One thing about Denali--or Mt. McKinley--is that despite it being the highest mountain in North America, it's notoriously difficult to see. Because of its size, it causes its own weather patterns, so there are often times when the sky is clear in all directions, but Denali is still shrouded in clouds. In the past, more often than not, any time we've taken a road trip somewhere that should have a good view, the area surrounding the mountain is entirely socked-in, so we can't even tell where exactly we should be looking and hoping for a break in the clouds. But this time, as we drove the highway south from Fairbanks, we came around a bend at one point, and there it was in full glory.
Another thing about Denali is, unless you get real close to it, which in itself is not very easy, it can be difficult to portray in photographs just how large it is because it is surrounded by other mountains that are also quite large. So in contrast to Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood, for example, which are solitary monoliths that dominate the landscape, Denali is part of the massive Alaska mountain range, which as a whole is very impressive, but as I said, until you get deep into the national park, it's difficult to capture a photograph that truly depicts the scale of Denali and the Alaska Range as a whole.
But anyway, on a beautiful, sunny, hot day, we drove from Fairbanks to Denali State Park, which runs along the highway along the eastern border of Denali National Park. We stayed in a public use cabin on Byers Lake, which is basically as close as you can get to Denali on the road system (the alternative being the 90 mile dirt road in the national park, which generally can only be traveled by the park bus, but gets you as close to the peak as you can get without flying). It's about a half-mile walk from the parking lot to the cabin, so we had walk all our supplies in.
The mosquitoes along the trail were brutal, and because we were carrying all our gear, plus carrying a baby, towing a sled with firewood, and prodding the girls to try to keep up, all in 85 degree heat in direct sunlight, we got real sweaty real fast, which is what the mosquitoes love. We had to keep a hand free while carrying everything to constantly bat ourselves and the kids to keep from being eaten alive. Once we got to the cabin, though, we lit some mosquito coils and were able to cool down in the shade and it was very pleasant.
We cooked foil dinners and s'mores on the fire and had a lovely meal. (Denali is sort of faint in the background in this picture because of the angle of the sun this time of day.)
After dinner and getting the kids to bed we stayed up late to watch the sun set over Denali.
This is the last one we took that night just after midnight.
Then around 4:00 am the next morning, I got out of bed to take some brilliant pictures of the sun rising over Denali while Marel and kids slept (or tried to sleep because our cabin was a million degrees).
And I was sure glad I did because by the time we got up around 7 or 8 the clouds had rolled in and we lost our view of the mountain. Although it was brief, we were glad we had such a nice view of Denali. Despite the clouds we still had a good time. Caleb got in touch with nature while I cooked pancakes for breakfast. He loved to watch the grass and ferns sway in the breeze.
He also enjoyed our little hike out to the outlet of the lake.
The girls liked it too. There was a bridge and they liked throwing rocks off it. Here Celia found the biggest rock she could carry to make a big splash.
Caleb also liked sucking on the spigot of our collapsible water jug, though he didn't (and still doesn't) actually like drinking water.
After two nights and the full range of weather, from hot and sunny to mild and gray, with a few little showers and one major downpour during the night, it was time to pack up and go home. Here I am taking the first load back to the car so we could all walk together with the rest of the stuff.
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