Friday, September 22, 2017

How Can Six Million Acres at Denali Still Not Be Enough?



After a half-year of brainstorming about National Geographic’s yearlong celebration of America’s national parks, the magazine’s editors offered me the pick of the litter. 

The choice was easy. Denali National Park, the crown jewel of America’s park system, offered a range of possibilities broad enough to be a world unto itself. It also offered some formidable challenges. I quickly realized that the normal conventions of outdoor reporting wouldn’t cut it in this nearly roadless six-million-acre wilderness. 

 I would spend a total of five weeks walking, skiing, flying and dog-sledding through the park’s spectacular terrain, during the extremes of the Alaskan winter and summer. These explorations yielded enough stories and pictures and controversies to a fill a dozen notebooks and data cards. 

In the end, only a small fraction of this material would fit into NatGeo’s 28-page feature story, leaving plenty of adventures to share for the first time with audiences at my upcoming talks and presentations.

Click here to read the story. 



Author, photographer, journalist and keynote speaker Tom Clynes travels the world covering the adventurous sides of science, the environment and education. His work appears in publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, Nature, and Popular Science. As a keynote speaker, Tom helps organizations stimulate action and involvement, bringing audiences along “on assignment” to the ends of the Earth. These authentic and visually stunning presentations offer a high-intrigue, high-energy way to catalyze creativity and engagement. To find out more about his memorable and inspiring programs, contact Tom at info[at]tomclynes.com.

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