Alaska’s Denali National Park is not short of superlatives. Best known as the home of towering Mt. McKinley, which at 20,300 feet is the tallest peak in North America, Denali is the largest park in the United States. Comprising 6 million acres, the park is bigger than some states—Massachusetts, for instance.

Rising from the lowlands surrounding Wonder Lake to its peak well above the clouds, Mt. McKinley has one of the most extreme vertical rises in the world. The challenge of the assent acts like catnip for serious mountaineers, drawing so many during the brief Alaskan summer that the Park Service had to cap their numbers beginning in 2007. Nearly 100 people have lost their lives on the way to the top of the continent.

But Denali has gentler pleasures as well, including an incredible wilderness full of grizzly bears, caribou, moose, wolves, and other animals. Travelers can tour the park by bus, small plane, car or, for the hardy among us, on foot. The Park Road is the only vehicle access to the park.