denali 25-29 july

we were lucky enough to be in the 20% of all visitors to this gorgeous place who see the mountain.  it was visible  for 3 of the 5 days and what a treat.

our 1st sighting was from the small touristy (and registered as a national historic site) town of talkeetna--40 miles away, where most who want to take a flight to see denali from the air, book their flights from, or others who want to climb the massive peak, register and get the flights to base camp.  we walked around town, and went to the point were you can see the mountain from the edge of the river.

playing on the river

mount mckinley, 20,320ft

downtown talkeetna

food stocks

the train heads north from anchorage and south from fairbanks

 
we continued north and camped a night in the denali state park in a really lovely campground near byers lake.  we found ourselves out hiking at 10pm.  you can easily loose track of time when you are up here as the daylight hours are so long...waking up at 4am or wanting to hike or be out till midnight has not been unusual for us this past month.  hopefully when we head south, we'll settle back into a more normal routine where you sleep at night and are up during the day!

hiking at 10pm, yes, that's 10pm...look at how light it is

along the trail

an old cabin along the trail

mount mckinley, also known as 'denali' or 'the high one', speaks for itself.  enjoy our views and shots of 5 days in and out of the denali state and national parks.

wow

mt hunter

ruth's glacier has cut into this 9,000ft gorge (thought to be the deepest gorge in the world), which is deeper than the grand canyon--there are 17 major named glaciers, 6 of them more than 24 miles long

another wow

aly and mckinley

the chulitna river

summer average temp on the mountain is +10 to -50 and at the peak there is less than 1/2 the volume of oxygen than at sea level

beautiful

on a bus (which is the only way you can get into the park) through the park--6 million acres comprise the ever beautiful, denali national park

ptarmigan--the alaskan state bird--in the winter they are pure white

polychrome area on the road into the park

this is where mckinley should be, but today we can not see the mountain-photo taken 66 miles into the park

views up muldrow glacier gorge

toklat river area

some wildlife we saw while on the bus trip

a big griz

a grizzly walking down the road towards our bus

closer

and even closer

caribou in denali

dall sheep

hiking in the park

where moose have torn the bark from bottom to top eating it in the winter (they have 2 bottom teeth

)

more moose evidence

a nps (national park service) sled dog

aly and buddy with one of the nps sled dogs

the perma frost forest floor while out on a hike

what a beautiful few days we had south of the park and in the park...we really consider ourselves lucky to be part of that 20% who actually saw the mountain while visiting alaska.  thank you denali...