Denali Trip 1

We just got back from three days at Denali National Park. (Denali is the Native name for the tallest mountain in North America, but the Ohio Senators always find a way to block changing the name of the mountain to Denali from McKinley, who just happened to be President when white explorers found the mountain.) The park is just shedding its winter look (the snow is gone from the road and the lower elevations except along the rivers and plants are just starting to poke out from the ground.



















In May, before the official park busses start, cars are allowed to drive to Teklanika Campground, about 30 miles in from the entrance. And there are hardly any tourists around. We left Anchorage at 8:30pm on Tuesday. Even though summer solstice is still more than a month away, the late light is with us as you can see in the pictures below as we drove the 237 miles north to Denali.

Here we are half an hour out of Anchorage, a little after 9pm.









And here's 11pm from Mile 135, the Denali viewpoint. Those are the lower level mountains of the Alaska Range, with the peak of Denali covered in clouds.




Further along, it's now midnight, but the sky is dusk, while the ground is still not 'dark' but headlights advised.


We're now only a few miles from the park. It's almost 1 am. That dark spot standing on the gravel bar is a moose. Most of these pictures will show more detail if you click on them. You should be able to see the moose.

I'll add the rest of the trip in a few separate posts.