In Search Of A Mountain Called Denali (Mt. McKinley)

Denali National Park and Preserve (38 degrees, initially cloudy skies with eventual clearing)

We had spent 8 days in the Denali National Park area (3 day in Talkeetna and 5 days within the park). This beautiful park stretches over 6 million acres and is known for its vastness, wildlife and  a soaring mountain called Denali. It's the tallest mountain in  North America (over 20,000 feet) and has its own weather system. On average only thirty percent of visitors see it during their visit. The weather report looked really rainy (it even snowed a couple of times) for most of our stay and the mountain had not been seen for ten days. In an earlier post I mentioned you can only travel on a bus in this park. The mountain cannot be seen at all from our campground and you ride on the bus for about three hours before you get to the area where it can be viewed.  It can appear and disappear in a blink of an eye.

This is what it looked like on our first day in the park. Somewhere in the clouds is Denali

We spent 24 hours over three days on that dog gone school bus trying to see it. Keep in mind we  had a delightful time but having the opportunity to maybe see it was always present on our mind. I'd resigned myself to the fact it probably was not going to happen. After all, how could I complain since our weather throughout our trip had been really amazing. 

On our last full day we woke up to cloudy skies and very cold weather. We were going to get up early and get on the bus but went back to bed after  noting the dismal weather. Around 10 am we took a bus out to an area where a Hawk Owl had recently been seen. We looked all around without success and waited for the bus to return to our campground. The weather was still very cloudy. We debated whether to go on another 7 hour trip to see if Denali was visible and at the last minute decided to go for it.

Denali is peeking above the landscape

Suddenly about 2 1/2 hours into our trip John suddenly yelled out "I can see Denali". Everyone was ecstatic. Our bus driver stopped at several viewing areas and said he could count on two hands the times he had seen the mountain looking as beautiful as it was today. It was a very emotional experience for all of us. Maybe if we had seen it on day one it wouldn't have been so special. Who knows? I doubt it. It's a stunning mountain to see.

Check out those big smiles

School bus can be seen coming down the road

Caribou antler frame

Mountain range to the left of Denali

 Over 2000 climbers attempt to reach the peak of Denali each year. It's a very dangerous mountain to climb.

Life is good!