles, as they can be dangerous. It is illegal to feed wildlife. Backcountry sites are shared with alligators, marine turtles, nesting birds and other wildlife. Please observe, but do not disturb.

Areas frequented by manatees have been posted. Keep an eye out for manatees. Slow to an idle if observed, but do not approach or molest. These gentle creatures are becoming rare and need to be protected.

Entrance fees: Vehicle – $10, at main entrance and Shark Valley that is valid for 7 days, for single, private, non-commercial vehicles. An entrance fee is not charged at the Gulf Coast. Individuals – $5, at main entrance and at Shark Valley, that is a per-person fee for individuals 17 years of age or older when entering by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, buses carrying passengers not on a pre-packaged tour. An Everglades Annual Pass is $25, good for one year and covers the purchaser and family in a vehicle, on foot or bikes.

Camping fees: $14/day, regular sites with a maximum of 8 persons, Group Sites – $28, maximum of 15 persons. A backcountry permit is required for all wilderness campsites of $10 with an additional fee of $2/person per night. If you have a Golden Age Pass (U.S. citizen 62 or older) or Golden Access Pass (permanently disabled), camping is half price. This does not apply toward group sites.

A boat launch fee is charged to all vehicles entering the park with boats, including canoes, kayaks, and power boats. It is a per boat charge: 7 day boat launch fee – $5.00, 7 day non-motorized boat fee – $3.00, or an Annual boat launch pass – $60.00.

There are three camping areas: Flamingo Campground, Long Pine Key Campground and Wilderness Camping or Backcountry Camping. All three have accessible campsites. Each has wheelchair accessible restrooms. They are all open year-round allowing for winter camping. During the winter season (November 1 – April 30), camping is limited to 14 days. Camping may not exceed 30 days in one year. Only one primary camping unit (motor home, pop-up, camping, camper van, etc.) and one secondary unit (tent) may occupy a campsite at a time. Check-out is by 12:00 p.m. Chickees are located along interior rivers and bays where no dry land exists. They are elevated 10′ x 12′ (3 m x 3.7 m) wooden platforms with roofs, usually constructed on open water, well away from mangrove trees. A narrow walkway leads to a self-contained toilet. You’ll need a free-standing tent, since stakes or nails are not allowed. Ground sites are mounds of earth a few feet higher than the surrounding mangroves, located along interior bays and rivers. They tend to have more insects than chickees or beach sites.

Family/individual sites at the Flamingo campground are now only accepting reservation; Long Pine Key is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Reservations can be made through, The National Park Reservation Service at 877-444-6777 (domestic) or 518-885-3639 (international) or www.recreation.gov. Reservations are accepted up to five months in advance. Camping from May through October is by self-registration at all campgrounds. Fees are not charged from June to August.

Flamingo Campground is located at the end of the main park road in Flamingo. It has 234 drive-in sites (55 with a view of the water), 3 walk-up group sites (on the water’s edge), and 40 walk-up sites (9 on the water’s edge). It also provides cold water showers, two dump stations, picnic tables and grill for winter programs. There are no hookups for the RV campsites. Limited groceries and camping supplies are available at the Flamingo Marina store. Ground fires are not permitted at ground sites and chickees. Ground fires are only allowed at beach sites (except islands in Florida Bay), where they must be below the average high tide line. Use dead and down wood only! Backpacking stoves are recommended, as wood is often wet. Clean up after fires. Please be advised that it was heavily impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005.

Long Pine Key Campground is located seven miles (11 km) from the main entrance, just off the main road. It has 108 drive-up sites for tents and RVs, including one group site. There are rest rooms, water, and a sewer dump station with fresh water fill, but no showers or hookups. A picnic area is nearby, with fire grates and rest rooms. There is also a pond for fishing, an amphitheater for winter programs, and several hiking trails in the area.

Wilderness camping has 47 designated campsites. The majority of the sites are accessible only by canoe, kayak, and motorboat. A few sites are accessible by foot. None are accessible by car. There is one backcountry site that is accessible to people with mobility impairments. It is the Pearl Bay Chickee, which is about a four hour canoe trip from the main road. It features handrails, a canoe dock, and an accessible chemical toilet. Wilderness permits are only issued the day before or the day of the start of your camping trip. Permits are not issued over the phone, but are written from the Ernest Coe Visitor Center only for two land sites in the Long Pine Key area: Ernest Coe and Ingraham Highway. There are 156 miles (251 km) of canoe and walking trails in the wilderness. Ground fires are only allowed at beach sites (except islands in Florida Bay), where they must be below the average high tide line. Use dead and down wood only! Backpacking stoves are recommended, as wood is often wet. Clean up after fires. If you sleep aboard a vessel in the wilderness, anchor out of sight of chickees and 1/4 mile from other occupied sites. Quiet hours are in effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Please show mutual respect to other wilderness visitors.

Biscayne National Park is 22 miles away. Big Cypress National Preserve is 5 miles away. Dry Tortugas National Park is 210 miles away. De Soto National Memorial is 132 miles away. Canaveral National Seashore is 230 miles away. Castillo De San Marcos National Monument, Fort Frederica National Monument, Fort Caroline National Memorial, Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Rookery Bay National Estuarine RR, Collier-Seminole State Park, Mud Bay, Chokoloskee Bay, Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park are nearby.

Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers are serviced by international airports, buses, and numerous car rental agencies. Miami has an Amtrak station. The park may be explored by personal vehicle, commercial tour bus, bicycle, motor boat, or canoe/kayak. There is no public transportation in the park.

Visitors coming from the Miami area and points north may take the Florida Turnpike (Route 821) south until it ends, merging with U.S. 1 at Florida City. Turn right at the first traffic light onto Palm Drive (State Road 9336/SW 344th St.) and follow the signs to the park. Visitors driving north from the Florida Keys should turn left on Palm Drive in Florida City and follow the signs to the park.

To Shark Valley, take the Florida Turnpike to the exit for SW 8th Street (also known as U.S. 41 and Tamiami Trail). Travel 25 miles west on U.S. 41 to signs marked Shark Valley. From the Naples area, take U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail) east to signs marked Shark Valley.

To the Gulf Coast Visitor Center, take U.S. 41 west from the Miami area to the intersection of U.S. 29, then take U.S. 29 south three miles into Everglades City and follow the signs to the park visitor center. From the Naples area, take U.S. 41 east and turn south on U.S. 29.

Approximate Mileage from the following major cities to Everglades National Park:

By Car:

Miami, FL – 43.49 miles

Fort Lauderdale, FL – 72.22 miles

Fort Myers, FL – 185.30 miles

Florida City, FL – 8.92 miles

Key Largo, FL – 37.83 miles

South Miami Heights, FL – 23.76 miles

Everglades National Park, 4000l State Road 9336, Homestead, FL 33034-6733
Visitors Information (305) 242-7700
Fax (305) 242-7711

Map

The Talkeetna Ranger Station is open all year from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (907-733-2231). To visit the Talkeetna Ranger Station turn at mile 98 on the George Parks Highway at the Talkeetna turnoff. Drive 14 miles to the town site on the Talkeetna Spur Road (paved). At the end of Main Street turn left onto B Street (about 4 blocks. The Talkeetna Ranger Station is the first building on the left. There are interpretive programs on the history of climbing at Denali and other topics of interest as well as Bradford Washburn’s photos of the Alaska Range. Denali National Park Visitor Center is located at mile 1.5 of the Denali Park Road. It is closed in the winter from September through late April, but the Murie Science and Learning Center is open during the winter from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm daily. Annual Winterfest takes place in early spring; usually during March. Call Park Headquarters for details at (907)683-2294. Information about how to travel safely in the backcountry is obtained at the Visitor Center during the summer time. The Murie Science and Learning Center will issue backcountry permits and give information during the off season.

The primary visitation season runs from May 1 to September 15. Visitation is lowest in winter months. There are both permanent and temporary wildlife closures every year in Denali. These areas are restricted to all entry and exist for the mutual protection of humans and critical wildlife species. Ask a ranger at the Backcountry Desk for recent closure information. Failure to avoid closures may result in a citation.

Mt. McKinley National Park was established in 1917. Its name and size was changed to Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980 and became an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976.

From earliest times, for at least 11 millennia, humans have been seasonally attracted to this remote and elevated country because of the concentrations of game animals. The migratory bands of caribou and sheep, the numerous moose and bear, and, in those earliest times, the relict bison and elk at the end of the last great ice age, have spurred human migration to the Denali region despite its isolation and forbidding terrain. In traditional times, a century and more ago, the people came from camps and villages on the many rivers fed by Denali’s glaciers: Susitna, Chulitna, Kahiltna, Yentna flowing south; Kuskokwim flowing southwest; Kantishna, Toklat, Teklanika, Nenana flowing north. Some of the hunters cut the arc of the Alaska Range, traveling westward 200 miles from the Copper River basin. Others congregated from the Tanana or portaged from the Yukon. These people came to hunt the high, sparsely forested slopes and valleys and the funneling narrows of the passes. They came by boat as far as shoaling streams allowed, then overland to the killing sites. After the hunt, their meat and skins in tow, they left Denali’s shelterless flanks and returned to the forested lands of the big rivers where logs for building and fuel, and migrating salmon for sustaining food, allowed survival through winter darkness and cold.

It was this gathering of wildlife, and fear that market hunting would destroy it, that inspired hunter-naturalist Charles Sheldon in the early years of this century. The park was established as Mt. McKinley National Park on Feb. 26, 1917. Sheldon’s vision of a park-refuge where visitors could view plentiful wildlife against the backdrop of stupendous mountains shaped the park’s founding legislation; it inspired the policies and practices of the new park’s first stewards and their successors through the years; it still determines the management philosophy and the visitor expectations of the expanded Denali National Park and Preserve.

In the distant reaches of the great Interior a few small steamboats plied the Yukon, whose forested banks opened occasionally for a log trading post or an Indian fish camp. Beyond the river, only scattered bands of hunters and the rare prospector roamed. Of government there was none. Over most of the Interior, for all one could see of “man sign,” it was the world of Genesis before God’s final creation. The Denali region and its approaches remained a blank space on the map, except for rough indications of mountains sighted from afar.

By the late 1880s the Arctic Mountains (later named the Brooks Range) had been partially explored—also the polar seas and coasts, the Yukon and its main tributaries, much of Southwest Alaska’s delta lands, and, excepting mountain fastnesses, most of the Pacific rimlands. But at the center lay terra incognita.

In the main, the Russians had stayed near the coast. Beginning in the 1830s, having exhausted the populations of sea otter whose pelts had sustained the Tzar’s enterprise in America for nearly a century, the Russian-American Company got serious about the Interior fur trade with establishment of posts on the lower or middle reaches of the Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers. Denali-region Indians participated indirectly in this trade via Indian middlemen who were based closer to Russian stations on the rivers and the coast.

British traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company intruded Alaska in 1847 to establish Fort Yukon, far northeast of Denali on the upper Yukon River, and hundreds of miles from the nearest Russian post on the lower Yukon. Americans took over these posts after the purchase, linking the upper and lower river with additional stations along the middle Yukon, including several in the vicinity of the Yukon-Tanana confluence.

In time, direct contact began between American traders and the Indians of Denali, who floated downstream to trading posts and camps on the big rivers. The traders were content with this arrangement. There was no reason to labor up shallow rivers if the Indians would bring their furs down them. No other economic motivation existed to push settlement beyond the riverine highways—until the ever-roving prospectors began to find color around the outer margins of Denali.

The first recorded reference to the Denali massif occurs in the 1794 journal of British explorer George Vancouver, who spent a month in Cook Inlet charting its waters—enough time for a break in the weather that gave him a view to the north. In his May 6 entry Vancouver named Cook Inlet in honor of his former captain on this same coast, James Cook, and noted “distant stupendous mountains covered with snow and apparently detached from each other,” a certain description of McKinley and its consort, Mount Foraker, from the inlet. In 1834, during explorations for a trade route between the Kuskokwim drainage and Cook Inlet, the Russian Creole explorer Andrei Glazunov portaged from the Yukon and ascended the Kuskokwim and Stony rivers seeking a pass across the Alaska range. When his Ingalik Athabaskan guides turned back to their Kuskokwim homeland, Glazunov was forced to turn back toward his base at St. Michael near the mouth of the Yukon, but not before noting on March 7 that he “saw a great mountain called Tenada, to the northeast.” At his location on the Stony River, Glazunov was nearly 200 miles from the mountain. His rendering of its name, Tenada, is traced to the Ingalik Dengadh. (The Koyukon name, Deenaalee, is the source of the modern Denali; all Athabaskan variants north of the Alaska Range mean “The High One.”)

In 1897, as Denali-Mount McKinley began its transformation into the dominant symbol of Alaska, the Klondike Gold Rush became an international phenomenon. Gold mining in the American West at the turn of the 20th century will forever be remembered for its sudden and feverish stampedes. In the 1890s, after thousands rushed to Canada’s Klondike goldfields, many miners headed west to try their luck in Alaska. Stampeding became a way of life for many frontier adventurers, and when Alaska’s boomtowns became too crowded or the pay-dirt too scarce, these wanderers followed rumors of gold into uncharted and exceedingly rugged territory. The Kantishna Mining District, deep within Denali National Park and Preserve, is one such place where hundreds of miners left the relative security of Dawson, Fairbanks, and Nome to seek their fortunes in the wilderness. Those men and women who staked the first Kantishna claims on the best land found wealth literally at their feet. The so-called sunburnt gold, resting on the surface of gravel streambeds, could be collected with an inexpensive gold pan. At a time when most miners were content to pan $5 in a day, some prospectors were finding $10 or even $25 in a single pan of Kantishna gravel. This stampede lasted from 1904-1906. Though Kantishna would never see another stampede, the land continued to sustain a small cadre of rugged miners for decades to come.

Although Mt. McKinley can be seen from Anchorage on a clear day, its base is deep in the Alaska Range. Explorers in the early 1900s used river boats, mules, and dog sleds to gain access to the mountain’s glaciers in order to establish base camps. Beginning in 1932, plane access to climb Mt. McKinley began saving the mountain climbing and ice climbing folks a few months travel time. That same year, bush pilot Joe Crosson set the “Cosmic Ray” Party down at the 5,700-foot level of the Muldrow Glacier. Twenty-two years later, in 1954, pilot Don Sheldon flew the first commercial flight from Talkeetna to Kahiltna Glacier. This has become the norm for most McKinley mountain climbers beginning their expeditions. 1903 is the earliest recorded attempt to climb the mountain, beginning a history of challenging the mountain and elements that continues today.

Towering 18,000 feet above the neighboring lowlands, the mountain, otherwise known as Denali, an Athabaskan Indian name meaning the “The High One”, rivals the vertical relief of the world’s greatest mountains. Mt. McKinley is possibly the highest granitic pluton in the world, which is undergoing continual tectonic uplift. The majority of the rest of the mountains and rocks in the park are sedimentary, a testament to the millions of years that central Alaska was an open seaway.

A major fault system, known as the Denali Fault runs in an arc through the Alaska Range and is the source of thousands of earthquakes that rumble through the area each year. These earthquakes, although frequent in number, generally go unnoticed by humans due to their remote location. The surrounding peaks of the 600-mile long Alaska Range are no less impressive than McKinley itself, and provide the scenic backdrop to the six million acres of pristine wilderness that make up Denali National Park. From the Alaska Range’s perpetually snow covered flanks glaciers flow radially, spilling out of the mountains like ribbons of ice.

Descending down from the realm of rock, snow and ice, you encounter open tundra expanses dotted with small lakes and ponds, remnants of a glacier covered landscape. Large turbid glacial rivers, run in wide, braided floodplains with clear water streams flowing in from lower tundra covered hills north to the Yukon River or south to the Susitna River. At lower elevations in the park the boreal forest, a mixed spruce forest with aspen and birch, winds its way up into valleys and along river corridors. The interior mountains support complex and diverse habitats resulting from variation in elevation, geology, slope, and exposure.

First and foremost, there’s the Mountain…all 20,320 feet of it, and still growing, at about 1 millimeter per year. In the process of plate tectonics, (the Pacific plate is diving beneath Alaska, or the North American Plate) land surfaces in Alaska are continually compressed and folded, which pushes up Mt. McKinley, as well as the rest of the mountains in the Alaska Range. Although surrounded by many glacier-clad mountains of similar grandeur, Mt. McKinley (or Denali, as the Athabascans call it), is primarily made of granite, which is very hard and resists weathering much better than its sedimentary (shale, limestone and sandstone) neighbors. As Denali is pushed up, it remains, like a resistant sentinel, above the others, which wear down faster through the eons of freezing, thawing, and glaciers grinding and scraping.

That sedimentary neighborhood is a long history of geologic puzzle pieces thrown together to form the park, and most of Alaska, as we know it. The Pacific plate has been acting like a conveyor belt for hundreds of millions of years, bringing bits of islands, ocean floor, and slivers of other continents northward to form accretionary terranes, which are pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. This accretion of land is an ongoing process today, as the Pacific plate moves northward, colliding with Alaska at about 5 centimeters per year. New “additions” to Alaska are, of course, a very slow process, and to most people, even the most recent addition (the Yakutat block, along the southeast coast of Alaska) does not show any obvious evidence of collision and accretion. However, most of the terranes are identified as packages of rocks that are surrounded by faults, and have different rock types, fossils, and other physical properties, unlike their neighbor terranes.

The oldest terrane and rocks in the park are found near the park entrance, and are called the Yukon-Tanana rocks. These are shallow sediments with volcanic flows and intrusions (molten injections of rock) that formed in a very young Alaska. These rocks have been buried very deep for a long time, and subjected to heat and pressure that changes the rocks into metamorphic kinds (schists, gneiss, phyllites).

Over time ocean environments continued to dominate the site of Denali, where marine shelf, slope and basin materials accumulated or accreted to become the shales, limestones and sandstones of the Farewell terrane. These ocean sediments hardened into rock to form many of the great mountains in the eastern portion of the park, such as Mount Pendelton and Scott Peak. Fossils found in the Farewell terrane suggest that at least some of this period of time, the climate was very tropical, and lush coral reefs and other warm water fauna flourished.

Among the exotic terranes in Denali are those referred to as islandarcs(volcanic island chains, like the Japanese islands), which are identified by having volcanic and marine sedimentary rocks on top of each other. The Pingston and McKinley terranes are possibly from an island arc environment. Along the park road just west of Eielson Visitor Center, pillow basalts (lava extruded under ocean water, forming pillow shaped blobs) can be seen in the road-cut.

During the birth of Mt. McKinley long ago when molten magma solidified deep beneath central Alaska, volcanic activity (eruptions at the surface) was also occurring in the park, and produced red, yellow and brown basalts, rhyolites, and other volcanic rocks. These rocks can be seen along the park road, particularly at Polychrome Pass, named for the colorful volcanic rocks exposed there. Things again heated up at Denali about 38 million years ago, when another period of volcanic activity resulted in the basalts and andesites found exposed at Mt.Galen, and along the park road at the west end of Eielson Bluffs. Similar to Mt. McKinley, another granitic blob crystallized at depth beneath the surface to become Mt. Foraker, the second tallest peak in the park at 5303 meters (17,400 feet).

As a final tribute to the active tectonics of Alaska, a series of faults have fractured the park and most of the state in the last 100 million years. In Denali, this group of faults is known as the Denali fault system, which arcs East-West through the park (and most of the state) for 1200 kilometers (720 miles). Portions of the fault trace are visible within the park at Bull River divide, Easy Pass, and other locations.

Glaciers cover one million acres, or one-sixth of Denali National Park. Like the many arms of an octopus, glaciers flow away from the mountains transporting hundreds of thousand of tons of ice each year. This ice eventually melts in the lower reaches of the glaciers and rapidly fills rivers with turbulent muddy water that flows into the oceans. The most massive glaciers in the park drain snow and ice from the flanks of Mount McKinley. Glaciers play an important part in the development of the landscape of Denali National Park and Preserve.

Hundreds of unnamed glaciers and at least 40 named glaciers flow from heights as high as 19,000 feet and descend to elevations as low as 800 feet above sea level. The Peters Glacier flows from the north and northwest portion of the mountain, whereas the Kahiltna Glacier is situated on the southwestern side of Mount McKinley and shares the southern slopes with an arm of the Ruth Glacier. The Ruth Glacier primarily occupies the southeast side Mount McKinley. From the very top of the mountain, Harper Glacier dumps snow and ice into the upper reaches of Muldrow Glacier, which carries snow and ice off Mount McKinley’s northeast slopes. Of these glacial systems, the Ruth, Kahiltna and Muldrow Glaciers are the longest glaciers in the park; each is more than 30 miles long. The Kahiltna Glacier, which is not only the longest glacier in the park but also in the entire Alaska Range, is 44 miles in length.

There are five major terrain categories in the Denali Backcountry, with no maintained backpacking trails. Gravel River Bars: these flat, rocky surfaces characterize most major rivers in the park and provide fast, easy travel. Wet Tundra: this terrain is marshy and interspersed with hummocks. Dry Tundra: dry tundra exists at high elevations and affords good, solid footing for fast, easy travel. Brushy Tundra: accessing many backcountry units requires bushwhacking. Brush can exceed six feet in height, and thickness often limits visibility. Glacial Moraine: located at the base of glaciers and often denoted on maps by stippled areas, a moraine consists of ice covered with dirt and debris.

Denali’s subarctic wilderness is home to more than 1,500 species of vascular plants, mosses and lichens. These organisms form the foundation of the park’s ecosystems and define the habitat characteristics for all of the more famous and recognizable denizens of Denali National Park such as moose, wolves, eagles, caribou and grizzly bears.

Alaska stands at a floristic crossroads between Asia and North America. During the past two million years, this area has been predominantly associated with the biota of northeastern Asia as opposed to that of North America. This is because the periodic formation of continental ice sheets thousands of feet thick (which covered most of Canada and parts of the northern continental U.S.), has separated Alaska from continental North America on many occasions during this period of time. At the same time, the exposure of the Bering Land Bridge allowed plants and animals a wide dispersal corridor into Alaska from northern Asia. For this reason, many of the plant species of Denali occur in Alaska and northern Asia, but not elsewhere in North America. These plants are known as Beringian endemic species – species that occur only within the large region that was free of ice during the Pleistocene glacial advances.

Trees tend to grow best in the lowlands where it is warmer and sunnier and along rivers where the flowing water has melted the permanently frozen ground. In fact, trees dominate the landscape in many lowland areas of the park. Forests blanket the river plains and lower hills in the park where the growing season is longer and warmer, and conditions are more predictably favorable for plant growth. As you start to climb out of the valleys up to the ridges where it’s often cold and windy, you will notice that trees (and even lower shrubs) become fewer and farther apart, and the vegetation is lower to the ground with fewer woody species and many more grasses and forbs.

Denali National Park is located north of sixty-one degrees north latitude. There are only a handful of tree species that are able to grow and reproduce naturally this far north. In fact, if you go a few hundred kilometers even further to the north, you will reach the arctic tundra biome, where there are virtually no trees at all. There are eight species of trees that occur in Denali National Park. Three of these are coniferous (cone-producing) plants from the pine family (black spruce, white spruce and larch) and the other five are flowering plants from the willow and birch plant families (quaking aspen, balsam poplar, black cottonwood, paper birch and Alaska birch).

Like trees, shrubs are also woody plants, but shrubs tend to be shorter than trees when mature, and have multiple stems that are smaller in diameter as compared to the single, larger stem (or “bole”) that characterizes tree species. Shrubs are very abundant in Denali, including many of the areas often frequented by visitors along the park road. Shrubs are widespread on the landscape of the park, and are absent from only the highest alpine areas, and from only some of the very wettest wetland plant communities. Shrubs tend to occur most abundantly in subalpine regions where trees are less common, in riparian areas along streams, (where many species of willows and alders like to grow). Shrubs are also common in the understory of some of the boreal forest types in the park. There are a few species of shrubs that occur above the elevation where trees are absent from the landscape, even at elevations up to 5,000 feet.

There is a much higher diversity of shrub species in Denali as compared to trees. There are fifty species of shrubs representing 10 different plant families that occur in Denali National Park and Preserve. The willow (Salicaceae) and heath (Ericaceae) families contribute the most species of shrubs to our flora, with 17 and 11 species respectively. Other plant families that are represented by shrubs in our flora are the Rose, Birch, Currant, Honeysuckle, Dogwood, Oleaster, Cypress, and Bayberry families.

Much of the subalpine zone on the south side of the Alaska Range Mountains in Denali National Park is covered with impenetrable tickets of alder shrubs. These shrubs thrive in the moist, maritime-influenced climate of this area. Frequent disturbance from avalanches and rockslides in the steep terrain favors the alder species, which are often colonizers of disturbed ground and bare mineral soil. The roots of alders have small nodules that provide a home for the symbiotic bacterium Frankia to grow. Frankia is capable of fixing gaseous nitrogen from the atmosphere into a mineral form available to the alders for plant nutrition. In return for this nitrogen subsidy, the alders provide a protective shelter as well as sugars from photosynthesis for the well being of the bacteria. Many plant species that grow early in succession sequences have formed similar symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Dwarf shrubs are perennial woody plants that grow very close to the ground, generally below the blanket of snow that insulates and protects them during the harsh weather of the winter months in the subarctic. In part due to this strategy of staying below the snow pack, many dwarf shrubs are evergreen throughout the year. This is possible because their leaf tissues are protected from the extremes of climate. In contrast, the great majority of tall shrub species that occur in the park, whose branches venture out into the sub-zero subarctic air above the snow are deciduous, which means they lose their leaves each autumn. A deciduous habit is favored in tall shrubs because of the difficulty inherent in protecting the sensitive photosynthetic tissues from the scouring cold and dry winds that occur during the winter months. Instead, each fall these deciduous plants translocate many of the nutrients contained in their leaves to storage organs that are more protected, and then seal off the connection to the leaves, allowing them to wither and fall.

Dwarf shrubs such as Mountain Avens (Dryas spp.), Diapensia, and Cassiope are characteristic of the alpine tundra blanketing the ridges and slopes of Denali above approximately 3500 feet in elevation. These hardy perennials are the dominant component of many tundra types found in the park, particularly in some areas of late-lying snow in saddles and protected slopes. Mountain Avens (Dryas spp.) tundra is perhaps the most familiar and welcome vegetation type to hikers in the Alaska Range, because it is very common and it usually affords solid footing, dry feet and fast traveling. A surprise for many of our visitors from the south is the dwarf willow shrubs that adorn the mountains of Alaska. These diminutive tundra-dwellers that reach just a few centimeters in height are in fact very close relatives (in the same botanical genus – Salix) of the familiar “weeping willow” tree (Salix babylonica) found in the lower-48 states.

There are twenty-five species of dwarf shrubs that occur in Denali National Park, representing five different flowering plant families. The families with dwarf shrub representatives in our flora include: Heath family (11 species), Willow family (7 species), Rose family (5 species), and Crowberry and Diapensia families (1 species each).

Forbs are herbaceous flowering plant species. This category includes those plant species people think of as “wildflowers” such as goldenrod, gentian, fireweed, forget-me-not, larkspur, lupine, monkshood, poppies, and violets. This is the most species-rich group of plants in the Denali National Park flora, including about 450 species of plants from 54 families of flowering plants. The families with the largest numbers of forbs in the Denali National Park flora are Aster family (59 species), Mustard family (45 species), Buttercup family (32 species), Pink family (31 species), and Saxifrage family (31 species).

Forbs occur in all habitats across the park from aquatic communities to the driest, most windswept scree-slopes and ridges. The dazzling diversity of forms and colors within this group reflects a similar diversity of physiological adaptations and life history strategies. Consider, for example, the ecological biographical, morphological and physiological spectra represented by just three of our 450 species of forbs – Scamman’s Spring beauty (Claytonia scammaniana), Yellow Pond Lily (Nuphar polysepalum), and Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia).

There are many activities to be enjoyed at Denali. Check at the visitor’s center to see what is recommended by the staff at the time you are visiting. Enjoy camping, hiking, backpacking, fishing, mountaineering, bike riding, wildlife viewing and photography. While summer is the most popular time to visit Denali, winter offers many recreation and sightseeing opportunities such as cross-country skiing, dog mushing, snowmobiling, ice climbing, and camping.

Hike an entrance area trail. Each of these trails provides opportunities to explore the taiga (boreal forest) and observe wildlife. Go on your own or join a ranger-guided walk. Hike down to Horseshoe Lake or to the Mt. Healy Overlook. The Horseshoe Lake trail is an easy to moderately strenuous hiking trail 1.5 miles long. You will see spectacular views of Horseshoe Lake and Nenana River as well as wildlife sightings. Mount Healy Overlook Trail is a strenuous 2.2 miles one-way hike with dramatic views of the park entrance area, as well as the Nenana River valley, and alpine ridges. Join a ranger for a Discovery Hike. There are ranger lead walks & talks every day. You must sign up in advance at the main Visitor Center for Discovery Hikes.

The Tundra Wilderness Tour (six to eight hours roundtrip during peak season) and the Denali Natural History Tour (five hours roundtrip) provide formal interpretive programs and a way to see the park. Both tours provide a snack or box lunch and hot drinks. The Denali Natural History Tour is a fully narrated cultural history tour that includes a visit to the historic Savage Cabin and an Alaska Native interpretive program. There are several highlights to see along the way. Polychrome Pass & Rest Area offers a spectacular view of the colorful Alaska Range. The Polychrome Glaciers are nestled in the hills to the south, while bears and caribou often wander on the river bars below. For a day hike, walk along the ridge behind the rest area and enjoy alpine scenery. Buses run as far as Polychrome from June to August. Toklat River is an area of braided glacial rivers and towering cliffs where Dall sheep are often seen. Grizzlies sometimes graze on the riverbed’s soapberries. Buses run as far as Toklat from May 25 through Mid-September weather permitting.

If you have only ½ a day to explore the park, participate in one of the sled dog demonstrations conducted three times daily during peak season (May — September). Free bus transportation from the Visitor Center is offered. Hike an entrance area trail. Each of these trails provides opportunities to explore the taiga (boreal forest) and observe wildlife. Go on your own or join a ranger-guided walk. Watch the orientation slide program at the Visitor Center, and hike down to Horseshoe Lake or to the Mt. Healy Overlook. Ride the Savage River shuttle bus to Mile 15. Keep a lookout for moose, caribou, wolves and ptarmigan. In clear weather, Mt. McKinley may be seen in the distance from Mile 9. Once at the Savage River Day Use Area, hike the Savage River Trail.

If you have a full day, take a shuttle bus to Fish Creek at Mile 63 on the park road. From this location enjoy tremendous views of Mt. McKinley. Plan your own hike. Topographic maps, guidebooks, and knowledgeable staff can assist you in planning a trip. All are available at the Visitor Center.

If you have a few days… you have the opportunity to create more Denali memories to carry home. Plan in advance to camp at one of the park campgrounds or hike and enjoy an interpretive program. For the adventurous, obtain a backcountry permit and take a few days to explore Denali’s vast backcountry.

Visit Denali’s Talkeetna Ranger Station, located 100 miles south of the park in the town of Talkeetna. This is a spectacular road trip that goes through Denali State Park and provides ample opportunities for viewing the mountain on clear days.

People have been climbing Mt. McKinley for over 100 years. Mountaineering is an exciting and potentially dangerous endeavor. Make sure that you are experienced before attempting to climb the mountain. There are guide services available. You must be registered with the park service to obtain permission to climb Mt. McKinley.

Subsistence hunting is permitted in the 1980 land additions to the park, and sport hunting is permitted in the preserve portions of Denali. Local people harvest many different species of animals for food including moose, ptarmigan, grouse, and fish. They also harvest fox, marten, lynx, wolverine, beaver, and wolves for their fur.

Because of active plate tectonics, earthquakes are frequent in the Denali area. It is estimated that there are some 600 seismic events per year within the park boundaries at magnitude 1 (M1) or greater. Most of these earthquakes (about 70%), average between M1.5 and M2.5, and often occur near the surface (0-15 km/0-9 miles deep) at locations all over the Park. But these events are not usually felt by anyone because of the low magnitudes. A large share of earthquake activity is right under Mt. McKinley, frequently, at very deep locations (90 – 125 km/54-75 miles deep), providing few people the opportunity to experience them. This seismic activity at the root of Denali suggests that uplift of the mountain continues to this day. Numerous faults, including the Denali fault (a major fault system), demonstrate a long history of active plate tectonics and associated earthquake activity.

Generally, the highest magnitudes events that occur in the park in any given year are in the neighborhood of the mid to high M4’s, and again, are often right under Mt. McKinley or near the Kantishna Hills on the Northwest side of the park. Larger magnitude events (>M4.5) are not common in the park, but records show that a few have occurred. On May 21, 1991, a M6.1 earthquake occurred at a depth of 112 km right under Mt. McKinley, and was noticed by climbing teams on the mountain who reported numerous massive snow and ice avalanches. In November and early December of the year 2000, two earthquakes occurred on the north boundary of the park at M5.7 and M5.0, which shook local residences, and was felt as far away as Fairbanks. Historically, seismic events have not been known to damage man-made structures within the park.

On October 23, and November 3, 2002, the park and most of central and southern Alaska experienced a foreshock of M6.3, and a main shock of M7.9. The M7.9 was the largest earthquake to occur in the interior of the state in recorded history. The epicenters (point on the earth surface where the quakes originate) of each of these large earthquakes was about 50 km (30 miles) east of the park, on the Denali fault. Although the park area only suffered spilled shelf items and a few road sags, at other locations about 166 km (100 miles) east of the park, roads were fractured, several homes were jostled off their foundations, and the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline lost some of its support members.

The Park supports active research on seismic activity, and collaborates with the Alaska Earthquake Information Center (AEIC) and other groups to better monitor and understand the seismic activity in and near the park. Three seismometers are located within the park, and other efforts to install portable seismometers or instruments regarding the movement or nature of the earth’s crust are ongoing.

The future of trumpeter swans is promising yet tenuous. While populations appear to be slowly on the rise, many dangers still exist and the National Audubon Society lists trumpeter swans as a conservation priority on their nationwide Watch List.

The most serious threats to trumpeter swans include habitat loss resulting from expanding human populations, increases in human disturbance, and lead poisoning. Habitat loss is especially prevalent on the winter ranges. There is increasing interest to develop visitor facilities and new access points in the southern portions of Denali. Because trumpeter swans are highly sensitive to disturbance, park managers must protect swans and their habitat in this area. Working cooperatively with US Fish and Wildlife Service researchers, Denali scientists are conducting surveys to locate nesting and pre-migratory staging swans and describe their habitats in the southern portion of Denali. Using this data, park managers and others will be able to locate new visitor facilities and access routes away from important swan habitat.

Summer comes quickly to the park with warm days in late May or early June, which melt any remaining snow and allow the vegetation to turn green. June tends to be a drier month than July or August and, although it may snow during any month of the year, the first snows signaling fall may come as early as late August or early September. The park itself does not tend to get as much snow as many other parts of Alaska; seven feet of snow for a winter tends to be average. Through the early season, the skies stay light almost all day, and for summer backpackers, darkness does not become a concern until mid-August. The weather from day to day and week to week tends to be fairly unpredictable, as the mountains tend to create their own weather.

Current Park Weather

For backpacking in the backcountry you can use this backpacking checklist: hiking boots (waterproofed) and wool socks, Neoprene socks and gaiters for river crossings, rain parka and pants (ponchos not recommended), and polypropylene, nylon, or wool clothing (avoid cotton). Be prepared for temperatures ranging from 30 ºto 80 ºF (-1 ºto 27 º C) in the summer months. Stove, fuel, cookware, water bottles, water filter (preferably equipped with silt stopper device), compass and map (maps available at Visitor Access Center), toilet paper and trowel, tent with rain fly and waterproof floor (bivouacking is not recommended), sleeping bag and pad (for any overnight summer trip, protection to 20 º F (-7 º C) is suggested), insect repellent and/or head net, emergency gear, such as first aid kit, knife, and a signaling device such as a whistle, signal mirror, or flare, and large plastic or waterproof bags to protect the gear inside your pack, are also recommended.
To keep the Denali backcountry in pristine condition for others, please take care in how you hike. Hike on durable surfaces whenever possible, such as gravel river bars. Avoid hiking single file; spread out and disperse to prevent the formation of social trails. Use the Leave-No-Trace principles.

Cyclists need to keep in mind some special considerations — there are no repair stations along the way so please plan to fix your own flats and other common problems. Also, make sure you carry water or have a filter or potable aqua tablets to make water from streams and rivers safe to drink. Obey all area closures and treat wildlife the same as if you were on foot. Remember that off-road biking is not allowed in the park. It’s best to plan for many types of weather at any time in the park. Sun, rain, hail, wind and even snow are all possible in the summer.

There are no bridges across rivers in the backcountry. You must negotiate your own river crossing and pack gear accordingly to keep dry in the event of an accidental swim. Water temperature is approximately 36 ºF (2 ºC), and a cold immersion may result in high risk of hypothermia. Try to cross where the river is braided and dispersed, rather than concentrated into a single deep, narrow channel. Due to the high silt content of the water, it is often difficult to ascertain the true depth of the water. River depths can also vary widely during a trip depending on rainfall and temperatures. Glacial rivers generally run lower in early morning hours, so plan accordingly.

Glaciers present numerous hazards and any form of glacier travel should be treated with respect and preparation. If planning a traverse over the upper ice and snow portions of a glacier, carry appropriate equipment, such as ice axe and crampons. Practice roped travel and know how to affect a crevasse rescue. If crossing the lower glacial moraine, be alert and use caution. While equipment is not required for this mode of travel, glacial moraine still presents many potential hazards, such as debris slides, ice caves, and uneven terrain. If your trip includes mountaineering, please plan accordingly and bring appropriate equipment, such as crampons, ice axe, prussiks, etc. Inform the ranger at the Backcountry Desk of your plan and complete a mountaineering permit application. Permits to climb these mountains cost $200 and applications must be received at least 60 days in advance of your expedition date. The special use fee offsets costs to the South District related to mountaineering, such as maintaining the high-altitude ranger station, staff, and mountaineering booklets. This fee is paid in two installments. A non-refundable & non-transferable deposit of $25 U.S. currency is due when you submit your completed registration form. The remaining balance of $175 U.S. currency plus park entrance fee will be due when you check in at the Talkeetna Ranger Station. In addition to the special use fee, a 60-day pre-registration regulation allows mountaineering rangers to have direct contact with climbers before they arrive in Talkeetna. In doing so, rangers are able to suggest appropriate routes for different levels of expertise and offer first-hand knowledge of conditions encountered in the Alaska Range. The National Park Service strictly enforces these regulations. Mountaineers that have climbed Mt. McKinley or Mt. Foraker since 1995 can request a “seven-day rule” exemption to the 60-day pre-registration period and instead register only 7 days in advance of the climb. Individuals seeking registration under the “seven-day rule” must be on record at the Talkeetna Ranger Station as climbing in or after 1995. This rule is applied on an individual basis — in order for the entire expedition to be eligible for the seven-day exemption, all members must qualify.

Denali National Park & Preserve Mountaineering Booklet, available in eight languages, covers mandatory requirements, search and rescue information, clean climbing requirements, high altitude medical problems, glacier hazards, and self-sufficiency. You should have a solid understanding of potentially serious medical problems and awareness of the extreme mental and physical stresses associated with high altitude mountaineering. To obtain a printed version of the Mountaineering Booklet in English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean or Italian, please call: Talkeetna Ranger Station (907)733-2231 or email to DENA_Talkeetna_Office@nps.gov.

The Talkeetna Ranger Station is staffed daily from April through September and Monday through Friday during the winter months. Mountaineering rangers live in Talkeetna year-round. The town of Talkeetna is located 114 road miles north of Anchorage on a highway that is well maintained year-round. Talkeetna has five inns, several bed and breakfasts and six restaurants. There are two campgrounds and two small stores. There is an ATM machine available for cash transactions.

Thirty nine species of mammals have been documented in Denali National Park and Preserve. Mammals here range in size from the 1200 pound moose to the 1.5 gram tiny shrew. A goal for many visitors to the park is to see the “big five”. On a ride along the park road visitors can see a moose browsing in a stand of willow, caribou resting on a snow patch to avoid insects, Dall’s sheep high on the hillsides, a wolf trotting across the tundra, or a grizzly bear feeding on ripening blueberries. Many other mammals in Denali are less obvious but no less interesting and important. Camouflage is an adaptation used by two of Denali’s mammals. To blend in with the summer vegetation, the fur of snowshoe hare and short tailed weasel (ermine) is brown. Their fur changes to white to blend with the winter snow.

Animal life and activity in Denali is dictated by the seasons. Winter is the longest season and the animals that are year-round residents are well-adapted to life in the subarctic. The brief spring season brings the return of 80% of Denali’s bird life, the waking of hibernating bears, and an increase in activity levels of wildlife. Summer is a time for raising young and preparing for migration, hibernation, or survival during the winter. Summer also brings hordes of insects, including mosquitoes. In late summer king and chum salmon run in the multitude of streams and rivers. In autumn, migrating birds fill the skies and bull moose gather their harems of cows for the mating season. Year-round residents include all the mammals, fish, about 18 species of birds, and the one lone amphibian, the wood frog. Mammals survive the long subarctic winters in many ways. Some species like grizzly bears, black bears, hoary marmots, and arctic ground squirrels hibernate. Other species like mice and voles live under the snow in tunnels and burrows. Caribou, Dall’s sheep, and moose are active throughout the winter and are constantly on the move searching for food and evading predators. Wolves are also active year-round, and like their prey, are constantly moving in search of food. Full time resident birds such as gyrfalcons, ptarmigan, black-capped and boreal chickadees, and redpolls are efficient at finding food and conserving energy, so there are always bird watching opportunities.

Arctic ground squirrels are the largest and most northern of the North American ground squirrels. This species is common in the ice-free mountainous regions of Denali. Arctic ground squirrels are obligate hibernators and spend 7 to 8 months in hibernation. Like many other arctic animals, arctic ground squirrels have unique physiological adaptations that allow them to survive during winter. Researchers at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks have shown that during hibernation, arctic ground squirrels adopt the lowest body temperature ever measured in a mammal. The body temperature of hibernating squirrels drops below freezing, a condition referred to as supercooling. At intervals of two to three weeks, still in a state of sleep, hibernating squirrels shiver and shake for 12 to 15 hours to create heat that warms them back to a normal body temperature of about 98 degrees Fahrenheit. When the shivering and shaking stops, body temperature drops back to the minimal temperature. This type of hibernation is rare among mammals and scientists are still studying this unique physiological behavior.

The black bear in Denali is typically confined to forested areas and is most often reported seen on the east end of the park, Kantishna Hills, and in the portions of the park on the south side of the Alaska Range. Their choice of habitat is usually one that keeps them away from contact with brown bears, a much larger competitor species. Most often black in color, black bears lack the shoulder hump prominent in grizzly bears. The tan muzzle is distinctive. They have strong curved claws that allow them to climb trees with agility, a talent grizzly bears lack. Unlike other tree-climbing mammals that descend head-first, a black bear walks down a tree with its rear legs in the lead.

The grizzly bear is characterized by a distinctive hump on the shoulders, a slightly dished profile to the face, and long claws on the front paws. Grizzly bears usually live as lone individuals, except for females accompanied by their cubs. Grizzly bears can be seen in close proximity in areas of abundant food, such as berry patches and salmon spawning areas. During the breeding season, a male may attend a female for up to two weeks for mating. Grizzly bears are omnivorous, eating a mixed diet of grasses, berries, roots, fish and small mammals. They are also predators of caribou and moose and their calves. They will scavenge carrion when available. The roots of pea vine (Hedysarum alpinum) are important spring and late fall food. Green vegetation is preferred through the summer. Berries, especially blueberries (Vaccinium uliginosum) and soapberries (Shepherdia canadensis) form the bulk of the diet starting in late July when grizzly bears go into a feeding frenzy called hyperphagia. During this time they eat nearly nonstop.

The range of the Denali Caribou Herd is almost exclusively within the boundaries of Denali National Park and Preserve. The Denali Herd inhabits most of the park east of the Foraker River and north of the Alaska Range throughout most of the year. During the summer the body of the caribou is generally covered by brown fur. Coloration is variable, ranging from pure white through tan to dark brownish gray, with lighter rump and undersides. In the winter the coat turns grayish to almost white in color and gets thicker and longer than the summer coat. The coat is made of two layers: a guard coat made of straight, tubular hairs and a wooly undercoat. Mature caribou stand approximately four feet tall at the shoulder, eight feet in length and weigh from 130 to over 350 pounds. Caribou hoofs are very large and form a nearly circular print – acting like snowshoes to keep the animal from sinking in the snow. Both males (bulls) and females (cows) grow antlers standing as high as three feet or more.

Collared Pikas are small mammals within the same order as rabbits and hares. They resemble small rabbits with very short ears and small limbs. Early naturalists called these little animals rock rabbits or conies. Cony is a generic term used to describe many small rock-dwelling mammals including pika and hyrax. Pikas are active year-round and live mainly in talus slopes and boulder fields. Their sharp “enk” call is a characteristic sound along the many talus and boulder fields in Denali. Pikas are highly territorial. While many pikas may inhabit a talus slope, individuals actively guard their territories and food caches. Pikas do not hibernate and they do not store much body fat. To maintain their year-round active lifestyle, pikas establish several food caches in their territories. Pikas forage throughout the short subarctic summer and store many different types of vegetation in their caches. Pikas will also forage on lichens and other low-lying vegetation under the snow during winter.

Snowshoe hare live in the boreal forests of North America and are active year-round. They gain their curious name from their very large hind feet that are lined with stiff hairs that form a snowshoe, supporting their weight on the surface of the snow. They blend in well with their surroundings because of their seasonal variation in fur color, from brown in summer to almost pure white in winter. The gradual shedding of the coat and replacement of the guard hairs occurs two times per year and is triggered by changes in day-length. In Denali, they inhabit the spruce forests as well as shrubby habitats in riparian areas. In many areas of the boreal forest, snowshoe hares are the dominant herbivore.

The diet of snowshoe hares is diverse. In summer they eat herbaceous plants and the new growth of woody vegetation. In winter, they eat twigs, buds, and bark. Snowshoe hares browse heavily on vegetation and often leave behind well-defined browse-lines (often referred to as “hare lines”). Hares will also re-ingest their feces to extract all of the available nutrients from their food.

Hares are well adapted for escaping their predators. They have keen hearing and upon detecting a predator they often freeze in their tracks. This, in addition to their camouflage coloration, tends to be an effective means of avoiding predators.

Dall’s sheep are prevalent throughout the high mountains within the eastern and western-most portions of the park. They use the ridges and steep slopes for feeding and resting, and the rocks and crags to elude predators. The population within the original park boundary is of great interest to wildlife managers because it is one of the few populations in North America that is not currently hunted and still shares its range with a natural complement of large predators. The diets of Dall’s sheep vary from range to range. During summer, food is abundant, and a wider variety of plants are consumed. Winter diet is much more limited and consists primarily of lichen and moss. Dall sheep visit mineral licks during the spring often traveling many miles to eat the soil at these sites.

Male Dall’s sheep are called rams and are distinguished from females, called ewes, by their massive curling horns. Adult rams live in bands that seldom associate with ewe groups except during the mating season, or rut, in late November and early December. The head butting that rams are known for is the way males establish their reproductive rank. These clashes occur intermittently throughout the year but are most dramatic during the rut when rams compete with each other to mate with ewes. As rams mature, their horns form a circle when seen from the side. Ram horns reach half a circle in about two or three years, three-quarters of a circle in four to five years, and a full circle or “curl” in seven to eight years.

Hoary marmots are large rodents that live mainly in alpine areas. Their loud, clear warning calls are a common sound in the mountainous regions of Denali. Marmots are burrowing animals and their lifestyles revolve around their burrows. Marmots live in loosely formed colonies made up of small family units (a pair of adults and their offspring). Colonies usually occur as “neighborhoods” of two or more family-based colonies. Marmots live in areas that provide good subsurface protection, escape from predators, food supplies, and relief from annoying insects. These areas often occur at high elevations near cliffs and rocky outcrops, and at the base of talus slopes. Hoary marmots are obligate hibernators. In Denali, they are usually active from May through mid-September, and they hibernate the rest of the year. Members of a family usually overwinter in the same burrow or hibernaculum.

Moose inhabiting Denali National Park and Preserve face many natural and human related factors that potentially affect behavior, distribution and population. These factors include weather, predation by wolves and bears, and human development. Moose in the park tend to live in forested areas that are often close to lakes and marshes and other bodies of water. Moose are also excellent swimmers. In the winter they remain in their territory, often in willow marshes, and form “yards”- they create paths in the deep snow as they paw for food. During the summer they graze on grasses, forbs, underwater vegetation, bushes, coniferous needles and deciduous leaves. Moose are very large, fast animals and are aggressive when disturbed.

Adult males are called bulls, adult females are cows and the young are called calves. Moose are not typically found in large herds, they are mainly found as single animals or in small groups. Moose are the largest member of the deer family. Adult males can weigh 900-1400 pounds and females can weigh 700-1100 pounds. They have extremely long legs and stand 5-6 ½ feet at the shoulder. They use their long legs to wade into bodies of water and eat plants off the bottom. Their legs also enable them to paw through deep snow to reach food in winter. Their body is covered with black or very dark brown hair. They have a very large head with a dewlap of skin, called a “bell,” hanging down from the jaw.

Moose breed in late September and early October. Bulls have large antlers that curve upward and back. The antlers are palmate; having a flattened area like the palm of your hand, with the fingers or tines pointing up. The bulls use these antlers to spar during the breeding season or rut. During the rut bulls and can be extremely aggressive and dangerous. The antlers are grown each spring and shed in early winter, after breeding season. The breeding season is one of the few times moose form small groups.

The red fox is abundant, widely distributed over the park, and frequently seen. Color phases other than red occur, sometimes even in the same litters. While the most common color is red, red fox can be black, silver or a cross between red and silver, known as “cross fox”. A prominent white-tipped tail is a distinguishing feature for all color phases. Underground dens are used for the rearing of pups. Dens may be found in the open, in forest, on slopes, or on flat terrain. Most are dug into the soil and may have several entrances. Red fox pups are born in the early part of May. They spend most of the summer in or near the den where they are provided food by the parents.

Small mammals including voles, mice, lemmings, arctic ground squirrels, and hares make up the bulk of the diet for most of the year. Red fox eat berries, especially blueberries and crowberries when they become available in July and sometimes through the winter if other foods are not readily available. Red foxes hunt by smell, sight, and sound. They have excellent eyesight, a keen sense of smell and acute hearing. Sometimes they wait patiently for the sound of a mouse moving along its path in grass or snow and then pounce; at other times, hearing movement underground, they dig quickly and locate the prey by its scent.

In Alaska, wolf populations (5,900 to 7,200 animals) are not considered endangered or threatened. There are approximately 14 packs of wolves in Denali with approximately 92 animals. Wolf groups, or packs, usually include dominant male and female parent (alpha pair), their offspring and other non-breeding adults. Wolves begin mating when they are 2 to 3 years old, sometimes establishing lifelong mates. Wolves usually rear their pups in dens for the first six weeks. Dens are often used year after year, but wolves may also dig new dens or use some other type of shelter, such as a cave. Pups are born in early spring and are cared for by the entire pack. They depend on their mother’s milk for the first month, and then they are gradually weaned and fed regurgitated meat by other pack members. By 7 to 8 months of age, when they are almost fully grown, the pups begin traveling with the adults. Often, after 1 or 2 years of age, a young wolf leaves the pack and tries to find a mate and form its own pack. Lone dispersing wolves have traveled as far as 500 miles in search of a new home.

Wolf packs usually live within a specific territory. Territories range in size depending on how much prey is available and seasonal prey movement. Packs use a traditional area and defend it from other wolves. Their ability to travel over large areas to seek out vulnerable prey makes wolves good hunters. Wolves may travel as far as 30 miles in a day. Although they usually trot along at 5 mph, wolves can attain speeds as high as 45 miles per hour for short distances. Indirectly, wolves support a wide variety of other animal populations. Ravens, foxes, wolverines, and even bears feed on the remains of animals killed by wolves. Wolves also help regulate the balance between ungulates (hoofed animals) and their food supply.

Denali’s lone amphibian, the wood frog, occurs across the forests and wetlands of interior Alaska. It is a rather small frog (1 to 7 centimeters long, nose to vent) and it breeds in seasonal ponds primarily in forested areas. The surprisingly loud calls of wood frogs are a sign of spring in interior Alaska. Subarctic areas are harsh environments for amphibians and very few species occur in these regions. Frogs are known as ectotherms, meaning that their body temperatures fluctuate with ambient air temperatures and their surroundings. Scientists speculate that wood frogs were able to adapt to the harsh environment in interior Alaska because they quickly change from tadpole to frog before the water freezes in the fall. But how do they survive during the long, cold subarctic winter?

Wood frogs are just one of many creatures that use “cryoprotectant” chemicals to survive freezing temperatures. As summer turns to fall across North America, wood frogs prepare for winter by burrowing into decaying leaves on forest floors. The eyeballs and extremities of wood frogs start to freeze as daily temperatures drop below 32 degrees Farenheight (0 degrees Celsius). The first sign of freezing apparently stimulates the brain to send a message to the wood frog’s liver, which starts to convert stored glycogen into glucose, a sugar. The glucose circulates through the frog’s bloodstream into the cells where it lowers the freezing point of water. The glucose also protects cells from damage and minimizes the effects of dehydration. As the temperature continues to drop, the frogs freeze solid. Throughout the entire winter, hibernating frogs are inanimate: they don’t breath and their hearts don’t beat. Alaskan wood frogs tolerate colder temperatures and freeze for longer periods of time than wood frogs in all other areas of North America, and can survive temperatures as low as –120 C.

Scientists have found that core organs, such as the heart and liver, freeze last and thaw first. That means vital body functions such as circulation and metabolism are maintained for the longest possible time. Once the temperatures rise in spring, the frogs thaw and they are off in search of ponds for breeding.

Denali’s avifauna includes migratory birds from all over the world 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 the spring and decreasing when they depart on their autumn migration. Summer birding in Denali rewards visitors with the opportunity to view these migratory species in a 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. Of the 167 species of birds recorded in Denali, 149 occur regularly and 119 are recorded as breeders (nesting in the park and preserve). Many of the birds that breed in Denali travel thousands of kilometers each year to return to their nesting areas. These are the true “globe trotters” of the bird world and they connect Denali to global ecosystems.

Many of the 21 species of shorebirds that breed in Denali are long-distance migrants. Shorebirds nesting at higher elevations include the American golden plover, upland sandpiper, surfbird, and Baird’s sandpiper. Shorebirds nesting at lower elevations include the semipalmated plover, greater and lesser yellowlegs, solitary sandpiper, wandering tattler, spotted sandpiper, whimbrel, least sandpiper, long-billed dowitcher, common snipe, and red-necked phalarope. Birds with intriguing names, like the wandering tattler, attract bird watchers by the score. The American golden plover has exquisite plumage, an evocative voice, and a globe-spanning reach (they winter in South America). Surfbirds, which spend most of their lives along coastal areas in the “surf”, nest in the mountainous regions of Denali. George Wright made the first scientific observation of a surfbird nest on a rocky ridge in Denali on May 26, 1926.

Two elegant species, the long-tailed jaeger and the arctic tern grace the summer skies of Denali. The beautiful long-tailed jaeger nests on the tundra and these lithe aerial hunters patrol the northern landscape in search of prey. Their wintering areas are not well-documented, but they probably spent most of the winter at sea. Equally as agile and elegant as jaegers, arctic terns nest near the numerous lakes and ponds in Denali where they seem to hover effortlessly over the water in search of prey. The arctic tern is probably the most famous long distance avian migrant in the world, traveling between breeding grounds in the arctic and wintering habitat on the waters near Antarctica.

Several species of passerines are true globe trotters and these species attract much interest from bird watchers and scientists alike. Northern wheatears are summer visitors that nest in the tundra in Denali and spend their winters in sub-Saharan Africa. Arctic warblers commonly nest in willow thickets and their harsh calls are difficult to ignore. This Old World warbler winters in southeastern Asia (China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Borneo) but returns to Denali and arctic regions to breed. (Adolph Murie, one of the first scientists to work in Denali, documented the first two nests of this species for North America among the tall willows of Igloo Creek in 1955.) Blackpoll warblers breed across the boreal regions of North America. This tiny bird is a celebrity in the migration world. Their annual journeys between North America and South America are among the longest of passerine birds.

Redpolls are small songbirds that reside year-round in Denali. Studies suggest that common redpolls can tolerate colder temperatures than any other small songbird. Redpolls depend on several unique adaptations to survive in northern environments. Their plumage weight in winter is twice that of summer and they often erect their feathers in winter to retain heat. Redpolls eat large amounts of high-calorie foods before nightfall, store the foods in a pouch in their esophagus, and digest the foods after they have gone to roost. Like other resident songbirds, redpolls seek out sheltered places for roosting. During winter, redpolls occur in large flocks, although their numbers fluctuate greatly among years. A unique life history characteristic of redpolls is their apparent lack of territoriality. They are one of the few songbirds that are not territorial during the breeding season. In winter, large flocks search northern forests for food. These flocks are principally nomadic and may move thousands of kilometers in search of food.

While Alaska supports a population of bald eagles greater than that in all of the other states combined, the mountainous regions of Denali, especially north of the Alaska Range, are much better suited to golden eagles. Bald eagles occur in Denali mainly on the south side of the Alaska Range near lakes and rivers, but golden eagles outnumber bald eagles park-wide by 70%.

The golden eagles that breed and raise their young in Denali are migratory. Their annual journeys span eastern Alaska, western Canada, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains and northern Mexico. Golden eagles spend mid-March to late September in Denali where territorial pairs reunite, breed, and raise their young. While traditional nesting areas are used for many years, Denali’s scientists do not know whether or not the same pairs remain together over their lifetime and use the same nesting area each season.

Golden eagles in Denali usually build their nests on cliffs or rock outcroppings, although a few nests are in trees. Reproduction is influenced by the abundance of prey during the early spring breeding season. Many more pairs of eagles lay eggs and raise young in years when springtime populations of snowshoe hare and willow ptarmigan are abundant than when these important prey species are scarce. Denali is home to the longest running golden eagle ecology study at high latitudes in North America. Results from this long-term monitoring program are shedding new light on the natural history of these magnificent predatory birds.

Elusive, powerful, and well-adapted for life in northern latitudes, gyrfalcons are the largest falcon in the world. However, we understand little about their ecology due to the remoteness of their northern breeding areas. Gyrfalcons are one of the few diurnal raptors that are year-round residents in Denali. From late February through October, gyrfalcons share the Denali skies with a large breeding population of golden eagles.

Gyrfalcons are true arctic birds. They breed across the circumpolar north and leave only when food is scarce. They are extremely powerful fliers and can chase down prey such as ptarmigan with apparent ease. During the breeding season, gyrfalcons prey heavily on arctic ground squirrels and ptarmigan, and occasionally on snowshoe hare. During winter they rely heavily on ptarmigan.

Gyrfalcons don’t build their own nests. Instead, they often use the stick nests of other raptors to raise their young. In Denali, gyrfalcons often use stick nests in golden eagle territories for their own use. The presence of two large, territorial aerial predators in close proximity to one another often leads to spectacular aerial dogfights. Gyrfalcons lay eggs in March, when daily temperatures rarely rise above freezing. Like other early nesting raptors, gyrfalcons must endure late winter and early spring snowstorms during incubation. The nestlings, usually one to four individuals, grow rapidly and fledge by mid to late July.

Northern hawk owls are a rare sight in the wild. They are often spotted perched at the top of spruce trees. Birders with good ears can also find them by listening for their vocalizations. In Denali and adjacent areas, birders are most likely to find northern hawk owls in late winter or early spring as they move in search of nest sites, mates, and prey. The northern hawk owl occupies a circumpolar range and breeds in Alaska, northern Canada, Scandinavia, and across northern Russia. Three subspecies exist worldwide but only one, Surnia ulula caparoch, resides in North America. These owls live and breed in the northern boreal forests of Alaska, Canada, and Newfoundland.

Largely nomadic, northern hawk owls move across their range in response to prey availability and climatic conditions. When the weather is severe and prey availability is low, northern hawk owls may move southward into more temperate latitudes of Alaska, Canada, and the northern continental United States. These southern movements are referred to as “irruptions” and may span thousands of miles.

There are three subspecies of peregrines in Alaska, the American or continental peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus anatum), the tundra or arctic peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus tundrius), and the Peale’s peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus pealei). Tundra peregrines breed at higher latitudes in Alaska and Peale’s falcons occur in southern Alaska. The American peregrine falcon is found throughout interior Alaska, especially along rivers. Only the American peregrine falcon breeds in Denali, but tundra peregrines probably pass through during migration.

The American peregrine falcon is one of the best known raptors in North America. Many people are aware of the population declines of this species due to problems with egg-shell thinning caused by persistent organic pollutants such as DDT. Populations of this species were driven to the brink of extinction and the peregrine falcon was federally listed as an endangered species in 1973. Reducing DDT in our environment provided peregrine falcons with a chance to recover and the population in Alaska has grown rapidly from 1980 to the present. The American peregrine falcon was removed from the endangered species list in 1999.

American peregrine falcons were never common in Denali. The extensive alpine regions of Denali do not support high densities of prey favored by peregrines and the lowland areas don’t contain many cliffs or rock outcrops for nesting. In 1988, Denali scientists documented the first breeding pair of peregrine falcons in Denali on a granite tor near Chilchukabena Lake. In 1989 these scientists found another pair breeding on a small bluff on the Toklat River and in 2002 they found two more pairs, all on the Toklat River. It appears that peregrines are moving into some of the lowland areas in Denali as their populations grow in interior Alaska.

All three species of North American ptarmigan: willow, rock and white-tailed, live in Denali. Ptarmigan are members of the grouse family and they spend much of their lives on the ground. They are, however, very capable fliers and often use their speed and agility to escape aerial predators such as gyrfalcons and golden eagles and terrestrial predators such as red fox. Ptarmigan blend in well with their surroundings; all species change the color of their plumage in the winter. The tail of the white-tailed ptarmigan is white throughout the year. The tails of the willow and rock ptarmigan remain black throughout the year.

The smallest and least common is the white-tailed ptarmigan. In summer it lives on high mountain ridges. The larger and more abundant rock ptarmigan lives on mountainsides and in mountain valleys. The largest and most abundant species is the willow ptarmigan. Willow ptarmigan occur across many habitats in Denali, but are not usually found at higher elevations. Ptarmigan are year-round residents in Denali. In winter, all three species may flock together and they may travel great distances searching for food. Flocks may be as large as several hundred ptarmigan. The feet of ptarmigan are feathered and these rather stiff feathers provide them with good support for walking on snow.

The cackling, groaning, growling, snoring and screaming vocalizations of ptarmigan are common sounds in Denali each spring. Increases in vocalizations signal that the breeding season is underway. Male ptarmigan are very territorial and they vigorously defend their territories from other males. Once breeding is over, however, male rock and white-tailed ptarmigan leave the rest of the job of raising their young to the females. But male willow ptarmigan actively defend their females and their young. Some male willow ptarmigan breed with more than one female and protect these females and their young as well. Ptarmigan are highly specialized for living in alpine and arctic regions.

Named for their resonant brassy call, trumpeter swans are a common sight across Denali’s skies during the spring and fall and can be found throughout Denali’s wetlands in the summer. Those swans that return annually to breed in Alaska number over 17,500 and belong to the Pacific Coast population. The Pacific Coast population makes up about 75% of the world’s total number of trumpeter swans. Driven to near extinction by humans in the 19th century, focused conservation measures have helped trumpeter swans wage a comeback. Removed from the Federal Endangered Species list in 1968, current surveys estimate the worldwide population at 24,000 swans.

The rich wetlands of the northwestern and southwestern portions of Denali support large numbers of breeding, brood-raising, and pre-migratory staging swans. Breeding habitat includes freshwater marshes, ponds, lakes, and slow-flowing rivers. Swans build their nests on old beaver houses and dams, and on emergent vegetation, either floating or anchored to the bottom of the water body. Many nests are built offshore and are usually surrounded by a 20 to 30 foot (6 to 9 meter) moat.

Do not feed or allow wildlife to obtain human foods. Maintain a minimum 1/4-mile (.7 km) distance from bears. Do not approach or follow wildlife. Maintain a minimum 25 yards distance from all other animals, dens, and nests. If your presence alters an animal’s behavior, you are too close.

In the Front country, prevent all food and garbage problems by keeping housing and hotel areas clean; no food, beverages, coolers, or dirty grills left outside; not even empty cans or coolers; always use bear-proof trash cans and dumpsters; never leave trash beside a full can; and be responsible, report or correct problems. Bears commonly use front country areas so watch for bear sign: tracks, scat, kills and respect posted warnings. Removing signs endangers people and bears. Be careful on roads and trails. Stay alert and make noise while hiking or biking. If you encounter a bear while bicycling, do not try to outrun the bear,
Keep food with you, and keep the bike with you. Hold bike between you and the bear. Back away slowly.

In the Backcountry, watch for bear sign. Recognize prime feeding areas and avoid them if possible, i.e., berry patches. Bears travel along trails and rivers. Watch for natural bottlenecks that could funnel bears into your camp. Avoid surprising bears. Travel in the open when possible. Make noise when visibility is limited. Travel/camp with one or more companions. More eyes can watch for bears. Conversation is a good way to alert bears to your presence. Bears are less likely to approach groups. Never approach a bear. Get out of the way or detour widely if you have that option, especially if a bear is not aware of you. When a bear sees you, let the bear know that you are human. Wave your arms over your head and speak in a firm, even tone. Back away slowly. If a bear approaches, Hold your ground, don’t run, and don’t drop your pack! Back away slowly if the bear stops. Never play dead unless a bear actually makes contact with you, then keep your pack on, pull your knees up toward your chin and stay as quiet as possible. Never cook or eat in or at your tent. Listen carefully to the information given at the back-country desk about setting up your camp. Avoid eating or storing food where visibility is limited. Be prepared to re-pack all food, even cooked food, in your BRFC and lock the lid at a moment’s notice. Above all, listen to the rangers in the park you are visiting as some animals react differently in some parts of the country than others. See the Wildlife Precautions page for further information.

$10.00 for individuals and $20.00 for families – 7 Days

Camping in Denali offers a great way to experience this spectacular park. There are five established campgrounds in the park. You may camp a total of 14 days per year in Denali National Park & Preserve’s established campgrounds. Denali’s campgrounds all have different access, fees, and facilities. Campsites can be reserved in advance in one of four ways: fax your reservation form beginning December 1, through August 31, of each year-1 (907) 264-4684; mail your reservation form beginning December 1 and continuing through August 31 of each year (forms received before December 1, will not be valid)- Doyon / ARAMARK Joint Venture, 241 West Ship Creek Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska 99501; phone reservations are: Nationwide 1 (800) 622-7275, International 1 (907) 272-7275, Anchorage Local 272-7275; and at the Wilderness Access Center you can reserve campsites depending upon availability.

Riley Creek Campground is close to camper convenience store, laundry, and shower facilities. It’s located 1/4 mile west of Alaska Hwy. #3, at the entrance of the park, and is open year-round. There are 150 sites for RVs & tents with flush toilet and water with limited facilities Sept.-May. Fees run $20.00/night for Drive- up site and $12.00/night for Walk-in site, but are waived in the off season.

Savage River Campground and Group Campground is open 5/18-9/17; weather dependent. It’s located on Mile 13 and has 33 sites for RV’s & tents, with 3 group sites. There is flush toilet and water. The fees are $20.00/night for individuals/families and the group fees are $40.00/night.

Sanctuary River Campground is located on Mile 23 and has 7 sites, tents only (no vehicles). It is open 5/18-9/12; weather dependent and offers chemical toilet, but no water. The cost is $9.00/night plus a one time reservation fee of $4.00.

Teklanika River Campground is located on Mile 29 and has 53 sites for RV only. It is open 5/19-9/16; weather dependent and offers flush toilet and water. The fees are $16.00/night with a 3-night minimum stay plus a one time reservation fee of $4.00.

Wonder Lake Campground id located on Mile 85 and has 28 sites, tents only (no vehicles). It is open 6/8-9/12; weather dependent and has flush toilet and water. The fees are $16.00/night plus a one time reservation fee of $4.00.

Denali’s Trailless Wilderness offers opportunity for backcountry camping. Traveling and camping in this expansive terrain is special. The lack of developed hiking trails, bridges, or campsites means that you are free to determine your own route and discover Denali for yourself. However, with this freedom comes responsibility – responsibility for you and for the wilderness. Self-reliance is paramount. You must be prepared to travel cross-country through remote terrain in harsh weather, and rescue yourself in the event of problems. It is also your responsibility to help protect the special resources and opportunities that are present at Denali by carefully following the principles of Leave No Trace so that your travels do not diminish the experience of those who follow you.

While camping in the backcountry, you may park your private vehicle in the Riley Creek Campground overflow parking area at no charge. This parking area is located approximately 0.25 miles from the Wilderness Access Center.
The 6 million acres of Denali National Park and Preserve is divided into 87 separate backcountry units (see the backcountry unit map for unit descriptions and locations). Forty-one units have a limit on the number of individual people that can camp in each unit per night. During peak summer visitation many of these units are heavily used, so please come to the Backcountry Desk with several alternative trip itineraries. Don’t become discouraged if your first choice is not available. There are 6 million acres to choose from, and all of the units offer excellent wilderness camping trips. Forty-one backcountry units have a specific quota. Unit availability determines where you may camp each night and you must camp in the unit for which you have a permit. There is a maximum 7 consecutive nights in a single unit with maximum 30 nights in the backcountry (various units).
Permits are issued only in person (no telephone reservations), and no more than 1 day in advance of your trip. All party members must be present to receive a permit. Permits are available at the Backcountry Information Center (BIC) located at the Riley Creek Entrance Area.

Once at the park allow approximately one hour for the permit process, which consists of five basic steps: 1. plan your itinerary, 2. watch backcountry video, 3. safety talk, 4. delineate maps, and 5. purchase Camper Bus tickets. Preplan several alternative itineraries prior to your arrival in the park. Building flexibility in your plans is very important because certain units may be unavailable at the time you actually wish to obtain your permit. Remember to be conservative when predicting your daily mileage. There are no trails, and travel can be slow and difficult in brushy areas or when fording glacial rivers. Upon your arrival at the BIC, several additional resources, such as unit description guides, local maps, and knowledgeable staff, will be available to assist you in planning your trip. The informative 30-minute video program is presented at the BIC and will answer many questions you will have about negotiating the Denali backcountry. It covers topics such as campsite selection, bear and wildlife encounters, river crossings, Leave No Trace principles, Bear Resistant Food Containers (BRFCs), and much more. All members of your party must view this program. Following the video, all party members must be present for a brief safety talk to receive the backcountry permit and the Bear Resistant Food Containers (BRFC) that is required for proper food storage. You must sign your permit in recognition that you understand all backcountry rules and regulations. Violations of the conditions of the permit may result in adverse impacts to park resources and legal consequences. Unit boundaries and wildlife closures are not marked in the backcountry. It is your responsibility to know their location. Fifteen minute (1 inch =1 mile) USGS topographic quad maps are strongly recommended and are available for purchase at the BIC. After obtaining the proper map(s), delineate unit boundaries and wildlife closure boundaries so that you will know where to hike and camp during your trip. Confidence in how to read topographic maps and basic compass skills is recommended for all backcountry users.

Access to most park backcountry units requires use of the Visitor Transportation System (VTS). Special Camper Buses that are built to accommodate people and their large gear packs depart the WAC several times a day. To secure space for your party, you should purchase tickets at the WAC soon after obtaining your backcountry permit. This bus system will take you to the start of your hike. When your trip is finished, or if you wish to move to another part of the park during the course of your trip, simply return to the park road and the next available VTS bus will pick you up. If you combine a campground reservation at Wonderlake and a backcountry trip, secure your camper bus ticket when you make reservations for Wonderlake and that ticket will be good for your backcountry trip also. Just let the staff at the BIC know that you already have your camper bus ticket when you arrive to get your backcountry permit.

Plan to spend 30 minutes surveying for the best place to establish your camp. Your tent must be at least 0.5 miles away from the park road and not visible from it. Camp on durable surfaces such as gravel river bars; avoid damaging fragile tundra. In pristine areas like Denali, avoid camping where others have camped.
Do not move rocks or plants; leave the area as you found it so that future hikers do not see signs of your use. Fires are not permitted in the Denali Wilderness. Fuel for portable camp stoves is available for purchase at the Riley Creek Mercantile, located in the immediate vicinity of the Wilderness Access Center. When cooking, remain alert for bears; be ready to pack up and move quickly.

Giardia and Cryptosporidium are protozoa found in unfiltered water and present serious health risks. Take one of the following precautions before drinking water from a natural source: boil for 1 minute, use a water filter, or treat with iodine tablets. If using a water filter, remember that many of Denali’s rivers carry glacial silt. This silt will quickly clog any water filter and render it inoperable. The addition of silt-stopper devices is highly recommended for any water filter. Neither pit nor chemical toilets are available in the backcountry. You must be prepared for proper waste disposal using the following guidelines: dig a hole at least 6 inches (15 centimeters) deep for fecal waste and at least 200 feet (60 meters) away from water, and pack out all toilet paper and sanitation products.

Bear resistant food containers, hard plastic portable containers, are a vital part of Denali’s bear/human conflict management program. You must store all food, garbage, and scented items in a BRFC when camping overnight in units where they are required. Their consistent use has resulted in a bear population that does not associate humans or their property with food sources. A small BRFC weighs 3 lbs. and holds 3-5 days of food for one person, and the larger BRFC weighs 5 lbs. and carries 7-10 days of food. BRFCs are issued free of charge with backcountry permits and must be returned within 48 hours following a trip. If the BRFC is lost or damaged, you may be held responsible for its replacement. Kevlar or bear-resistant bags are not permitted.

Mountain biking is a great way to see Denali National Park and get some exercise at the same time. Visitors are allowed to bike all 90 miles of the road. Off-road biking and biking on trails are strictly prohibited. If you wish to travel the park road and hike from your bicycle, you must still camp at least 1/2-mile (1.3 km) from the road and not be visible from it. Bicycles must be stored at designated bike racks at established campgrounds, the Visitor Access Center, or Toklat Road Camp while you hike. Reservations are required if you wish to stay overnight in campgrounds along the park road. To make reservations, call 1-800-622-7275. Each Camper Bus can accommodate two bicycles. Using the camper bus allows you to travel deep into the park for a day trip. Bicyclists should be as prepared as all hikers in terms of gear and equipment. The high brush and often difficult terrain makes hiking without a backpack impractical, so those who wish to combine biking with backcountry should be prepared to transport a pack while biking. For extended backcountry treks, you may cache food and supplies in bear-proof food lockers located at any established campground area, or the Toklat Road Camp. Label food/supplies with party name and date you intend to retrieve it. Denali National Park cannot be held responsible for caches.

Hiking and camping south of the crest of the Alaska Range requires additional preparation and skill. This area contains ice fields, sheer rock, heavily crevassed glaciers, extremely large rivers, and very dense brush. To obtain permits to camp in these areas, contact the Talkeetna Ranger Station at (907) 733-2231. For information on winter camping in Denali, contact Park Headquarters at 907-683-2294.

Yukon – Charley Rivers National Preserve, Western Arctic National Parklands, Katmai National Park & Preserve, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, Wrangell- St Elias National Park & Preserve, Sitka National Historical Park, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge, Kanuti N.W.R., Koyukuk N.W.R., Yukon Flats N.W.R., Kenai N.W.R., Tetlin N.W.R., and Chugach National Forest are all surrounding the park at varying distances away.

To arrive at the park, you can air travel to either Anchorage or Fairbanks and then car/shuttle/train to Denali. Anchorage is 240 miles to the south and Fairbanks is 125 miles to the north of the park.

Denali is accessible by car or via the Alaska Railroad from either Anchorage or Fairbanks. Denali Park’s headquarters is located along Alaska Route 3, the George Parks Highway, approximately 240 miles north of Anchorage, AK, 125 miles south of Fairbanks, AK, and 12 miles south of Healy, AK. Denali Park’s mountaineering headquarters is located in Talkeetna, AK, approximately 100 miles north of Anchorage, AK. In summer a variety of private bus and van services and the railroad operate daily from Anchorage and Fairbanks.

The Denali Park Road is accessible by private vehicle for 14.8 miles to the Savage River Bridge. To travel to destinations farther into the park, shuttle and tour bus services are available. Bicycles are permitted along the Park Road. The majority of visitors access the north side of the park by way of a single road 90 miles long. Beyond Mile 15 of the park road, visitors cannot drive personal vehicles and must enter the park by bus, bike, or on foot. Denali National Park & Preserve’s south side is accessed mostly by mountaineers climbing Mt. McKinley and other peaks in the Alaska Range, or by scenic flight tours.

Approximate Mileage from the following major cities to Denali National Park:

By Car:

Anchorage, AK – 238.88 miles

Fairbanks, AK – 120.31 miles

Talkeetna, Ak – 153.69 miles

Wasilla, AK – 195.42 miles

Palmer, AK – 208.75 miles

By Train:

Alaska’s State Railroad runs directly to the entrance of Denali National Park.

By Plane:

Air travel to either Anchorage or Fairbanks and then car/shuttle/train to Denali.

Denali National Park, P.O. Box 9, Denali Park, AK 99755-0009
Headquarters 907-683-2294
HQ-Teletype for the Deaf/Hearing Impaired (TTY) 907-683-9649
Talkeetna Ranger Station, Box 588, Talkeetna, AK 99676
By Fax 907-683-9617

Map

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The park is open 24 hours daily, all year. The Panther Junction Visitor Center is open daily, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., but may be closed on Christmas Day. The entrance stations and other visitor centers have variable seasons and hours. The park is relatively uncrowded much of the year. Visitation is highest in March and April. The park is extremely crowded during spring break, which is usually the second and third week in March. Easter weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, and the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day are also very busy. All lodging and campsites are usually full during these periods. Visitation is lowest in August and September.

The park plan was initiated in 1933, when Big Bend was designated a state park; the US Congress authorized the National park in 1935; the park was officially established on June 12, 1944. The “biosphere” is that veneer of our Earth’s crust, waters and atmosphere that supports life. It reaches from the deepest ocean floor 12 miles upward to the tops of the highest mountains and contains 193 distinct biogeographical zones or ecosystems. One of these is the vast Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico, southern Texas, and New Mexico. It is a biogeographical zone rich in geologic history and natural life forms. It is also an area exposed to a multitude of issues impacting its resources and people. Within its boundaries there are three special “biosphere reserves,” Big Bend, Jornada, and Mapimi, where answers to these pressures are being sought.

The Chihuahuan Desert Biogeographical Zone contains one multi-site Biosphere Reserve. Big Bend National Park in Texas and the Agricultural Research Service’s La Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico were designated by UNESCO in 1976. Mapimi, nominated in 1977, is located in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango and is administered by Mexico’s Institute of Ecology. The activities in each Biosphere Reserve are complimentary so together; Big Bend, Jornada, and Mapimi form a “regional” reserve in the true sense of the MAB model. Big Bend serves as a “core area” would in a singular Biosphere Reserve: all of the natural and cultural resources are fully protected for the future by mandates of the National Park Service. As the conservation core area, Big Bend provides baseline information from inventory and monitoring. This data can then be used to assess the effects of human activities. Big Bend remains one of the most pristine samples of America’s Chihuahuan Desert.

The field research area at Jornada serves as the Chihuahuan Desert Biosphere Reserve’s “buffer zone”. Work focuses on long-term experimental research and field application, primarily for agricultural use. The goal is to develop technologies that meet human needs and achieve sustainable natural communities. This type of manipulation cannot be conducted in the core area.

Mapimi serves as the “transition area” for the Chihuahuan Desert Biosphere Reserve but also includes its own core and buffer zones and is managed cooperatively by scientists, policy makers, landowners, and ejidatarios. Mapimi involves local residents in agriculture conservation, incorporates regional socio-economic problems into the reserve’s research, and employs a general land use plan for the entire area. Involving local residents in research, environmental education, and sustained uses is called the “Mexican modality” for Biosphere Reserves for which Mapimi is the prototype. The Mapimi program more comprehensively integrates Biosphere Reserve functions than the U. S. reserves.

The Big Bend has been a home to people for many centuries, but knowledge of the Rio Grande among non-Indians dates back less than 150 years. Spanish people crossed the Rio Grande in the 16th and 17th centuries searching for gold, silver, and fertile land. Comanche Indians crossed the river in the 19th century, traveling to and from Mexico with their raiding parties. Mexican settlers began farming on both banks of the river’s floodplain around 1900. Anglo-Americans joined in the farming after 1920, when boundary unrest ended. Cotton and food crops were grown around Castolon and what is now Rio Grande Village even after the park was established. From archeological sites dating back nearly 10,000 years, to ranches and mining operations from the early 1900s, Big Bend can be a great place to “discover” history. Only two prehistoric archeological sites are presently considered “public”–the Hot Springs pictograph site and the Chimneys. As research is completed on other archeological sites, they may be opened to the public, also. There are six National Register historic sites or districts in the park. They are Castolon Historic District, Hot Springs Historic Site, the Mariscal Mining District, the Homer Wilson Ranch Site, Rancho Estelle, and Luna’s Jacal.

Thousands of archeological sites within the park hold remnants of the material remains of 10,000 years of Native American occupation of the Big Bend. When properly studied, these sites can provide very valuable information about past cultures. Man has survived in the Big Bend region for more than 10,000 years by hunting and gathering. In fact, gathering plants accounted for up to 90 percent of their supplies. Native cultures of this area knew each plant and its various uses. The people traveled around the area based on harvest times of the resources. These nomadic people had to travel constantly to survive. They freely roamed the Big Bend in a seasonal cycle to glean their subsistence. The route was systematic and predictable, following resources as they developed and were ready to harvest. This region was a vast territory, rich in variety, with great ranges in topography and climate. The Chisos Mountain range was a special resource. It represented a haven from the desert lowlands and was an excellent source of food. In good years, the people would try to harvest everything in sight as it ripened. In bad years, they were busier than ever trying not to miss whatever was available.

As the native people traveled about harvesting supplies, they kept their possessions at a minimum. What they did carry with them had to be lightweight and durable. Generally, they packed all their possessions into a series of stacked baskets that were placed into a larger one. The largest basket was moved via a broad tumpline placed across the forehead. Most native cultures of the Big Bend region were talented basket weavers. Baskets were woven from willow (Salix sp.), sumac (Rhus sp.), Yucca, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus sp.), Nolina, sotol (Dasylirion sp.), lechuguilla (Agave lechugilla), and the century plant (Agave harvardiana). Baskets were used to gather food in, prepare food in, cook food in, and store the excess. They also worked well for carrying other supplies.

Native people spent the winter in the desert living on supplies gathered the rest of the year. As spring arrived, they would slowly move up the mountains or northward gathering supplies. Spring was a time to gather greens, bulbs, roots, and young tender plant shoots. Greens or potherbs were often prepared like spinach or eaten like a tossed salad. Young shoots of plants were also gathered and eaten, usually after boiling. Young shoots from thistles (Cirsium), pinon pine (Pinus monophylla), rabbitbrush, cattails (Typha sp.), prickly pear (Opuntia) were all eaten. Bulbs such as wild onions (Allium sp.) were also important.

Roots were also gathered, and like bulbs, the Natives were careful to leave some behind to ensure future harvests. The hearts of the sotol and century plant were important food sources and were harvested in early summer. A pit was dug, lined with rocks and a fire was kept going inside the pit to heat the rocks. The plants were dug up, leaves were chopped off, and the remaining bulbs were thrown into the rock-lined pit. The bulbs were then covered with more rocks, dirt, and grass and allowed to cook for a couple days. After cooking, the top layers were removed and the bulbs retrieved. Bulbs were then often pounded into sheets on rocks, allowed to dry, and then used as an important winter food source.

In early summer, petals and whole flowers were eaten from thistles (artichokes are thistle flowers) yuccas, dandelions and paintbrush (Castelleja). Summertime was also spent gathering fruit from such plants as mesquite (Prosopsis sp.), sumac, juniper (Juniperus), elderberry (Sambucus sp.), chilipequin (Capsicum annuum), persimmon (Diospyros texana), prickly pear cactus, and other cacti. The fruits were eaten raw, but also prepared in beverages and preserved in large quantities for winter use. The fruit would be mashed and spread out in layers in the sun and dried. Dried fruit would then be broken up on a metate and stored or boiled with meat and fat to make pemmican. Pemmican would last for months without spoiling.

Late summer and early fall was the time for gathering seeds and nuts. Fall was the most important season for the native cultures. The food-gathering activities of the fall would determine how well they survived the long, cold winter. Pinon pine nuts (Pinus cembroides), acorns from the oaks (Quercus sp.), and walnuts (Juglans sp.) were gathered each fall and preserved for winter. Many plants like Mormon tea (Ephedra), sotol, saltbush (Atriplex), prickly pear cactus, and mustards, in addition to grasses, provided edible seeds. Grasses and other seeds provided high yields, were nutritious, and widely distributed. Seeds were often mixed to produce pinole or meal. Meal is a coarsely ground flour. Grinding the grain on a flat rock or metate with a hand-held stone or mano typically produced pinole. Mixing the meal with water and cooking it would make mush.

Later Native Americans in the Big Bend such as the Jumanos and Apaches relied on agriculture for a small portion of their subsistence. Since the tribes were nomadic, they would typically plant seeds such as squash, corn, beans, melons, and sunflowers where water was plentiful. Fields were deserted for weeks, with people returning only to weed, irrigate, and harvest crops. Sometimes the elderly or older children were left to watch and tend the fields. The people hoped something would survive to be harvested in the fall.

Food supplies were not the only things gathered throughout the year. Many plants provided fiber for clothing, mats, ropes, sandals, etc. yucca, juniper, nolina, sotol, and the agaves, were some of the common plants utilized in the Big Bend region. These same plants also provided tinder for fires.

That portion of the earth’s surface known as the Big Bend has often been described as a geologist’s paradise. In part this is due to the sparse vegetation of the region, which allows the various strata to be easily observed and studied. It is also due to the complex geologic history of the area, presenting a challenge to students and researchers from all over the world.

From an elevation of less than 2,000 feet along the Rio Grande to nearly 8,000 feet in the Chisos Mountains, Big Bend includes massive canyons, vast desert expanses, and the entire Chisos Mountain range. Because they receive more precipitation than the rest of the park, the Chisos are often referred to as a temperate island in a desert sea. The scenery varies widely ranging from the Rio Grande floodplain to arid badlands to sotol grasslands to rugged volcanic peaks.

Not all field geologists, however, refer to the Big Bend as a paradise. For some, this land of twisted, tortured rock is a nightmare. The abundance, diversity and complexity of visible rock outcrops is staggering, especially to first-time observers. From 500 million year old rocks at Persimmon Gap to modern-day windblown sand dunes at Boquillas Canyon, geologic formations in Big Bend demonstrate amazingly diverse depositional styles over a vast interval of time. For most of us, time is measured by the passing of days, years and generations.

For a period of at least 200 million years, ending some 300 million years ago in the Paleozoic Era, a deep-ocean trough extended from present-day Arkansas and Oklahoma into the Big Bend region of far West Texas. Sediments from highlands to the north accumulated in that trough to form layers of gravel, sand and clay. With the passing of time, these layers became sandstone and shale beds. About 300 million years ago these strata were “squeezed” upward by collision with a continent to the south to form the ancestral Ouachita Mountains. Subsequent erosion over an interval of 160 million years left only the roots of those mountains visible. These remnants may be observed today in the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, in the immediate vicinity of Marathon, Texas, and in Big Bend National Park near Persimmon Gap.

A warm, shallow sea invaded the Big Bend during the Cretaceous Period, some 135 million years ago, providing the setting for deposition of lime mud and the remains of sea-dwelling organisms such as clams and snails. Limestone layers formed from those shallow muds are now visible throughout much of the Big Bend. They comprise the dramatic walls of Santa Elena, Mariscal and Boquillas canyons, the entire range of the Sierra del Caballo Muerto (Dead Horse Mountains) and the magnificent cliffs of the Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico, towering above Rio Grande Village. Approximately 100 million years ago the shallow Cretaceous sea began a gradual retreat to its present location, the Gulf of Mexico. Sandstone and clay sediments that formed along the retreating shoreline are found in lowlands surrounding the Chisos Mountains. Shallow water strata of this episode contain the fossil remains of oysters, giant clams, ammonites, and a variety of fishes and marine reptiles. Near-shore deposits in Big Bend have yielded petrified wood, fossil turtles and crocodiles–one almost 50 feet long! Deposits from further inland contain fossil remains of a variety of dinosaurs. Perhaps the most famous of Big Bend’s fossil treasures from this period is the giant flying reptile, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, with a wingspan over 35 feet. (A replica of the bones of one wing is now on exhibit at the Panther Junction Visitor Center.)

Near the end of the Cretaceous Period, a west-to-east compression of the earth’s crust marked the beginning of the second major mountain-building period in Big Bend. This compression, which began in Canada, moved gradually southward, uplifting and folding ancient sediments to form the Rocky Mountains. In Big Bend National Park, Mariscal Mountain represents the southernmost extension of the Rockies in the United States. Broad uplift punctuated by upward folding exposed both the erosion-resistant lower Cretaceous limestones and the less resistant overlying sandstones and clays to the onslaught of erosion. Limestone cliffs throughout the region continue to be eroded today; most of the more easily removed sandstone and clay is gone from the mountains.

For almost 10 million years after uplift ended, non-marine sediments of the Tertiary period constitute the only record of events in the Big Bend. Dinosaurs had long been gone from the land, their places taken by a proliferation of mammals, many of whose remains have been found in Big Bend…horses, rhinos, camels and rodents, as well as fossils of the plants on which they thrived. All was not to remain quiet for long. Near the present northwest boundary of Big Bend National Park, the first of a long series of volcanic eruptions occurred approximately 42 million years ago. Upwelling magma lifted the mass now known as the Christmas Mountains, fracturing and weakening overlying strata, allowing massive outpourings of lava to spread across the land. The oldest volcanic rocks in Big Bend owe their origins to this eruptive cycle. Between roughly 38 and 32 million years ago Big Bend itself hosted a series of volcanic eruptions. Initial activity in this cycle centered in the Sierra Quemada, below the present South Rim of the Chisos Mountains. Subsequent volcanic activity at Pine Canyon, Burro Mesa, near Castolon and elsewhere in the park is responsible for the brightly colored volcanic ash and lava layers of the lower elevations and for most of the mass of the Chisos Mountains.

Volcanic activity was not continuous during these eruptive cycles. Periods of hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of years passed between eruptions. During the quiet interludes the forces of erosion carved new landscapes, many of which were destined to be buried under layers of ash and lava from later eruptions. Life returned to the land only to be displaced by future eruptions. Elsewhere in the Big Bend rising magma sometimes failed to reach the surface. Instead, it spread within existing layers of rock, uplifting and fracturing overlying strata. Once the magma cooled and crystallized it formed solid masses of erosion-resistant intrusive igneous rock which have now been exposed by erosion of the overlying material. Maverick Mountain, the Grapevine Hills, Nugent Mountain and Pulliam Ridge are among many examples in Big Bend of such “frozen” magma chambers.

Beginning some 26 million years ago, stresses generated along the West coast of North America resulted in stretching of the earth’s crust as far east as Big Bend. As a result of these tensional forces fracture zones developed which, over time, allowed large bodies of rock to slide downward along active faults. The central mass of Big Bend National Park, including the Chisos Mountains, from the Sierra del Carmen to the east to the Mesa de Anguila to the west comprises such a block of rocks dropped downward by faulting. Direct evidence of this faulting is readily observed at the tunnel near Rio Grande Village. There the limestone layer through which the tunnel passes is the same layer that forms the skyline of the Sierra del Carmen to the east, dropped down over 4800 feet by faulting. To the west, at the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon the highest elevation rises 1500 feet above the river, while at the parking area the same layer lies some 1500 feet below the surface. Displacement along these faults did not occur in a single event, rather in a series of lesser episodes of faulting punctuated by earthquakes. The 1995 magnitude 5.6 earthquake near Marathon, Texas, 70 miles north of Panther Junction indicates that the responsible stresses are still active. The western slopes of the Chisos Mountains provide evidence of additional activity within the same fracture zones. Near the old ranch on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive stand a number of parallel ridges to the east of the road. These ridges are the eroded remains of tabular intrusions of magma along the Burro Mesa fault. The layers of volcanic ash into which the magma intruded are being actively removed by erosion, leaving the more resistant “dikes” of intrusive rocks standing in bold relief.

Mountain building by compression, volcanism and tension all served to form the framework for today’s landscapes in Big Bend National Park. Erosion of higher lands resulted in the filling of surrounding basins. Eventually basins from El Paso to Big Bend were filled and subsequently linked by the Rio Grande. Achieving through-flow to the Gulf of Mexico only within the last 2 million years, the Rio Grande ranks as the youngest major river system in the United States. Once established, the Rio Grande served, and continues to serve, as the conduit for material removed by erosion. The processes of erosion comprise the most active aspect of Big Bend’s geology today.

Erosion in Big Bend is best defined by rapid runoff and flash-flooding following summer thunderstorms, but there are other active agents of erosion. Water droplets in the atmosphere capture carbon dioxide to form carbonic acid, a very weak naturally occurring acid which has virtually no effect on man. One mineral, however, is vulnerable to attack by carbonic acid: calcite, which comprises the bulk of all limestone in the Big Bend. Every drop of rain that falls on limestone dissolves a tiny bit of calcite which is transported away by runoff, perhaps to a final destination in the Gulf of Mexico.

The beautifully etched limestone cliffs in the Sierra del Caballo Muerto and in Big Bend’s canyons owe their origin to Mother Nature’s own version of acid rain! Rainwater also contains free oxygen which reacts with sulfur-bearing minerals in igneous rocks. Virtually all igneous rocks in Big Bend contain minor amounts of pyrite, or Fool’s Gold, which is iron sulfide. Oxygen-bearing water attacks individual pyrite grains, replacing the sulfur with oxygen to form iron oxide, better known as rust, which provides the warm red and brown colors of igneous rocks in the Big Bend.

Plant and animal activity is also vital in the shaping of the land. As plants grow their root systems expand, forcing rocks ever farther apart, until, eventually, rocks are dislodged and fall. The same roots also extract needed minerals from rocks, weakening the rocks and rendering them more vulnerable to removal by flowing water. Similarly, animals crossing a rocky slope often dislodge rocks, sending them crashing down slope to collide with yet other rocks, which, in turn are dislodged. Though plants and animals play significant roles in erosion, the key player remains water. From chemical weathering by water-borne carbonic acid and oxygen to mechanical removal of soft and broken rocks, to scouring ever deeper and wider the canyons of the Big Bend, water is today, as it has been in the past, the major tool in the shaping of the land.

Big Bend National Park is located at the northern end of the Chihuahuan desert. Since most of the Chihuahuan desert is located in Mexico, Big Bend represents the largest protected portion of the Chihuahuan desert in the United States. In Big Bend you will find the desert to be the largest ecosystem in the park. Typical animals found in the desert are javelinas, roadrunners, jackrabbits, millipedes, and mule deer. The most familiar desert plants in the Chihuahuan desert are lechuguilla, sotol, numerous species of cactus, mesquite, and yuccas.

The Chihuahuan desert is the wettest of the four North American deserts, though it rarely receives more than 10 inches of rainfall. The rainy season in the desert is usually from mid-July through late September. Though it is called the rainy season, there are places in this desert environment that may not receive a drop.

Big Bend is one of the true jewels for paleontological research in the world. Unique among U.S. National Parks, Big Bend exhibits dinosaur remains from the last 35 million years of the dinosaurs’ existence. Furthermore, the fossil record here continues uninterrupted from the Age of Reptiles into the Age of Mammals. Over 90 dinosaur species, nearly 100 plant species, and more than two dozen fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles, crocodiles, lizards, and even early mammals have been discovered here, giving us one of the most complete pictures of a prehistoric ecosystem known anywhere on earth.

The fossil record here spans a rich history of 35 million years within the Cretaceous Period. Beginning about 100 million years ago, when a huge sea covered what is today most of the Midwestern U.S., the first of the ruling reptiles appeared in Big Bend’s fossil record. The sea layers of limestone known as the Boquillas Formation (100-95 million years ago) preserve numerous marine fossils, including a 30-foot long sea-dwelling reptile known as Mosasaurus.

The most exciting finds have occurred in strata that chronicle Big Bend’s emergence from this sea. Nearly 70 dinosaur species have been discovered in the Aguja Formation (80-75 million years ago) where we find evidence of a humid and swampy land. At this time, Big Bend was closer to the equator, and this tropical coastal swamp had palms, ferns, and diverse dinosaur life, including duck-billed Hadrosaurs.

By 75-60 million years ago, plant fossils suggest that the sea had retreated and Big Bend had become a drier floodplain environment. The sediments from these times, the Javelina Formation, have yielded over 80 species of plants, including cypress, laurel, conifers, and mangroves. While these plant finds are remarkable in their own right, they are usually overshadowed by several unique and spectacular dinosaur finds. Over 20 dinosaur species have been found in the Javelina Formation, giving us a rich glimpse into the last days of the ruling reptiles. These were the giants who ruled the earth at the time of the great extinction. These finds, and the possibility of future discoveries, make these sediments worth their weight in gold for paleontologists.

An impressive exhibit in the Panther Junction Visitor Center at Big Bend National Park displays a life-size replica of the wing bones of an enormous pterosaur. The 18-foot long specimen was discovered here in Big Bend National Park and represents the second largest known flying creature ever to have existed. Its name is Quetzalcoatlus northropi.

In 1971, Douglas A. Lawson, a student at the University of Texas in Austin, was performing geological field work in the park for his master’s thesis when he discovered a fossil bone eroding out of an arroyo bank. His professor, Dr. Wann Langston Jr., determined that this long, hollow, very thin-walled bone could only be from a pterosaur wing. Subsequent excavations recovered more wing bones, but unfortunately the wing must have detached from the body before being buried and fossilized, because no body bones could be found. Lawson named his discovery Quetzalcoatlus after the Mexican deity Quetzalcoatl, who was worshipped by the Aztecs in the form of a feathered snake.

Dr. Langston continued to search for and study Big Bend fossils and eventually found other specimens of Quetzalcoatlus in another part of the park. Although these specimens were smaller than the original, they were more complete and had a very impressive wingspan of at least 18 feet. Comparison of these complete specimens with the huge bones of the original Quetzalcoatlus made it possible to calculate the body size of Lawson’s specimen. This enormous pterosaur had an estimated wingspan of 36-39 feet, making it the largest known flying creature of all time. It is not yet clear whether the smaller specimens were young individuals of the large species, or whether they represent a distinct, smaller species of Quetzalcoatlus.

In 1999, Dana Biasetti, a graduate student from the University of Texas at Dallas, discovered giant dinosaur bones protruding from a dry hillside in the Javelina Formation of Big Bend National Park. Upon careful excavation, this hillside yielded partial pelvic bones and ten articulated cervical vertebrae of an adult Alamosaurus. Alamosaurus belongs to the group of dinosaurs named Sauropods-large herbivores with extremely long necks and tails. The Big Bend Alamosaurus appears to have been a massive individual, measuring in at 100 feet in length and probably weighing over 50 tons.

Due to their extreme size and the remote location of the fossil site, excavation and removal of these giant bones by hand was nearly impossible. As a result, Big Bend National Park issued a special permit to the excavation team to remove the fossil by helicopter. In 2001, UT Dallas now teamed with the Dallas Museum of Natural History, made history with Big Bend’s first ever “dinosaur airlift.” Over the next several years, the fossil was cleaned, studied, and prepared for display.

The fossilized remains of gigantic crocodiles have been discovered in the Aguja Formation in the south-central part of the Big Bend National Park. These are among the largest crocodiles ever known.
With lengths of 40-50 feet and jaws studded with 6-inch teeth, these powerful predators were extraordinarily equipped to feed upon a variety of dinosaurs. In fact, dinosaur bones have been found here that are heavily damaged and covered with distinctive crocodile bite marks! Just like modern day crocodilians, Deinosuchus riograndensis probably hunted by ambush…lying submerged near shore, and violently seizing large dinosaurs as they foraged amid the vegetation of Big Bend’s ancient swamps.

Along a stretch beginning upstream of Rio Grande Village, a series of thermal springs emerge adjacent to the Rio Grande. All of the hot springs in this region are believed to be related to normal faults. These Basin and Range type faults formed between 18 and 23 million years ago. Today, groundwater circulating deep in the earth becomes heated before it returns to the surface as hot springs.

The most famous of the thermal features along the Big Bend of the Rio Grande is the Langford Hot Springs. It is located where Tornillo Creek enters the Rio Grande, some four miles upriver from Boquillas Canyon and the Mexican village of Boquillas. The natural springs at the site are known as Boquillas Hot Springs. Boquillas is Spanish for “little mouths” and refers to the many small streams or arroyos that drain this part of the Sierra del Carmen range and flow into the Rio Grande. Later, when the springs were promoted for their health benefits, the settlement and spa resort there was called Hot Springs, and a post office by that name was established at the site in July 1914. Although there are several other small hot springs in the area, these larger and more accessible springs are the best known.

The temperature of the spring water, which is heated geothermally, is 105°F year-round; the water contains calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, and lithium. The springs’ flow rate in 1936 was 250,000 gallons a day, but more recent measurements show a decrease.

The Rio Grande is the defining feature of the Big Bend. It is here that the river swings abruptly to the northeast after flowing south and southeast for nearly 1,000 miles. In the desert life clings to water, and it is along the Rio Grande and intermittent streams that wildlife is often found. Both humans and animals are attracted to and depend on the limited water of the Rio Grande.

Big Bend National Park marks the northern extension of the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest of North America’s four deserts. Although water sources dot the landscape and flash floods occur after heavy rains, the Rio Grande provides the park’s most prominent source of water.

The Rio Grande begins its journey to the Gulf of Mexico from springs and snow melt high in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Along its way to the sea, the Rio Grande travels almost 2,000 miles. As it flows southward, its waters are diverted for flood control, irrigation, power generation, municipal uses, and recreation.

By the time the Rio Grande leaves El Paso, so much water has been diverted that the riverbed between El Paso and Presidio often lies dry. Depending upon annual rainfall patterns, 69 to 86 percent of the water in the Rio Grande downstream from Presidio flows from the Mexican Rio Conchos, which originates in the Sierra Madre of western Chihuahua. The Rio Conchos joins the Rio Grande near Ojinaga, Chihuahua and Presidio, Texas.

For more than 1,000 miles the Rio Grande serves as the international boundary between Mexico and the United States; Big Bend National Park administers approximately one-quarter of that boundary. The Rio Grande also defines the park’s southern boundary for 118 twisting miles. It is within this stretch that the Rio Grande’s southeasterly flow changes abruptly to the northeast and forms the “big bend” of the Rio Grande.

In 1978, Congress designated a 196-mile portion of the Rio Grande as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Only the upper 69 miles of the Wild and Scenic River lie within the park’s boundary; the remaining 127 miles lie downstream of the park’s boundary. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act directs that designated rivers “…be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they…be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.”

Because the Rio Grande serves as an international boundary, the park’s jurisdiction extends only to the middle of the deepest river channel; the rest of the river lies within the Republic of Mexico. On the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River section downstream from the park’s boundary, the park administers only from the gradient boundary at the river’s edge on the United States’ side to the middle of the deepest channel. Providing protection and maintaining the pristine character of the Rio Grande along this stretch, the Wild and Scenic River designation actually begins at the Coahuila/Chihuahua, Mexico, state border upstream from Mariscal Canyon and continues downstream 196 miles to the Terrell/Val Verde County line in Texas; approximately 69 miles of this designation lie within Big Bend National Park. Both the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River and the river along the park’s boundary are managed for recreation and preservation by the National Park Service.

Big Bend National Park is a diverse area containing over 1,200 species of plants. Three cacti are threatened in the park. The cacti are at risk from poachers. The Chisos hedgehog cactus, Echinocereus chisoensis, grows below 2,400 feet in elevation. The three-inch flowers are tricolor and appear in the spring. The fruits are reddish and fleshy. The status of this species is not known. A three-year ecology and population study of the Chisos hedgehog began in 2000. Corypantha ramillosa, bunched cory cactus, is a tiny three-inch cactus with deep rose-purple flowers. It occurs in limestone hills near the river. The status of this species is also unknown. Lloyd’s mariposa cactus, Echinomastus mariposensis, is white-spined and produces white to pink flowers in the spring. It occurs on limestone slopes below 3,500’ in the eastern part of Big Bend. Its status is unknown. Park staff is monitoring known locations of these and the other cacti in order to learn more about their populations.

There are three agaves in Big Bend. Agave lechuguilla, commonly called lechuguilla, is the indicator plant of the Chihuahuan Desert. This means it is only found in the Chihuahuan Desert and nowhere else in the world! Agaves are a low growing evergreen plant with succulent leaves that form a bowl shape or basal rosette. Lechuguilla was a very important source of fiber for Native Americans and is still used today to make rope in Mexico. The roots of the plant are high in saponins, so they taste bitter but are a good source of soap. The lechuguilla blooms once after growing three to twenty years. Agave havardiana or the century plant is the largest agave in the park. It blooms once in its life after growing 20-50 years. Mexican long-nosed bats pollinate the bright yellow flowers. Once baked, the plant provided a source of food that could be dried and stored to help them to survive the long winter. The dried flower stalks served as building material. Century plants in Mexico provide the alcoholic beverages of pulque, mescal, and tequila. The third agave in Big Bend is actually a hybrid. Agave gracilipes is the plant that occurs when the century plant and lechuguilla cross breed. It looks like a large lechuguilla or a small century plant. It also provided fiber for the Native Americans.

Sotol, Dasylirion species, is composed of a cluster of numerous linear, flattened leaves that have hooked teeth along the margins of the leaf. The leaf bases are spoon-like. A tall flower stalk is produced each spring that has light colored, nondescript flowers clustered together. The fruit is three- winged and triangular. Twenty species occur in southwestern U.S. and Northern Mexico.
Sotol was an important source of materials for basket making. The young flower stalks were eaten, as were the seeds. The heart of the plant was cooked along with agave hearts in a stone-lined pit for several days and then eaten. The stalks were used to make temporary shelters, porches, roofs, corrals and walking sticks. When the sap is fermented it produces the alcoholic beverage also called sotol.

Nolina species has linear leaves that are long, numerous, and clustered. Margins of the leaves are finely toothed. The flower is short stemmed, with cream-colored flowers. The leaves were an important source of material for mats, sandals, and basket making. However, the plant was not eaten since it is poisonous and could cause liver and kidney damage. There are five species in the Trans-Pecos area and 30 species in the U.S. and Mexico.

There are nine species of oak in Big Bend National Park. These trees or shrubs have simple alternate leaves with margins that are smooth, lobed, or toothed. The fruit or acorn is one celled; one seeded, and sits in a cup that partially envelops the seed. Hybridization is common among oaks. The oaks of Big Bend National Park are relic species – left behind on the mountaintops from a cooler time. The acorns on most species are edible. They need to be soaked in water before eating to remove some of the bitter taste. The early settlers of this area commonly made a flour or meal from the leached acorns. Oaks produce a hard wood important for firewood, tools, and furniture making.

Prosopis glandulosa, or honey mesquite and Prosopis, pubescens, screwbean mesquite, are both found in Big Bend National Park. These shrubby trees are armed with straight, stout spines that are solitary or paired, and have deep, drought-defying roots. The fruit is a tough pod where the seeds are partitioned and embedded. The fruits were an important food source for the Native Americans. The developing pods are sweet raw or cooked. The seeds are also edible and could be ground into flour or meal. The meal could be mixed with water to make a lemony drink. The drink was also fermented. The sap or pitch, was used to waterproof baskets, make candy, and produce a black dye. The sap was mixed with mud and plastered on the head. Once dry, it was removed leaving the hair shiny, black, and lice-free. The inner bark and roots were a source of fiber for baskets. The hard wood was an important source of tools and weapons. Today mesquite is used in posts, carvings, tool handles, gunstocks, and for barbecues.

Pinus cembroides, or the Mexican pinon pine, is a small evergreen tree with needles in clusters of two to five. They produce a woody cone that matures in two years and produces an edible nut. Although the nut has a hard shell, it is very tasty and was prized by the Native Americans. The nut stored well for winter and was high in protein and calories. This tree was once more widespread in cooler times and is now considered a relic species. It provided pitch or sap for waterproofing baskets, chewing gum, and also was used medicinally to treat sore throats and remove splinters. A tea made from the needles is high in vitamin C.

Rose-fruited juniper, Juniperus erythrocarpa, is the shrubby juniper of the park. Typically growing no taller that five feet, the alligator juniper, Juniperus deppeana, has checkered or scaly bark and is taller and more tree-like than other junipers in the area. Drooping juniper, or Juniperus flaccida, is common in Mexico but only found in the U.S. in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park. Its needles droop causing this small tree to appear like it always needs a drink of water. The bark of all three juniper species provided a source of fiber for sandals, mats, and baskets for early Native Americans. The cones are small and berry-like, and were used in seasoning meats and for beads in necklaces.

Yuccas are members of the lily family and bloom every year if there has been enough rainfall. The four yuccas of Big Bend National Park, Faxon yucca or giant dagger (Yucca faxoniana), beaked yucca (Yucca rostrata), soaptree yucca (Yucca elata) and Spanish dagger or torrey yucca (Yucca treculean), all have trunks that elevate the leaves above the ground. The trunk is often covered with dry, dead leaves. The leaves are long, fibrous, and spine-tipped. The cream-white flowers appear in late spring and produce a fleshy or dry fruit with black seeds. The flowers are pollinated primarily by the yucca moth. Native Americans ate the flower buds, petals, and young stalks. The fruits and seeds were also eaten. The fibrous leaves were used to make cloth, rope, mats, sandals, and baskets. The root provided soap and was used as a laxative.

There are sixteen species of Opuntia in the Trans-Pecos area of Texas. These species tend to hybridize, so it is often difficult to determine which prickly pear is which. There are two general varieties. The chollas have cylindrical stems and the prickly pears that have flattened stems. The cacti have spines instead of leaves to conserve water and carry out all food production through the stems of the plants. The spines are numerous and can be yellow, brown, pink, red, or black in color depending on the species. The flowers appear in April and are usually yellow (prickly pears) or pink (chollas). Fruits are usually maroon (prickly pears) or yellow (chollas) and some varieties are very juicy and sweet. The Native Americans ate these fruits, called tunas, and today we use them to make jellies and syrups. The young cactus pads or nopals were used as a potherb (like greens) or pickled. Their taste is typically described as a cross between green pepper and okra. The seeds were eaten in soups or ground up for flour. The pads were sometimes split and soaked in water and could be used to bind wounds with the sticky side down. The insides are similar to aloe vera and softened the skin and lessened pain. The bitter juice from the pads could be used as an emergency source of water. In Mexico, fields of prickly pear are grown for a scale insect, the cochineal, which grows on the pads. This insect is used to produce a beautiful natural purple dye.

Lightly traveled roads and varied terrain make Big Bend a premier bicycling location. Over 100 miles of paved roads, and 160 miles of backcountry dirt roads provide challenges for riders of all types and abilities. Bicyclists must be extremely cautious and well-prepared, but bicycling allows outstanding panoramic views, unobstructed by a windshield. It also allows the bicyclist to see and hear some of the smaller wonders of Big Bend from a more intimate viewpoint. All park roads are open to cyclists. A good map is essential. The Road Guide to Backcountry Dirt Roads of Big Bend National Park and the Road Guide to Paved and Improved Dirt Roads of Big Bend National Park have good descriptions of the roads and points of interest (available at the BBNHA Web Page Book Store). Many of the rides in the park are easier with a shuttle. If you have the luxury of having someone shuttle your vehicle or pick you up after a long day of cycling, opportunities are endless.

The spectacular river canyons, the primitive character of the Rio Grande, and its international flavor provide a stimulating environment for a high quality recreational and scenic experience. The river is a free-flowing river with a sufficient volume of water during normal years to permit full enjoyment of river recreational activities. There is kayaking, whitewater rafting, boating and fishing to enjoy. Three options are available if you desire to make a river trip: you can bring your own equipment and go exploring on your own, rent equipment, or hire a guide service that will provide all permits, food, equipment, and shuttles. A backcountry use permit is required for day and overnight use of floating craft on all sections of the Rio Grande administered by the National Park Service, except for persons day-fishing downstream from the park boundary. The permit is free and can be obtained at park visitor centers and at self-permit stations at Lajitas (Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center–only for Santa Elena Canyon) and the Stillwell Store and RV Park on FM2627 enroute to the Lower Canyons put-in at La Linda.

Hiking and backpacking experiences abound in the park. About 30 miles of park trails are developed and heavily used. These include short nature trails and the trails in the Chisos Mountains. Most other trails are primitive, difficult to follow, and in some instances no more than a route up a dry wash. Because they receive more precipitation than the rest of the park, the Chisos are often referred to as a temperate island in a desert sea. Since the Chisos are the most popular hiking area in the park, designated campsites help reduce damage to this delicate environment. The scenery varies widely ranging from the Rio Grande floodplain to arid badlands to sotol grasslands to rugged volcanic peaks. The desert provides virtually any backcountry experience sought by a hiker. Some areas are often used; others, more isolated, are seldom used and reflect a true wilderness setting. Mesa de Anguila and Dead Horse Mountains are the most remote areas, these magnificent limestone uplifts are best left to experienced backpackers. In the oven of summer they are particularly dangerous. Each year, park rangers respond to desert emergencies where hikers are not prepared for the heat and extreme conditions of the Big Bend Desert.

Big Bend National Park is not typically considered a climbers’ destination, but it offers some scenic, challenging, and wildly varied rock climbs for some real outdoor adventure. A hand written, yellowing guide of Big Bend penned by Roger Sigland in 1969 has been used here as a reference. Roger was a ranger at the time and had authored many first ascents in the park, some of which have seen very few, if any, second ascents. Roger collected information on Herb and Jan Conn, a couple who recorded Big Bend’s first technical climbs from 1946 to 1948. They have many first ascents to their credit, notably Dutch Girl, a beautiful crack climb up a scenic spire at the end of the Lost Mine Trail, Ice Cream Cone, a pinnacle off the north-west flank of Emory Peak, and a steep route on the north face of Casa Grande. To the best of the park’s knowledge, the route on Casa Grande has yet to see a second ascent.

Climbing in the park is unofficially discouraged because there is little written information to disseminate, the quality of rock ranges from fair to terrifying, the weather can be extremely harsh, and the approaches can be long, waterless ordeals. Bolting of any kind, electric or hand is strictly forbidden. Climbing here can be very rewarding, but leaving any trace of impact on this resource, over time, will surely jeopardize access. Please get involved. If you do climb in the park let a ranger know about it. Provide a photo or sketch if you can, and a written description of the location, route, and overall quality of the climb. Your information will be much appreciated by future climbers.

The majority of the park’s exposed vertical rock is composed of unstable igneous rock (rhyolite) and sharply fluted limestone. River canyon routes, Dog Canyon, and Mesa de Anguila routes are generally composed of limestone. Routes in the Chisos, Grapevine Hills, and Pine Canyon are generally composed of igneous rock. Don’t let this discourage you too much; there are relatively solid climbs on igneous rock. As stated by Roger Sigland in his informal guide, “On any climb expect rotten rock and few good cracks for pitons.” The use of portable electric drills is prohibited. Hand drilling is allowed only with written approval of the Superintendent. There are routes with bolts and even a few sport climbs in the park, but some were placed prior to any rules on the subject and some were placed illegally. Replacement of old bolts with 3/8 inch bolts is currently allowed.

Dog Canyon offers Big Bend’s only sport climbs. Drive north from Panther Junction for about 25 miles and park in the Dog Canyon trailhead parking area. The approach is a flat 2-mile walk to the canyon. However, there are several other areas that provide potentially good climbing opportunities as well- Pine Canyon, Grapevine Hills, Chisos Mountains, Green Gulch, Basin Rock, Lodge Rock, Appetite Peak, Lost Mine, High Chisos, Santa Elena Canyon, Mule Ears, and Mesa de Anguila.

Visitors to the park are welcome to bring and use personally owned livestock as long as they understand and abide by the rules and regulations governing the use of livestock. A day use permit is required for all stock use and may be obtained at any visitor center, free of charge. All gravel roads are open to horse riders. Horses are not permitted upon the paved roads or the shoulders of the paved roads. Cross country horse travel is permitted throughout the park, except for the Chisos Mountains area. Horse use in the Chisos Mountains is limited to the Laguna Meadow Trail, the Southwest Rim to the junction with the Boot Canyon Trail, and the Blue Creek Trail.

While all exotic plants/animals can be considered nonnative they are not all invasive. Many plants and animals have followed humans around the globe, though because of their close relationship with humans or the human created environment they are not successful in a place like Big Bend. There are many invasive species in Big Bend National Park. Of them, there is a handful that are the most noteworthy as a result of the impacts caused by their spread.

Possibly the most well known and longest lasting invasive species in the park is Salt Cedar, also known as Tamarisk. These trees were introduced to much of the desert southwest in the early 1900s as windbreaks and to lessen the impacts of soil erosion. Ironically, it is this plant that has caused some of the worst erosive features on the Rio Grande. What is worse, this tree is know to evaporate significant amounts of water, much more than a like sized cottonwood or willow would in a day. Equally depressing is the rate of spread for this plant, which has been known to resist cold temperatures, fire, floods, and drought.

Although several state and Federal agencies, including park staff, periodically monitor the quality of the river’s water, the monitoring is not done frequently enough to give managers a clear understanding of the Rio Grande’s water quality. Most studies provide only a “snapshot” view of the river. The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) fosters the Texas Watch Program, organized groups of volunteers who collect and analyze water samples for five basic quality parameters on a quarterly basis. The Big Bend River Watchers group was formed in August 1994 to conduct this sampling and analysis from Presidio through Boquillas Canyon.

Although the park cannot directly affect the quantity and quality of the river upstream, the park will continue to monitor water flows and quality and to participate in the Texas Watch program. The park has also begun working with the Rio Grande Compact Commission and the IBWC to explore long-term strategies to ensure minimum flow levels and treaty compliance.

The lower elevation desert contains mosaics of shrubs and grasses, and mixes of both depending on landform. Conditions prior to grazing can only be inferred. Mule train owners cut Chino grama, and perhaps tobosagrass to feed their animals.
Early settlers such as J.O. Langford described grasses as abundant “knee deep to a horse…only the tallest of the desert plants stood out above it.” Others referred to periodic abundant grass and although these ranchers lacked scientist’s trained eyes, they knew grass turned cows into money. Overgrazing led to sheet and rill erosion, channel cutting and conversion to more drought tolerant shrubs rather than perennial grasses. Recent research estimated it takes from 25-40 years for overgrazed sites to recover comparable vegetation, with recovery highly dependent on moisture.

That fire is the primary shaper of these ecosystems is debated. Above average precipitation in the growing season and availability of seed sources may lead to greater establishment of grasses. Fire is expected to be infrequent in these low biomass/density areas where landform shapes moisture conditions.

The fire history data and precipitation records from 1948 to 2003, suggest that there is strong relationship between the amount of area burned in Big Bend National Park and the adjacent surrounding area and the amount of precipitation received in preceding years. Grass is the primary carrier of fire at the park and the amount of grass increases with increasing precipitation. In drought years grass production is low and any grass grown in a preceding wet period will decrease thus limiting fire spread. However, during wetter periods more grass is produced and the ability of fire to spread increases. The drought of the 1950s and the most recent drought of the late 1990s resulted in limited burned area.

Preliminary research in the Chisos Mountains conservatively indicates that lightning-caused fires burned through the high woodland forests about once every 13 years. Studies in other mountainous parts of the Southwest suggest that many areas experienced fires as often as every five years. The last sizable fire in the Chisos was in 1903. Lack of fire is attributed to grazing (from 1880s to 1940s), drought (in 1890s and 1950s especially) and suppression (since grazing) which promoted shrub growth over grasses.

A regular cycle of fires in the Chisos consumed the buildup of dead wood and brush, killed off diseased and insect-ridden trees, and worked to thin the forest. One result of fire’s impact on the ecosystem was the beautiful oak-piñon forest of the higher reaches of the Chisos. The oak and piñon trees offered abundant food (acorns and pine nuts) for wildlife species such as black bears. Grasses that flourished in fire-maintained meadows and beneath open stands of trees provided highly nutritional food for white tail deer. The high density of deer enabled mountain lions to thrive in the mountains.

Annual precipitation is just under 10 inches in most of the park, but in wet years may exceed 30 inches in the mountains. Typically, winter and spring are dry seasons; the rains usually begin in June and last into the fall. Summer brings hot days and warm nights. Dramatic afternoon lightning storms with high winds are common and come on quickly. Heavy downpours may result in flash floods. Winter days may be sunny and warm, but the nights tend to be cold. Winter storms can blow in suddenly with plummeting temperatures and rain or snow. Appropriate clothing and other gear should be carried from November through April. The weather in Big Bend, hot or cold, injures and kills more hikers than any other factor. Come well prepared because weather changes can be dramatic and unexpected.

Current Park Weather

Due to the complex topography and vague trails, detailed 7.5 minute topographic maps and a compass are necessary for most hikes. The dry desert air quickly uses up the body’s water reserves. It is recommend that you carry a minimum of one gallon of water per person per day in the summer, slightly less in the winter. For half-day hikes, carry at least 2 quarts per person. Springs and tinajas (depressions in rock where water collects) are unreliable and may be unsafe to drink. Springs are rare in the desert and wildlife depend on them. Please carry enough water to supply your own needs. For cooking, drinking, and washing it is suggested 1 gallon/person/24 hours.

Backcountry rules include: leaving all natural, prehistoric, and historic features undisturbed, packing out all of your litter, including cigarette butts, toilet paper, and sanitary items, burying human waste 6 to 8 inches deep, well away from camp and any water source, and camping at least 100 yards from any water source–being too close may frighten away wildlife and damage fragile vegetation.

Prepare for emergencies–bring the essentials from this backpacking checklist: well made backpack and repair kit, first aid kit, compass, topographical map, extra food and water, knife, flashlight, rain gear, and spare clothing, good hiking boots, campstove (no fires allowed), tent with rainfly, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, GPS unit, multipurpose tool or knife, signal mirror or whistle, wide brimmed hat, sunscreen with high SPF, and insect repellent. Notify friends or family of your itinerary–they can contact the park if you fail to return. Fill out a Solo Hiker Form if you are backpacking alone in a remote area.

Do not build a fire–if you need to cook, use a backpacker’s stove. Do not bring your pets while hiking or camping. They may frighten wildlife and are not allowed off established roadways. Do not camp in a dry wash as flash floods can occur without warning and are devastating. If you do smoke while you travel, stop where you can’t start a fire, and be sure to pack out the butts. Don’t cut switchbacks on trails–it starts erosion that destroys trails. Guns are prohibited.

Horses are not permitted on the interpretive nature trails in the park since they were only designed for foot travel. The short trails into Santa Elena and Boquillas Canyons are also restricted to pedestrians only. The Pine Canyon Trail in the Pine Canyon Designated Natural Research Area is closed to horses. Horses are not permitted in developed campgrounds, picnic areas, near eating or sleeping facilities or other areas of concentrated visitor use. All areas of domestic water supply or other sanitation facilities are closed to horses. Horses may not be taken into Mexico and brought back into the United States without proper authorization from the United States Department of Agriculture.

Backcountry riders must provide controlled overnight maintenance of their animals, including the provision of commercial feed. Grazing within the park is not allowed. Water must generally be hauled to the stock in the lower elevations of the park, where a semi-desert climate prevails. Stock may be watered at the Rio Grande and springs that are not utilized for domestic water supply. Check with park rangers for spring water flows in various areas of the park. Areas of quicksand may be encountered along the streams, washes, and the Rio Grande. Desert vegetation such as lechuguilla and cactus can injure livestock.

Permits are required for overnight camping. All backcountry campsites are available on a first come, first served basis, except for the Government Springs campsite, which you can reserve up to ten weeks ahead of time. If you are unable to arrive by 6:00 PM on the first day of the reservation at Government Springs, you should contact the park at (432) 477-2251. Failure to do so may result in a cancellation of the reservation. Check with the park to see which backcountry campsites are open to horses.

A Park Ranger may inspect your boat for required equipment while you are on the river. The following equipment is essential for a safe river trip: boat-canoes, kayaks, or heavy duty inflatable rafts; dump-station compatible carry-out toilet-to pack out human waste; and life jackets-one U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket per person. It must be worn on class II or greater water (International Scale) and on inner tubes or air mattresses. Bring one extra per group. Also, paddles/oars-each vessel (except inner tubes and air mattresses) must carry an extra paddle or oar, except for kayaks, which must carry one extra paddle per party; patch kit/pump-all inflatable vessels, except inner tubes and air mattresses, must carry a patch kit and pump. It is recommended to also bring first aid kit-to handle major and minor emergencies; plastic trash bags to carry out all trash;
safety line-rope length 50′-100′ and 3/8″ diameter, carry tie-downs to secure gear in your vessel; a bailing bucket to remove water from inside your vessel; water-tight containers to keep food, clothing, gear dry; a small shovel; and a flashlight. You will also want to treat any water collected for drinking, camp well above the high water mark and out of any side canyons, respect private property in both countries, urinate in the river or on wet shoreline, carry out all other human waste, and report all injuries or property damage or losses over $100 to a Park Ranger.
Swimming in the Rio Grande is not recommended. The river can be hazardous, even in calm-looking water. Be aware of strong undercurrents, shallow areas with sharp rocks and large tree limbs, and be watchful for trot lines with large hooks.

Do not rock climb without appropriate gear, adequate preparation, and knowledge of the area. Rock is generally unstable in the park and may be dangerous. Climb safe! A climbing helmet is an absolutely necessary part of a Big Bend climber’s rack. Dehydration kills park visitors every year; you cannot bring too much water. All rock in Big Bend National Park is suspect, so belayer position and gear placement are especially critical. Permits are not required for climbing, although voluntary registration at one of the visitor centers is encouraged. Some climbing areas are so remote, however, that a backcountry permit may be required to gain access to them. Please check in and out for safety reasons as well as to provide climbing information for the park. Most climbs in the park require traditional gear from small nuts to off width protection.

Many climbs involve a significant approach so check the weather and pack accordingly. Climbing, ascending, descending, or traversing an archeological or cultural resource is prohibited. Be aware of your impact and tread lightly. There are areas that are closed to climbing from February 1 to May 31 annually to protect nesting sites of the peregrine falcon. Check with a ranger.

Before you set out to explore any backcountry roads make sure that your vehicle and its tires are in good condition. A disabled vehicle on these isolated roads can become a life-threatening situation. Check your vehicle’s fluid levels and the air pressure in the tires to make sure they are at the recommended levels. Make sure that you have emergency equipment: a good spare tire, a tire repair kit and pump, extra belts and hoses, tools to change tires and extra coolant or water for your vehicle’s radiator. You must also provide for yourself and your passengers. Carry plenty of water—you may find someone in the backcountry that really needs it (maybe yourself!). Carry some type of high energy food that will keep, such as trail mix, in case you need it. You should also carry a first aid kit and some sleeping gear in case you have to spend an unplanned night in your vehicle. Dress as if you were going hiking (hiking boots, long pants, long sleeve shirt, and a hat) so that you are prepared to walk if the need arises. Check the road conditions with a park ranger at one of the visitor centers before you go, and let someone know where you are going and when you expect to return.

There are some important things that you should also remember. Slow speed is much easier on your vehicle, its tires and its occupants, and it also allows you to enjoy the scenery. Remember that every vehicle has its limits; if you encounter a road obstacle or conditions that you believe are beyond the limits of your vehicle, you usually have the option of turning around. Carry a map of the park so you know where you are on the road at all times (keep track of how far you have traveled in case you have to walk back). If your vehicle becomes disabled, it is almost always best to stay with your vehicle. Hopefully a park ranger or another visitor will see you, or whoever you informed that you were going and who will report you overdue. If walking becomes necessary, it is imperative that you carry water and stay on the road. Leave a note on the dashboard of your vehicle that says what the problem is and where you are going. In addition to protecting yourself, you are also responsible for protecting and preserving the resources of the park. Stay on the established roadways. Off-road vehicle travel is not allowed. Finally, remember to lock your vehicle if you are leaving it unattended and secure your valuables.

Pets on leashes are allowed in campgrounds, picnic areas and along road sides, but not on any park trails. You are not allowed to leave your pet unattended in vehicles if it creates a danger to the animal, or if the animal becomes a public nuisance

Many of the park’s archeological and historical sites have been vandalized and valuable information has been destroyed or removed by artifact collectors. Casual artifact collecting by the park visitor has resulted in the loss and destruction of much evidence of the past, information which could otherwise be obtained through scientific investigation. Archeological sites are protected by the Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. Under this act, people who disturb these cultural resources can be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to up to six months in prison for their first offense. Information about sites is exempt from the Public Freedom of Information Act.

If Big Bend had a symbol, it might well be the mountain lion—the embodiment of freedom and wildness. Solitary and secretive, this mighty creature is the unquestioned lord of its natural world. As one of Big Bend’s top predators, Felis concolor—”cat all of one color”—is vital in maintaining the park’s biological diversity. In the delicate habitats of the Chihuahuan Desert, mountain lions help balance herbivores (animals that eat plants) and vegetation. Research shows that cats help keep deer and javelina within the limits of their food resources. Without lions, the complex network of life in Big Bend would certainly be changed.

The javelina or collared peccary Tayassu tajacu, is found as far south as Argentina and as far north as Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Collared peccaries are in the even-toed, hoofed mammal order of Artiodactyla. Javelinas are often called pigs but they really are not. They are in a different family than pigs. Javelinas thrive in a variety of habitats and are able to adapt easily to different areas in their territory. The javelina is an herbivore (plant eater) and frugivore (fruit eater). Coyotes, bobcats, black bears, and mountain lions prey upon javelinas.

One of the largest mammals in Big Bend National Park is the mule deer. They stand 3 to 3 1/2 feet high at the shoulder and are about 6 1/2 feet long. When undisturbed, they will feed at any time of day. Deer will rapidly consume young, green leaves of herbs and grasses when available. They are more typically browsers, however, feeding on twigs and leaves of shrubs. Mule deer are preyed upon by mountain lions. When a mule deer senses danger, it performs a stiff-legged bound, bringing all four feet off the ground at the same time. A deer can stott from a standstill or when running. While stotting, a deer can travel up to 26 feet in a single leap and clear obstacles up to six feet high. It can turn its body completely around in mid-air, reversing direction. A mule deer uses the leaps to bound up slopes and over bushes and rocks, making it difficult for predators to follow. The pogo stick-like leap also provides an elevated view of the terrain and perhaps signals to the predator that they have been spotted.

The Elf Owl, Western Screech Owl, and Great Horned Owl are all found within the park. Owls are amazing creatures and well adapted predators. Owls eat mice, voles, shrews, rats, squirrels, lemmings, grasshoppers, fish, snakes, birds, skunks, rabbits, insects, spiders, scorpions, reptiles and even other owls. Some scientists estimate that one owl will eat 2,000 rodents a year, that’s 5-6 per night! There are several ways to locate owls in the wild. Look for whitewash on trees and cliffs. Watch known holes in trees; they may be the home of an owl. If you see small birds are chasing and dive bombing a larger bird, check to see if the large bird is an owl. At night shine a flashlight around the area where you are watching. It may pick up eye shine or reflected light from the eyes of owls.

The Big Bend mosquito fish, Gambusia gaigei, is an endemic species. The only place in the world it is found is a few ponds near the Rio Grande Village. This tiny endangered fish is at risk from exotic species competition and diminishing habitat. Although never abundant, the Big Bend gambusia population is now considered stable. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved some of the Gambusia gaigei to a fish hatchery in Dexter, New Mexico, in the event that something should happen to the population in Big Bend National Park and a source to restock the park became necessary.

Two endangered birds are found in Big Bend. Both are considered stable populations. The black-capped vireo, Vireo atricapillus, has been threatened by habitat loss and cowbird parasitism. The cowbird lays its eggs in other bird’s nests and then relies on the host parents to raise the young. The cowbird hatchlings are typically larger and more aggressive than the young belonging in the nest. This often results in only the cowbird surviving. The black-capped vireo nests in oak scrub and thickets in the Basin area. An annual study is done each spring to monitor the black capped vireo’s nesting success. The peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus, nests on cliffs in the Chisos Basin and along the canyons of the Rio Grande. The aeries or nest sites are often used year after year by the pair. There are fourteen known peregrine territories monitored each year in Big Bend National Park. Some trails are closed in the park during the peregrine nesting period to help protect them and ensure their success. The peregrine was recently removed from the Endangered Species list because it has recovered in much of its range. In the park, however, it is still a species of concern and monitoring will continue.

The endangered Mexican long-nosed bat, Leptonycteris nivalis, is a nectar feeder. It is often seen on summer evenings feeding on the century plant or agave flower stalks. In return, the bat pollinates the agave flowers. The Mexican long-nosed bat population is considered to be stable in the park. Its habitat, however, is threatened in Mexico.

About two dozen mountain lions live in Big Bend. Also called panther, cougar, or puma, mountain lions are most often seen in the Chisos Mountains. Lion attacks on humans are rare, yet three have occurred since 1985. If you encounter an aggressive lion, hold your ground, wave your arms, throw stones, and shout. Never run.

You are unlikely to encounter a black bear while hiking, although a small population lives in the Chisos Mountains year around. As you hike, pay close attention to the path ahead. Survey the landscape for wildlife. Keep a clean camp and store your food properly. If you encounter a bear, give it plenty of room. Report all mountain lion and black bear sightings to a Ranger. See Wildlife Precautions page for further information.

The standard entry fee, of $20.00/ 7 days, covers all people traveling in a non-commercial, privately-used vehicle. The fee for entry of individuals on motorcycles, bicycles, etc. is $5.00/ 7 days. Big Bend Annual Pass is $30.00, good for one year.

$14 per night ($5 per night for bearers of the Golden Age or Golden Access Passport), is charged for all campgrounds in the park.

Chisos Basin Campground is open year-round. It offers 63 campsites. Flush toilets, running water, grills, and picnic tables are available. No hook-ups. Elevation is 5,400′. Due to the narrow, winding road to the Basin, and small campsites, trailers over 20′ and RV’s over 24′ are not recommended at this campground. Reservations are available for 26 sites November 15 to April 15. Call 1-877-444-6777. Big Bend National Park cannot make reservations.

The Chisos Basin Campground has six group camp sites that are available only by advance reservation. The total overnight occupancy for the Chisos Basin group campground is 118 persons. All sites in this campground have a minimum occupancy of 10 persons. Sites L, P, Q, and R hold a maximum of 20 persons each. The following sites N and O hold a maximum occupancy of 14 persons each. Site M has a maximum occupancy of 10 persons. Tents larger than 8′ X 8′ are not recommended because of site layout; however, sites P, Q, and R can accommodate larger tents if necessary. Sites P, Q, and R have shade ramadas.

Cottonwood Campground is open all year with 31 campsites. Pit toilets, picnic tables, grills, and water are available. No Hook-ups or dump station is available. No generators are allowed. Elevation is at 1,900′. The Cottonwood Campground has one group camp site that is available only by advance reservation. Maximum occupancy for this group campground is 25 persons. Minimum capacity is 10 persons. This group campground is walk-in tent camping only. Vehicle parking is restricted to an adjacent parking area. To reserve the group campsite, call 1-877-444-6777.

Rio Grande Village Campground is open year-round. This 100 site campground has flush toilets, running water, picnic tables, grills, and some overhead shelters. Dump Station nearby; No hook-ups. Elevation is 1,850′. Reservations for 43 sites may be made November 15 to April by calling 1-877-444-6777. Group reservations can be made at this same number. The Rio Grande Village Campground has four group camp sites that are available only by advance reservation. The total overnight occupancy for the Rio Grande Village group campground is 120 persons. All sites in this campground have a minimum occupancy of 10 persons. Sites A and B comprise the area on the east side of the comfort station. Maximum occupancy for each site is 20 persons. Sites C and D comprise the area on the west side of the comfort station. Maximum occupancy for each site is 40 persons. This group campground is walk-in tent camping only. Vehicle parking is restricted to an adjacent parking area.

There is a concession-operated trailer park for RV campsites, and sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Big Bend’s backcountry offers ample opportunity of exploration and solitude. Backcountry campsites are available along the unpaved roads and along the trails in the Chisos Mountains, all year long. Since the Chisos are the most popular hiking area in the park, designated campsites help reduce damage to this delicate environment. There is no charge to use these sites, but a backcountry permit is required. Some of these are Juniper Flats Campground located 1 mile from the Basin trailhead via the Pinnacles trail, Emory Peak Campground approximately 3.7 miles from Basin trailhead via the Pinnacles Trail and Emory Peak Trail, Northeast Rim campsites located between 6 to 7.5 miles from the Chisos Basin Trailhead via the Pinnacles Trail, Laguna Meadow campsites located 3.5 miles from the Basin trailhead via the Laguna Meadow Trail, Boulder Meadow located 1½ mile from the Basin trailhead via the Pinnacles trail, Boot Canyon located in Boot Canyon, 4.5 miles from the Chisos Basin Trailhead via the Pinnacles Trail, and Southeast Rim campsites located between 6.5 to 8 miles from the Chisos Basin Trailhead via either the Pinnacles/Boot Canyon or Laguna Meadows Trails. There are several more areas available.

For those who wish to camp in the backcountry without having to backpack, Big Bend offers a number of primitive campsites along backcountry roads. Most sites are located in the desert and along the River Road. There are no primitive roadside campsites in the Chisos Mountains. While some sites are accessible to most vehicles, a high clearance and/or four wheel drive vehicle is necessary to reach others. Other than a nice view, isolation, and a flat gravel space, these sites offer no amenities. There is a $10.00 permit fee for these sites; a backcountry permit is required.

Fort Davis National Historic Site is 125 miles away. Guadalupe Mountains National Park is 275 miles away. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is 305 miles away. Amistad National Recreation Area is 248 miles away. Chamizal National Memorial is 328 miles away. Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River is 0 miles. Big Bend Ranch State Park is 50 miles away. Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center is 30 miles away. Davis Mountains State Park is 130 miles away. Fort Leaton State Historic Site is 100 miles away. McDonald Observatory is 130 miles away.

The nearest airports served by major airlines are located in Midland/Odessa, Texas and El Paso, Texas. Rental cars are available at both airports.

Three paved roads lead to the park: 1) U.S. 385 from Marathon, TX to the north entrance, 2) State Route 118 from Alpine, TX to the west entrance, 3) Ranch Road 170 from Presidio to Study Butte, and then State Route 118 to the west entrance. Big Bend National Park headquarters is located 70 miles south of Marathon, TX and 108 miles from Alpine, TX via Hwy. 118.

There is no public transportation to or from the park. Amtrak serves Alpine, TX, 108 miles to the north. Bus service is available to Alpine and Marathon.

Approximate Mileage from the following major cities to Big Bend National Park:

By Car:

Marathon, TX- 68.07 miles

Alpine, TX – 98.28 miles

Midland, TX – 232.29 miles

Del Rio, TX – 240.98 miles

Odessa, TX – 210.52 miles

By Plane:

Midland/Odessa, TX – 230 miles (northeast entrance)

El Paso, TX 325 miles (northwest entrance)

Rental vehicles are also available

By Train:

Amtrak station is located in Alpine, Texas – 100 miles

By Bus:

Greyhound, Inc., Alpine, Texas – 100 miles (daily service)

Big Bend National Park, P.O. Box 129, Big Bend National Park, TX 79834

Headquarters 432-477-2251

Weather Information Hotline 432-477-1183

By Fax 432-477-1175

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