On the hunt for a great National Park webcam? Look no further than the Denali National Park “puppy cam,” which went live last Friday.
This year’s litter of five puppies was born on May 3, 2025, and they are just beginning to explore their surroundings.
According to the park, the Kennels and the National Weather Service celebrated 100 years of weather data collection by the mushing rangers of Denali in 2024. In honor of this milestone, the Weather Litter puppies are named after the diverse ways that water influences the weather: Storm, Squall, Graupel, Fog, and Dew.
Sled dogs in the park
Denali National Park raises and keeps sled dogs for mushing, a cultural tradition across Alaska that dates back thousands of years. Mushing, or dog-sledding, provides the National Park Service the most effective available means to patrol vast areas of designated Wilderness during the long winter season.
Each year, the park retires its 9-year-old dogs and raises a new litter to replace them. The puppy cam is a way for visitors to watch nature and history at work.
Managers of the historic Denali sled dog kennels take great care in breeding for qualities suitable for the challenges and responsibilities of a Denali sled dog, according to the park. “Physical traits include long legs to break trail through deep snow, compact paws to resist build up of ice between toes, and sturdy coats and puffy tails to keep warm in the depths of sub-arctic winter. Character traits include tenacity, an unbridled love to pull and run as part of a team, and social skills that tolerate the attention of many thousands of admirers to visit the kennels each summer.”
