Over the course of three days last week, we took the 440-mile round-trip drive from our location in Cantwell for a brief final visit with Tracy and Jeff in Anchorage (and some shopping) prior to our planned departure from Alaska in the first week of September. Part of our travels took us through an area where Mount McKinley is sometimes visible from several vantage points along the way. While we were fortunate enough to spot the mountain several times on our journey to Cantwell in late July as reported in an earlier blog entry, we were not so fortunate this time.
As most Alaskans and visitors to this area can tell you, the mountain, known locally as Denali, can generally be observed only about 30% of the time since the view is normally obscured by clouds. Here is a sample of what has been observed by relatively few of the 400,000 folks that visit the park each year:
This link will take you to the photos of our "NO Denali" trip last week and this link will give you more information about the park, the mountain, the names and more.
Today I went again to a location along the Denali Highway, just about a mile to the East of here, where Mount McKinley (or Denali) can be seen, quite vividly, about 30% of the time, obviously on a very clear day. Today was not one of those days, even though we are enjoying some bright sunshine here at the park, so I decided to gather up a few photos of the immediate area to share with you. Be sure to see the captions for some little information.
We are so thrilled that we were able to spot the mountain as we were heading to Cantwell a bit over three weeks ago as I posted in an earlier blog entry. There are many people who make the trip to Denali and never get so much as a peek (no pun intended).
Deeper into Denali, a journey to the Toklat River.
Unlike last week when we took our car into the park as far as we were permitted to go, this time we (along with Shirley and Jim from the Cantwell RV Park) took the Green Bus for a 6.5-hour round trip, 50+ miles one way deeper into the park to the Toklat River. When we reached the point where we had previously traveled on a paved road, we were now treated to gravel and dirt on a winding road that eventually became a single lane that climbed along and over mountains, providing sometimes dizzying vistas over the edge of the road and into the valleys below. Unfortunately, the camera cannot capture either the thrill of the ride or the awesome views along the way. Thanks to Ben, our driver, from Lancaster, PA, we survived the trip intact.
Unfortunately, due mostly to the warm temperature, while the views were spectacular, there were not too many animals to be observed; however, as you will see in these photos, we did spot a number of caribou. There was also a Grizzly that could be seen from too great a distance for the camera and likewise a Dahl sheep that appeared as a small white dot on a mountain. Some of the photos are captioned and, as usual, you can click on the "slideshow" button to see full views of the photographs.
We did not travel as far as Wonder Lake so this is not our photo, but I thought it was worth sharing - from Alaska NPS.
For the last day of July in our Alaska Adventure, we took our first trip into Denali National Park, home of Mount McKinley, a vast array of wild animals and 6 million acres of scenic views. On this trip, we saw only the latter, but we were very pleased with just that. Keep in mind that we went only about 13 miles into the park and there will be more visits to come.
We hope that these photos will convey some sense of the vastness of this area. You will see some good examples of where the tree line ends as the elevation increases and also the line where all vegetation ends and there is nothing but rock from there to the top. As you see the various waterways and beds with no water, try to imagine what this must be like when the Spring melt is at a peak.
The day also included a short side trip to the small town of Healy, Alaska (Pop. 1000, give or take) where we bought a tomato. 20 extra miles for a tomato? Well, this is the Alaska interior. We could always go 100+ miles (one way) to the Walmart in Fairbanks. Our last two photos are included for Mary and Vickie.
