Today is Earl’s birthday. It is cloudy and rainy. There is fog and the clouds are hiding the tall mountains. We are going to Denali National Park to see if the weather is any different 30 miles away from where our camp is. No, it is still drizzling and there are clouds and fog, just like at camp, here at the entrance of the park.
We went to the visitor center where we watched some movies about Denali and looked at the displays that were there. The first view of the topographical rendition of the Alaska Range and Mt. McKinley is the southern side that we had been taking photos of two and three days ago. The second view of the model shows a red line where the park road is. There is a spotlight on Mt. McKinley. We will be viewing it from the opposite side from which we saw it before, if we can see it at all. Private vehicles are allowed on the first 15 miles, only. If you want to go further, you must take a park bus.
There were also dioramas of the forest animals with all sorts of interactive learning opportunities in the visitor center.
We decided to drive the road as far as we could. Maybe we would see some wild animals, we thought. Well, we didn’t see any animals. I guess they all were home, out of the rain. There were some nice views though. I think it is so interesting that the fog develops in such a straight line at that certain altitude.
In our pursuit of Mt. McKinley, I think that I found out where it is supposed to be seen, if it was a clear day. There was a view point with a picture that pointed out and labeled the different mountain peaks. I could barely make it out with my zoomed in camera lens, but I think I matched the diagram pretty good, minus Mt. McKinley. I think that the peak in the center is Cathedral Mt. and the dark area to the left is the same as the dark area to the left in the labeled picture. Of course, Mt. McKinley is the bright white peak in the diagram. What do you think?
The railroad has a station located in the Denali Nat. Park. It is located near the visitor center. While we were returning from the 15 mile drive, we saw the railroad trestle over the Nenana River. We went to the station and the train was just about to leave.
There are several visitor centers in Denali. We went to the one where people sign up for adventure tours or back country trekking, etc. We watched another movie there. They had this amazing stained glass window.
I did a close up of each half so the details showed up better. Even the shadows on the mountain are in the shape of animals, or maybe my imagination is running wild.
We had a nice day at the park even though the weather wasn’t the best.
Tomorrow we will be going to Fairbanks.
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