Every September, before it closes for the winter, Denali National Park and Preserve opens its 92-mile park road to a few lucky lottery winners and their vehicles.
It's an opportunity for those fortunate lottery winners to drive into what is perhaps the most iconic wilderness of 49th state -- some 6 million acres of wild land bisected by a single road. This year, 1,369 of the 1,600 winners of the road lottery showed up Sept. 12-15 and paid $35 for a one-day permit and entrance fee that allows them to drive as far as Wonder Lake on the road, which is usually closed to private vehicles.
Even with 20,320-foot Mount McKinley shrouded by clouds much of the day, animals were the big attraction. Grizzly bears, foxes, caribou, Dall sheep, wolves and even Arctic ground squirrels were about.
Alaska Dispatch Publishing