Denali Park, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Denali Park, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Denali Park lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Denali Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Denali Park — the short answer
Denali Park, Alaska: USDA zone 4a, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 113K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- Denali Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- Denali Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- Denali Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 113K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Denali Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is Denali Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Denali Park's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Denali Park
Each reading below is measured for Denali Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDenali Park runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Denali Borough, the closest normal to Denali Park) — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDenali Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
What Grows in Denali Park
Every plant below cleared Denali Park's own zone 4a and its 118-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Denali Park?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Denali Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Denali Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Unnamed (east of lower Slime Creek)Mining · 5.8 mi
- Unnamed (north of upper Schist Creek)Mining · 7.2 mi
- Schist Creek LodeMining · 7.3 mi
Measured from Denali Park's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Denali Park.
Total Sites
3
within ~10 miles of Denali Park
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Denali Park
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Denali Park
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Denali Park average
Your land is one point inside Denali Park
Everything above resolves to Denali Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 113K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Denali Borough’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Denali Park Average
Denali Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Denali Park
- ●One soil character for all of Denali Park
- ●Frost dates read at Denali Park's scale: May 24 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Denali Park's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Denali Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Denali Park, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Denali Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Denali Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Denali Park average
How we know this about Denali Park
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Denali Borough’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Denali Park
When does frost risk typically end in Denali Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Denali Park typically lands around May 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Denali Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Denali Park typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Denali Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Denali Park sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 5, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Denali Park?
The federal record around Denali Park is light — 3 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (3), the nearest Mining record about 5.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Denali Park?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Denali Park rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 146 to 174 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Denali Park's scale — its 4a band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Denali Park's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Denali Park’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Denali Park's own scale — the 112,829 acres it covers and 3 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Denali Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Denali Park, the closest Mining record about 5.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Denali Park's boundary and the 112,829 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~118-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Denali Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Denali Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Denali Park's 112,829 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Denali County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Denali County
- The growing challenges every Alaska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alaska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Denali County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Denali Park's 112,829 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Denali Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 112,829 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 5.8 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Denali Park-wide figureread your own land →