On Tuesday we packed up and headed north out of Anchorage up to Denali National Park. It was a leisurely drive which took us about 6 1/2 hours altogether. It would have been a fairly uneventful drive except for, (about an hour before our arrival), this jaw-dropping, imposing mass of snow covered land suddenly appeared before us! Mt. McKinley, in all it's glory! The highest mountain in all of North America at 20, 320 feet. It was a sunshiny day with a lot of clouds in the sky on Tuesday, but, we could see both the North and South peaks of Mt. McKinley. (pics attached) As we got closer, it started to become more obscured by clouds. But even with just a partial view of the mountain, it was a glorious sight to behold.
On Wednesday we took a sightseeing bus tour into Denali Nat'l Park. The bus took off from the visitor's center at 9:30 a.m. and we didn't get back until 5:30 p.m. We drove 66 miles into the park on the "green bus". Once you get past mile marker 15, the only way to travel further into the park is either on a "green bus" or on a "history tour bus". It's their way of preserving the park and ensuring that the animals don't get spooked by an influx of traffic and noise.
In addition to being a very overcast day on Wednesday, there was a lot of smoke in the air that had blown down from Fairbanks. Fairbanks has 1,000 acres of forestland that is currently in flames. We were not able to see Mt. McKinley at all on Wednesday! Thank God we saw it the day before. Inside the park, at mile marker 66, there is another visitor center with a lot of info regarding the park, the animals, and Mt. McKinley. We read there that on an average there are only 3 days in the month of August that one can acutally see both the North and the South Peaks of the mountain. We did, however, see a lot of wild animals/birds: ptarmigan (the state bird of AK), caribou, wolf, fox, and grizzly bears. (pics attached)
Fairbanks is next on our "places to see" list. However, on Wednesday, a health advisory warning had been issued in Fairbanks due to all the smoke and ash in the air. We will check out the weather and the conditions tomorrow (Thurs) and go from there. Keeping our fingers crossed....
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