I've looked at clouds...all day now
Photos - Alaska Trip - Anchorage & Denali Day 1
This morning we said good-bye to Bob & Marj after another delicious breakfast at The Arctic Fox Inn. We woke to the sound of steady rain so we wondered whether it would clear up enough to fly over the mountain, as we had planned. By the time we got to Talkeetna, there was a little sun peeking out once in a while so our hopes were up...only to be dashed. The young man at K2 Aviation said the clouds were right at the top of the trees and it didn't look like it would clear. He said we could take a plane trip but he wasn't even hopeful we'd see "the toes of the glaciers." So, poop. No plane ride over Denali. Very disappointing.
It was kind of quiet in the car as we drove away from Talkeetna. Randy remarked that it was too bad and it would have been fun. Pause. I said, "At least we don't have kids along who are disappointed, too." We kept looking for animals and not seeing them, either. Then we slowly started to joke about it. We started saying we needed to take pictures of where moose should be...but weren't, and where the mountain should be...but wasn't.
One of our first views of where Mt. McKinley should be, but wasn't.
And a nice diagram of where we could have seen Denali...if the clouds weren't there.
Randy told me to move over; I was blocking the mountain. Haha.
Our little home for 3 days.
The view from our doorway.
Randy in the doorway.
We drove into the park after dropping off our stuff and having some lunch. Within the first few minutes we saw our first wildlife! Unimpressive photo of a porcupine, but we thought it was pretty cool. He was right by the road. And then not too much further in, we saw a bear! Here he was far away, but later he came closer. So close the ranger said we had to stay in our cars. Randy leaned out the window to take the photos. Notice he only has 3 paws. One ranger called him "Barstool." (Three legs, get it?) But another ranger said, "We try not to nickname the bears."
Our first view of wildlife -- a porcupine. Didn't get out of the car quick enough for a good photo but he was right by the side of the road.
He was pretty far away here, but we got some close-ups later.
Here he is close up. Notice the missing paw. One ranger called him Barstool.
And even though we couldn't see McKinley there were lots of impressive mountains and views.
Here's the bridge we were standing on.
Still impressive views.
Valleys are so pretty, aren't they?
Honestly, I love clouds. I do.
The mountains looking like a Japanese watercolor.
Plus, we saw a moose just as it disappeared into the trees. So it was still a wonderful day, and there's always tomorrow.