Thursday, March 13, 2008

Some Parks Hwy Lovin'

After some indecisiveness about heading down to Anchorage for spring break, I couldn't stop thinking about driving the Parks and realized that I won't get a break like this again for awhile, so rolled on out early Thursday.
I couldn't wait to get past Denali to see the mountains in the "winter". The road was completely clear though, which made for a very very nice trip.
After taking a pit stop in Cantwell, I continued driving trying to estimate my arrival time in Anchorage. The skies COMPLETELY cleared up and every jut of mountain was visible. Then one beast in particular began to show its face and I almost died of excitement.
This is Denali, the grand beast of North America, sitting at 20,320 feet, or 6194 meters. Of all the times I've driven the Parks, I've seen it three times, only one other time in CRYSTAL clear conditions... and at the time didn't even know what I was looking at. Tourists come up here for a week or two expecting to see the mountain but go home not seeing it because it is often obscured by clouds. In all my excitement I actually drove past the good picture-taking lookout for the mountain. Oh well! I think these turned out alright...
This is me being really excited about Denali being out. I totally didn't expect it because my mind was elsewhere.One of these things is not like the other! Can you find it??
I tried driving up to the Princess lodge that has a good view of Denali but they had a gate up for the winter. I turned around and still got a pretty good view of it.

1 comment:

...Girl Out West... said...

I pissed behind that igloo! I did, I swear! Gotta love the Parks Highway, man. Good memories. :-)