At the Foot of America’s Highest Peak
There is a mountain in the interior of Alaska so large that it generates its own weather. Mt. McKinley rises 20,310 feet above sea level, the tallest peak on the continent, and on the days it reveals itself, travelers who have traveled thousands of miles to see it still find themselves unprepared for what they encounter. As America marks 250 years, Aramark Destinations invites you to come to the place that understands what the word “wild” actually means, and to experience the Last Frontier from a destination built to put you inside it.
Denali Park Village, situated at Mile 231 of the Parks Highway, has been welcoming explorers to Alaska’s interior for generations. In 2026, the Village is celebrating America’s 250th anniversary with new experiences, deepened connections to Alaska’s cultural heritage, and an expanded commitment to the wild place it calls home.
Denali National Park and Preserve: Six Million Acres of the Untamed North
Denali National Park & Preserve encompasses six million acres of wilderness in Alaska’s interior, an expanse so vast that it exceeds the size of New Hampshire. A single road, 92 miles long, crosses the park. Private vehicles may drive only the first 15 miles. The rest of this landscape belongs to the grizzly bears, wolves, caribou, Dall sheep, and moose that have moved through it since the last ice age, and to the Athabascan peoples — including the Kʼoyukon and other Dena’ina — who have known and named these lands for thousands of years.
Established as a national park in 1917, Denali National Park and Reserve was one of the first protected landscapes in Alaska and remains one of the most extraordinary on Earth. Glaciers cover 16 percent of its surface. Wildlife moves through it largely on its own terms. And on a clear day, Mt. McKinley’s summit is visible from more than 200 miles away, a presence so dominant it functions less like a mountain and more like a horizon.
Experience History in New Ways
In a year that invites the nation to reflect on exploration, resilience, and the places that define us, Denali Park Village has expanded the ways guests can connect with Alaska’s history, culture, and landscape. New in 2026 alongside the Village’s full program of experiences:
• Sourdough Studios: A new professional photography experience where guests dress in traditional Alaskan frontier costumes and sit for classic keepsake portraits. A nod to the gold rush era that shaped this region, and one of the more memorable souvenirs guests will carry home.
• Alaska Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre: The Village’s signature evening experience: music, storytelling, humor, and hearty Alaskan cuisine served family-style in an immersive setting rooted in the folklore and frontier history of the Last Frontier. The most celebrated night out in interior Alaska.
• To protect Denali National Park & Preserve, private vehicle access is limited, so guests are encouraged to explore via guided bus tours like the Denali Natural History Tour and Tundra Wilderness Tour. These expert-led tours offer opportunities to learn about the park’s history and landscape while spotting Denali’s “big five” wildlife.
• Three guided hikes daily: Led by interpretive guides who bring the area’s natural, cultural, and historical stories to life on trails ranging from mild to strenuous. Triple Lakes, Rock Creek, and Nenana River trails offer different relationships with the Alaskan interior.
Our Promise to These Places, and to You
Landmarks of Legacy connects our destinations through three shared commitments.
Stewardship
Caring for What Endures: Six million acres of wilderness requires a particular kind of humility from everyone who operates within it. Stewardship at Denali means running the Village’s lodge, cabins, dining venues, and experience programs in ways that leave the park’s ecology intact, minimizing impact on the tundra, supporting Leave No Trace principles across all guided experiences, and managing a destination where the wildlife and the wilderness are never merely backdrop. The grizzly bears and caribou that move through this landscape are not amenities. They are the reason the park exists, and the reason guests come. Honoring their presence is the foundation of everything we do here.
Stories that Shape Our Destinations
Every Landmark Has a Voice: The Kʼoyukon Athabascan and other Dena’ina peoples have lived in and around the Denali landscape for thousands of years, developing an intimate relationship with the land, its seasons, its animals, and its languages that continues today. The gold rush of the late 19th century brought a different kind of explorer into Alaska’s interior: one whose traces are still readable in the frontier culture the Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre celebrates and the Sourdough Studios experience honors. The establishment of the park in 1917 added another layer: a century-long story of protection, scientific inquiry, and the ongoing negotiation between human presence and wild nature. Our interpretive guides carry all of these stories with them on every hike, every tour, and every evening program.
Experiences of Legacy
Not Spectators. Participants. There is no passive way to experience Denali. The park demands your attention, from the weather moving across the tundra, to the grizzly bear on a ridge line, to the moment the summit appears through the clouds after days of hiding. Whether you come for a morning hike with an interpretive guide, an afternoon on the Nenana River, or an evening of frontier storytelling over an Alaskan meal, every experience at Denali Park Village puts you inside the story rather than outside looking in. The wilderness here is not something you observe from a safe distance. It is something you enter on its own terms.
Give Back to the Places You Love
Through our Round Up program and other philanthropic initiatives, guests can support preservation, education, and community programs around the places we call home — helping protect these landmarks for generations to come. Because honoring legacy also means investing in the future.
Join the Journey
Landmarks of Legacy is more than a campaign. It is a movement across America's most meaningful places — a shared commitment to the destinations that shaped our nation and continue to define who we are. Learn more at landmarksoflegacy.com.