The Mountain! The Mountain!

The Mountain was out today!!!!! Mt. McKinley, at over 20,000 feet, is the tallest peak in all of North America! Usually you can’t see it due to clouds, today how it was crystal clear and as the locals put it “The Mountain is out.”

My aunt Kim and Uncle Jason, who live in San Francisco but used to live in Anchorage, called us this morning to tell us about it…they saw it on the web cam!!!!! We piled into the car and just as we rounded the Cummins Truck Repair building where we were “camped” we saw The Mountain in all her splendor. “Camp Cummins” was more scenic than we’d thought!

We drove to Elderberry Park at the end of a street to check it out! Absolutely amazing! The Mountain is about 250 miles from Anchorage, so we could see the whole thing! There are several other impressive peaks as well. It was a challenge to photography because it is so big and would get washed out in the blue sky (it’s covered with snow!), however I did get some good ones!

Late this afternoon the motor home got fixed!!!! Since we were “cleared for take off”, I took off heading for Talkeetna, about halfway from Anchorage to Denali. Mom and Dad were going to finish a few things and follow.

It was a lovely drive up here, the mountain would occasionally show herself through the trees and it was sunny and warm! I arrived in Talkeetna about 7:00 and got us a campground then explored the little town. Most of the stuff was closed but it was a nice walk. I walked down to the river and saw the mountain again, only here we are so close you can’t see the whole range, just McKinley. On my way back I strolled through the residential section, Talkeetna is a cool little town – kinda Alaska meets West Virginia!

Mom and Dad just called and will be here soon – the campground has public WiFi so I need to post this so I’ll be ready when they get here! This connection is lighting fast compared to the cell phone card...maybe I'll post so pics later tonight.

Tomorrow it’s Denali National Park!