Scenery Photos

 

I have so many photos of scenes and animals that I will separate into two blogs.  Bob changed our bus tour to yesterday instead of today as we are running one day ahead.  It was such a smart decision!  Rainy this morning, and we can spend today organizing, resting.  The bus tour was 12 hours - 12 hours in a green sort of school bus on gravel park roads. I said that we could have flown to Hawaii in time.  It was long but we saw all the best that Denali could offer without spending a week taking tours and hikes.

(1) First photo, not in order taken, is a wide valley carved by glacier.  Other valleys can be narrow V shaped if carved by river action. 

(2) An unusually clear shot of Mt Denali aka McKinley.  Alaskans are more and more saying Denali altho' officially it's McKinley.  The contrast is not good in the photo as the mountain is white and in the sunlight. 

(3) The park road.  Bob now understands why sitting in the passenger seat and going around edgy roads, is scary for the non driver.  He was helping Jeremy drive with body English.  The Park road is 92 miles to the end at Kantishna.  We drove to the end and back in one long, jouncy day.  I am not sorry we went, but we were both exhausted. 

(4) Jeremy our driver.  He reminded of Son Jim.  Jeremy truly loves nature and Denali.  He is collecting wild berries and establishing a small nature preserve on his own property. He got as excited as we did at sightings.  He was funny also with a low key delivery.  He pointed out a tree, even stopped for a moment. "That tree looks like a dinosaur, can you picture it?" he says.  After that punch line pause, "We call it the tree saurus."

(5) The Muldrow Glacier.  The green lumpy band just below the darker blue mountains is the Muldrow Glacier.  It is covered with soil and plants, is 30 miles long and starts at the base of McKinley.  One winter (1956-7) it surged forward 4 miles.  OK, that's multi feet in one day.  I haven't done the actual math, but I figure you could get plowed under. The theory is that water under the ice lubricates and causes the surge every 50 years or so.  It is due and I want to be here to see it.