Glimpse of Denali

We got some fabulous views of the Park on our bus tour of Denali.  However, the actual mountain is only “out” meaning visible, about 30% of the time, so I figured we wouldn’t get to see anything of it.  Turns out, I was being just a little pessimistic.

 

 

Here’s a shot of the North Peak of Denali – it’s the best view we got of the mountain, but I was thrilled to see anything at all!!  There is another peak, called (appropriately enough) the South Peak, which is actually higher, but it’s already hidden by the clouds just to the left of the North Peak in this image.  By the way, Denali is officially 20,320 feet tall.  However, the tectonic plates under it are pushing up, so in the future, when they re-measure its height (however that’s done), it may end up being taller.    It really shows you that our Earth is in a constant state of change.

 

Here’s another shot of Denali and I really like this one.  You can see the clouds on the right side of the image just sort of flowing over to begin to cover up the view.  This was taken further along on our bus tour.  In this image, it seems like you can see a bit of the mountain that may be the South Peak, but not the peak itself.

 

Isn’t this a lovely view?  I’m not even looking toward Denali.  I just loved the flow of the river coming down from the mountains (the Alaska Range) and all the colors – the black and white of the really tall mountains, the brown and rust of the lower mountains and the vibrant green of the trees and other growth.  The river water looks sort of muddy, doesn’t it?  It’s actually sort of silt colored, because it’s the glacial melt that happens each summer.

 

This is the view of Denali from as far as our bus tour took us.  We went about 62 miles into the Park – the total length of the road is about 92 miles and the tour that takes you all the way is a 12-hour tour.  Ours lasted about 8 (a little more, due to all the wildlife we saw), and our butts were glad when it was over!  When you look at this image, you can see a sort of little bowl in the center of the image, with mountains curving up on the left and the green hills on the right.  The mountains under the clouds in the center are the base mountains of Denali.  The peaks, North and South, are behind all those clouds.  Mountains tend to create their own weather, which is why you can have a beautiful day with blue skies and sun….right up until you approach the mountain!  Still, this is a pretty cool shot!

Enjoy!