Denali

This weekend we went on a mini road trip to Anchorage for a hockey tournament.  USA Hockey and Labatt sponsor recreational hockey tournaments all across the country, and Alaska had some 60 teams participating, with 15 from Fairbanks.  Two of our three family teams won their divisions, Women's Silver and Men's Intermediate.  Marty's team finished dead last, but he had a great time.  On the way home we stopped at the South viewpoint for Denali aka Mt. McKinley.  The Athabascan name Denali means the Great One.  Denali is part of the Alaska Range and is the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet.  Often the peak is shrouded in clouds, but it was a good day for viewing.  Even though the gate to the viewing area was still closed for the season, we were able to walk in and get some photos.

You can see other photos I've taken of Denali and Denali National Park HERE and HERE.

Barely a Fence

When we went to Denali National Park for our drive into the Park on September 15th, we drove down the afternoon before so we could get an early start in the morning.  Click HERE to see previous posts on our trip.  After we went to Park Headquarters and got our permit for driving into the Park, we went back to check into our hotel.  First, though, we drove up to the Grand Denali Lodge, which sits on a bluff overlooking the Nenana River Canyon and Denali Park.

It was worth the detour for the view.  See the tree to the right in the photo below?  That's the one in the center of the photo above, next to the pointed roof of the Lodge.

Quite a spectacular view of the Alaska Range and overlooking the Park!

The fence around the edge of the bluff--not quite so spectacular, considering the drop-off just the other side of the fence.  It doesn't impede the view at all, so I guess that's the thinking behind keeping it simple.  Not a place where you'd want to take small children!

I did like the fence "post" at the end of the fence.

Looking down at the view, you can see the Park buildings, the Nenana River, and the switchback access road to the hotel.

Moving to the right you can see the Alaska Range, the Nenana River, and the Park buildings again. 

Moving around the hotel to the right you can see a cluster of hotel buildings down in the Canyon.  Across the river and up a little is the railroad tracks that run through the Canyon.  Our hotel was around the corner to the right.


As a height-challenged person, I was just as happy to be down near the river!  Of course, the Park Road itself offered more challenges for me, but that's a story for another day.....

I am linking up with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

A Step Back In Time

I've been posting about our road trip to Denali National Park, but today I'm taking a step back in time to a road trip we took in May of 2011.  This road trip featured the same range of mountains that run through Denali, the Alaska Range, but the road runs to the east of Denali.  We drove down the Alaska Highway, almost to the Canadian border, to the town of Northway.  You can read the post I did on the trip HERE.  

I'm delving into my archives for the photo above, which is Index Number 1500.  That's the number this week for Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun meme and it celebrates her 1500th post.  Gaelyn is a park ranger at the Grand Canyon National Park, and she became a follower of my blog very soon after I began blogging in January of 2009 and I have enjoyed her many wonderful photos since then.  I'm linking with Foto Friday Fun 78 HERE.

Of course, I have to add a few more photos from that road trip.  Most were taken through the windshield or are drive-bys.

And for Eileen's Saturday's Critters, some of the Caribou we saw.  They're a little scruffy looking as they are shedding some of their heavy winter coats.

Here's the link for Eileen's Saturday's Critters.

Teklanika River Overlook at Denali Park

The Teklanika River Overlook is at Mile 30 on the Denali Park Road.  It has a large platform built so that you can look over the river valley.  The River is a braided river, flowing from headwaters where glaciers grind mountains into dust called "glacial flour."  The water flows a milky gray with suspended glacial silt.  During the last ice age, a giant glacier filled this valley.  Archeologists have discovered a variety of stone implements made and used by people who lived here 3,400 years ago.  Other sites at Denali have revealed human activity as far back as 10,000 to 11,000 years, among the earliest human habitation of North America.

A fence surrounds the platform as we are at the top of a bluff.

Sydney is becoming quite the ham, and posed for me in front of the view of the river and mountains.

Other posts of our road trip into Denali National Park can be seen HERE, both for our trip this time on September 15th, and a shorter road trip on May 15th.  This Overlook was as far as we were able to drive in May, so it was a treat to be able to go further into the Park.

I am linking up with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Wonder Lake at Denali

Wonder Lake is at Mile 84.4 on the Denali Park Road.  We stopped and had a picnic lunch here. 

There are more views of the mountains at Wonder Lake, but still clouds hanging in around Denali, obscuring its peak.

The road continues on to Kantishna at 92.4 miles, but we decided not to go that extra distance as Kit and Sydney had work and school in the morning.  After driving back out of the Park we still had a two-hour drive to home.  All in all, a beautiful day's drive!

Dall Sheep at Denali

I'm continuing with more photos from our drive into Denali National Park on Monday.  Among the wildlife to look for in Denali are Dall Sheep, and there are more than 2,000 in the Park.  We saw several groups, but most were just tiny specks too far away to photograph.  The group below was the closest, although you can see from the first photo that they weren't really very close.

However, you take what you can get.  This was a group of three ewes with a lamb.  The rams live in bands which seldom associate with the ewe groups except during mating season, which is late November and early December.

I've cropped the photo below, and although it's a bit fuzzy, it shows the ewe's horns, quite a bit smaller than the ram's.

I am linking these up with Eileen's Saturday's Critters.

The following photo is looking over the buildings around the Visitor's Center at the Park with the Nenana River in the foreground.  It was taken from one of the hotels that sits on a bluff overlooking the Park.  I am linking with Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 77 with Index No. 2458.

Road Trip In Denali National Park

 Tuesday I posted photos of the short road trip we took, HERE, and as several of you guessed, we drove into Denali National Park on Monday.  My companions for the trip were my husband Marty and my daughter Kit and granddaughter Sydney.

Denali National Park has six million acres of wilderness with only one road leading into the Park.  The road is 92 miles long, and throughout the summer the road is only open to private vehicles for the first 15 miles, which is paved.  Beyond that the road is unpaved and is accessible only by catching one of the tour buses that travel the road or by bicycle or hiking.  At the end of the season each year permits are drawn by lottery allowing 400 private vehicles on each of four days to drive the entire 92 miles.  We were lucky enough to win a permit for Monday.  A fifth day was added this year, with 400 permits being given to the military.

Mt. McKinley or Denali, "the Great One", is the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet.  It is often shrouded in clouds, and only about one in three visitors gets to see the mountain free of clouds.  Sadly, we weren't among the one in three, as Denali remained covered in clouds.  We have seen Denali on other occasions, and on a clear day it is visible from Fairbanks. 

These views are all from the Eielson Visitor Center at Mile 65.9.

From the outside viewing area, I took a photo of a sign showing the mountain and the various peaks around it.  The photo below shows the mountain hidden behind the clouds and the sign in front, and, no, it's not a collage, just a very big sign.

 One of the few fences in the park is at this viewpoint, and I snapped a few shots of Sydney and Kit and am including those for Good Fences.  

In the spring before the regular season opens at Denali, the first 30 miles of the road are open to private vehicles, and Marty and I drove that on May 15th.  I did several posts on that trip, and you can see those HERE.  I'll be posting more photos of our drive over the next few weeks, so check back.

I am linking with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Alaska Road Trip

We took a short road trip on Sunday and Monday.  Can you guess where?