LEAVING ANCHORAGE FOR DENALI

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The obstacle is the path.-----Zen aphorism

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July 21,2005, Thursday. Let me tell you about Alaska’s 19 hours of sunlight. It is hard to get used to. We are now down to 18hrs and 38 mins of sunlight. On rainy days it is no problem, but on nice bright sunny days it is tough to sleep. I have gone the way of “Greta Garbo”, and sleep with an eye-mask; it is wonderful. It is sunny at 11 PM, this is sunset, not dark!!! And the sun is back up at 4 AM. Now in your mind convert this to winter??? That is 19 hours of darkness! I don’t think I will visit in winter.
Well we left the campground for a bike ride in the morning. Alaska is amazing; it has bike trails everywhere. There is actually a law that a new road cannot be constructed without a bike trail. Isn’t that wonderful. Well we biked toward Eagle River??…Had no idea. We passed an Army Base, Ft. Richardson. Stopped for lunch and headed back to Anchorage RV. This lovely campground is next to an Air Force Base and we get fighter jets zipping overhead regularly.
Bob’s friend Marcella met us and off we went to pick up Ron at the airfield. They have a plane; it is both a ski and a floatplane. They were so gracious, taking us around Anchorage to show us things we had not seen. After a fun afternoon we went to dinner at the Moose’s Tooth!
Thank you Marcella and Ron!

July 22, 2005, Friday. Time to organize and leave Anchorage. After a stop at Walmart and the grocery store, we are on the road to Denali. Glenn Highway moved along efficiently but then we slowed for construction. It is about 240 miles to Denali, but it took longer than expected.
We stopped at the south rim to take some pictures of The Mountain. So often this area is socked in with clouds, people have been known to come for a week and never see (the Mountain) Mt. McKinley/Denali. We certainly lucked-out, it was a beautiful clear day. Hope the pictures come out.
Denali, the “High One” is the name Athabascan native people gave the massive peak that crowns the 600 mile-long Alaska Range. The name is somewhat confusing. In 1917 Mount McKinley NP was established as a game refuge. However, in 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act enlarged the boundary by 4 million acres and redesignated it as Denali NP and Preserve. At 6 million acres, the park is larger than Massachusetts and remains largely wild and unspoiled. Mt. McKinley/Denali is the highest mountain on the North American continent. Measured from the 2,00 foot lowlands near Wonder Lake to its snowy summit at
20,300 feet. Temperatures at the summit are severe even in summer. Winter lows at just 14,500 feet can plummet below -95degreesF. During storms winds can gust to more than 150mph.

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Photos

Denali
This photo was taken from Anchorage!

Kelly
This was a trail we hiked in Anchorage

Brewery
This wasis one of Anchorage's many brewerys