When it comes to national parks, Denali puts up some pretty impressive numbers. It’s the most popular national park in Alaska, it’s the third-largest U.S. national park with nearly 4.8 million acres, and it’s home to the highest peak in North America.

And there’s a lot more to it than just that. Read on to learn five things you didn’t know about Denali National Park. 

5. The park was originally called “McKinley” because of the gold standard

Denali National Park was named after the highest peak in the park, Mount Denali, which was the name given by the Native Americans. In the Koyukon language, the term means “the high one.” For a long time, though, neither the park nor the mountain was officially recognized that way by the federal government. 

As the story goes, a gold prospector started calling the mountain “Mount McKinley” circa 1896 because the then-presidential candidate William McKinley supported the gold standard. Many followed suit using the unofficial name, especially after he was elected president and assassinated a few years later. Then, when the land was established as a national park in 1917, it was named Mount McKinley National Park to commemorate the late president.   

Of course, the name change never sat well with the locals. Jump ahead to 1975, the Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain back to Denali and tried to exert influence over federal lawmakers to do the same. In 1980, lawmakers combined Mount McKinley National Park with the Denali National Monument and renamed the area Denali National Park and Preserve. 

However, the federal government didn’t fully recognize Denali as the official name of the mountain until 2015, when President Barack Obama called it that and directed the Department of Interior to officially rename it. 

4. Mount Denali is harder to climb than Everest

Standing 20,310 feet tall, Mount Denali is the highest point in all of North America and belongs to a collection of peaks called “The Seven Summits,” a mountaineering term referring to the highest points on each of the seven continents. Although Denali ranks as the third highest of the seven, some argue that it’s the most difficult. 

According to Seven Summits, a company that guides people to complete mountaineering expeditions, Denali is the most strenuous, because climbing it requires a high level of skill and expertise for navigating glaciers, rope team travel, and carrying heavier loads. 

Plus, the weather is unpredictable around Denali year-round. According to the National Park System (NPS), the weather in the park has a wide range of temperatures and conditions. When the sun is out, it can be hot, but at higher elevations, it can be negative 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, wind is the biggest danger on the mountain. The winds, which have been clocked at 100 mph, are so strong that they will not only knock you off balance, but they’ll also accelerate the frostbite process, even amid milder temperatures. 

While Mount Everest is incredibly dangerous — the cold and lack of oxygen make it deadly — hundreds of people complete the trek each year. 

3. It’s the only national park with a working dog sled kennel

Dog sledding is rooted in Denali’s history. According to NPS, when Charles Sheldon studied Dall sheep in the area that would later become the park, he hired veteran Alaskan dog musher Harry Karstens to guide him. 

Years later, after Sheldon successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress to establish the federal land as a national park, Karstens became Denali’s first park ranger. In that role, he patrolled the grounds using dog sleds and significantly reduced wildlife poaching. Since then, the park hired more rangers and added more dog kennels around the lands. 

Today, rangers continue to navigate the park using dog sleds. The kennels have also become a major tourist attraction. 

2. Denali has some 600 earthquakes a year

According to NPS, Denali National Park has about 600 earthquakes a year — that’s approximately 1.6 earthquakes each day — because of active plate tectonics. However, most people in the area never feel them. 

The park service explained that about 70% of the quakes average between magnitude 1.5 and 2.5, meaning they’re small and can’t be felt, but they can still be recorded by a ​​seismograph. Additionally, they almost all happen 54-75 miles below the earth’s surface. 

1. You’ll find America’s “Big 5” at Denali

The “Big 5” refers to the five biggest or most domineering mammals in an area. Denali’s Big 5 include moose, caribou, Dall sheep, grizzly bears, and wolves, and that’s not all there is to see at the park. 

According to park officials, scientists have documented 39 species of mammals at the park, along with 172 birds, 14 fish, and one species of amphibian (the wood frog). Additionally, they’ve identified 758 vascular plants, eight trees, 380 mosses, 119 liverworts, and 442 lichens. 

Read more facts about the national parks:

• Great Smoky Mountain National Park
• Rocky Mountain National Park
• Isle Royale National Park
• Big Bend National Park
• Zion National Park
• Voyageurs National Park
• Glacier National Park
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Grand Canyon National Park

SIGN UP FOR THE FREE OUTDOORS.COM NEWSLETTER

Some critics say they were surprised by the decision to have Venom actor Tom Hardy narrate the wildlife documentary series Predators, arguing that he was too mumbly in past roles, but the show’s executive producer Wendy Darke explained that was really not an issue.

The stories in the new Netflix series are told through the eyes of the animals themselves. The show highlights how apex predators around the world survive amid changing seasons and climate. So to tell the story, Darke said she needed a voice with a full range of “emotional sensibility.” 

“I wanted somebody who could become that animal . . . I wanted a voice that had the full range of empathetic sensibilities from the hard-edged predators to the endearing lightness of touch and gentle sensation,” Darke said in an interview with Outdoors.com. 

Darke explained that she came across Hardy’s voice sample from a short list of A-list actors they were considering to narrate the series. “It had everything that I was looking for as a filmmaker,” she said. “The likeness of touch, the delicateness, the sort of endearingness, as well as an edge.”

She pitched including Hardy in the project to Netflix executives and they told her, “Good luck. If you can get him, we’re on. Because he’s a very busy man doing The Bikeriders and everything else.”

When she reached out to Hardy’s agent, though, she discovered that he absolutely loves wild dogs. “It’s almost his spirit animal,” she said. He’s seen them in Africa and he’s associated with the animal shelter UK Battersea Home. “So dogs are something that he has a real connection to.”

In past interviews, Hardy explained the reasons why he loved dogs so much. “Because they don’t lie. They’re just all heart and they don’t ask for anything,” he said and added except “maybe treats.”

And because Hardy doesn’t have to do a show like Predators, Darke thinks it’s his “natural empathy” for the animals that drew him to the project. “So you can imagine the wild dogs was a passion episode for him because of his personal love of dogs,” she said. 

“He was somebody who not only had the ability to get into character, somebody who could feel the emotional range and deliver it and make you feel something, I would say he has natural empathy that allows you to connect with (the animal’s) world and that’s his absolute talent,” she said. 

You can stream all five episodes of Predators on Netflix. 

Correction: We originally spelled Darke’s name “Drake.” We regret the error. Article updated Sept. 13, 2023.

SIGN UP FOR THE FREE OUTDOORS.COM NEWSLETTER

The new show Predators, which premiered Wednesday on Netflix, highlights some of the most dangerous animals on the planet as they survive changes in the seasons and climate. 

The five-episode series reveals dramatic moments of life and death in remote areas of the world, as well as the consequences of a warming planet through spectacular imagery and engaging narration by Mad Max actor Tom Hardy. 

The series shares the lives of a pair of cheetahs in Tanzania’s Serengeti, a pride of lions in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, a family of pumas in Patagonia, polar bears in Canada’s Hudson Bay, and a pack of wild dogs in the Zambezi River’s floodplains in Zimbabwe. 

While Predators may sound like the newest premium nature documentary to hit the streaming service, executive producer Wendy Darke told Outdoors.com that it represents the latest and greatest in storytelling tools and techniques that shape the genre. 

“Innovation is absolutely crucial to the approach,” Darke said about filming a modern-day wildlife documentary and “capturing the epic and the intimate, and then bringing those two worlds together.”

While she’s referring to using camera systems like an Agito robot to film inside a den of wild dogs and a first-person view (FPV) drone to monitor polar bears a hundred miles out on sea ice, she also means scripting the story so the animals become characters and the narrative is as impactful as a night-time drama. 

“We consciously wrote our scripts from a first-person perspective — through the eyes of the cheetah, the polar bear, or the key protagonist  — in the way that you would approach storytelling in a drama,” Darke said. 

Filming each episode took between six months and a year, depending on location and a network of researchers and on-the-ground experts who know the areas and animals. Darke explained that each episode was scripted to elicit emotion, and they all contain spectacular, dramatic, comedic, and endearing moments, in addition to factual revelations and a “holy grail” moment. 

“It’s when you’re watching a film and you suddenly feel very humble in that world . . . It just gives you goosebumps and makes you feel very alive, very connected, and very one with nature,” she said. “You don’t get many opportunities in a film to take the audience to that place, but when it’s there, it’s precious.”

In Predators, the holy grail moments include almost unbelievable scenes, like a polar bear stalking and killing a beluga whale out in the water or lions taking down an adult male giraffe.

Darke described her goal as both entertaining you and showing you an animal’s world rather than simply telling you about it. Watching Predators, she wants you to learn how the animals live and how climate change impacts their lives. 

When asked if the series documents predators or climate change, Darke called the topics “inseparable.” She explained the challenges apex predators face because of climate change mirror that of humans. It makes finding food and hospitable environments much harder. 

The message she hopes you take away from the show is that nature finds a way. She wants you to “take inspiration from animals about how they are adapting and how we might adapt to make the world a better place for them and for ourselves.” 

You can stream all five episodes of Predators on Netflix. 

Correction: We spelled Darke’s name “Drake.” We regret the error. Article updated Sept. 13, 2023.

SIGN UP FOR THE FREE OUTDOORS.COM NEWSLETTER