Yesterday:
Rested and recovered from Kesugi. Explored the entrance area of Denali National Park, watched a couple of videos in the Wilderness Access Center and the Visitor's Center, walked through the museum, played with some more sled dogs (!!!) and read.

Today:
I joined the throngs of tourists on a park bus to Fish Creek, an eight hour round trip. The road turns to gravel after you cross the "No More Cars" sign and climbs above the tree line. Polychrome Pass is the first substantial, monster view of the Alaska range across a huge valley of braided rivers. It was refreshing to be in the relative comfort of the bus, free to gawk at the scenery rather than drive.

Continuing on, the road leads along the rim of this massive valley for another fifty miles. Near the end of our run, a colossal piece of rock begins to fill the sky. Sam, our driver, matter-of-factly says, "...and the mountain is coming out." Over the next fifteen minutes the clouds, in a veritable cinematic sequence, shed away from the mountain and part to a blue background. There she was, totally dominating the entire landscape, twin peaks and all, Mount McKinley.

The people on the bus are more interested in getting back to see the blonde grizzly and her cubs, so we depart. As we leave, the clouds start obscuring the flanks and the last view I see of the mountain shows only a sliver of the summit. I swear someone or something has my back on this trip.

Tomorrow I'll venture off into the trailless wilderness of Denali, to share my sector (about the size of a county in CT) with three other people.

 

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