July 8, 2010 Chasing the Mountain

Today we were chasing the elusive Mt. McKinley. I prefer to call it Denali because the original Indians did. We saw big mountains, little mountains, even snow covered mountains, but where is Denali?
We drove out of the Denali Road first thing this morning. I don't know if I mentioned that it is dirt. The Tioga has taken a beating this trip. It is a pretty drive but again no animals. It has several spots that are said to have views of Denali.
We got back to the paved road, Parks Highway, and continued south through Denali State Park. We stopped at the north viewing area which is said to have an impressive view of Denali but no Denali. Lots of mountains, many snow covered, many with clouds, no Denali. I am starting to think there is no Denali.
We stopped for lunch at a rest stop that has the Alaskan Veterans Memorial, POW and MIA. It was nice but I have trouble with honoring veterans at a rest stop. They deserve a suitable spot in a park in some town. Just my opinion.
We then made our way to the south viewing area of the Denali State Park. It is said to have even better viewing of Mt. McKinley, Denali, than Denali National Park. Sure enough, lines of mountains, some with snow, some without. This one did have a picture showing all the surrounding mountains with Denali towering over them. After a while I noticed the clouds were moving and I suspected a glimpse of the disappearing mountain. Sure enough a couple of holes opened in the clouds and I saw the tip of Denali, then a glimpse of a mid-section. I tried to get a picture to prove it but the snow covered mountain blends in so well with the clouds that it is hard to see.
If you ever come to Alaska, don't come without a GOOD telephoto lens and camera. Our zoom is just no match for the conditions much of the time. I don't charge for the advice.
After a while of waiting and getting small glimpses Deatra drug me away. I got enough of a look to tell this was no ordinary mountain. At 20,320 feet it towers over the others. I was spell bound. I went away glad to have gotten a glimpse since only 1 or 2 out of every 10 visitors gets a view of Denali because of the cloud cover.
We headed on toward Wasilla planing to stop short when we could find a good boon docking spot. We came to the turn off for a town called Talkeetna. I had read about it being a railroad town with some nice shops. It was 14 miles off of the main road so we decided to drive in and check it out and maybe find a place to stay. About 10 or 11 miles in we saw two different cars pulled off taking pictures. One a guy taking a girls picture the other just a shot down the road. We were puzzled as to why there. Just as we were about to go behind the tree line again, what is that, Denali, Mt. McKinley in all her glory, then gone behind the trees.
We drove to mile 13 and their she was. There was a rest area on the left so we stopped. The entire mountain was completely visible and was illuminated by the evening sun. I can't describe the sight of that mountain. I took pictures from different spots trying to get that one shot. If you can zoom on the pictures on the blog you can get a good view of Denali. By zooming on my computer I can see it great. Need that telephoto. We sat for about 30 minutes looking at it in the binoculars. Finally Deatra made me leave as I was spell bound. Very few things capture my attention like that mountain.
We went into Talkeetna. It was small with narrow streets. It was full of people walking around in the streets and shopping at little shops. It was a nice area, a mini-Gatlinburg. We went to the Rangers Station to get a stamp in our National Parks book but they were closed. We decided to return to the Parks Highway and look for a camping spot. We ran into road work that lasted 17 miles, no spots there. Finally we found a spot about 25 miles outside of Wasilla. We waited on Todd and Sarah to call and invite us over but I guess their phone was broken. Made sure our phones were on, just in case, and went to bed.
Tomorrow, back to sled dog racing in Wasilla.