30% club

Wednesday July 16: 

Denali is the tallest peak in north America, at 20,310 feet. Because its foothills are lower, the peak itself is actually taller than Mt Everest. It stands in the midst of the Alaska Range, which features a number of other tall peaks (9 over 11,000 feet ). Owing to the weather patterns, only about 30% of visitors to the park actually get to see the peak, and many of those views are partially obscured by clouds — only about 10% get a complete view.

Yesterday afternoon was rainy and the prediction for this morning was cloudy… but somehow by 8:00 we could start seeing patches of blue sky, and as we drove to the start of the morning hike, the mountains started to peek out. We were treated to a complete view of Denali and the entire range, and to a clear reflection of them in Wonder Lake. This level of viewing is very very rare! 

Understandably the start of our hike was a bit delayed and we stopped frequently during the hike to take more photos. The clouds moved in later in the morning, but by the time of our afternoon hike the mountains had emerged again. Outstanding!!!

Although we did not seen any large animals today, we did see two new species of birds, a red squirrel, and a muskrat. The amount of plant life is just amazing. During this morning’s hike we passed through three different biomes. The boreal forest was the richest in terms of plant life, from trees to flowers to lichen. Our trip leader said that the flowers that are in bloom at any time change quite quickly because of the long hours of day light and the short growing season.

After dinner we drive back to get one more glimpse of the mountains— but the clouds had moved in. It was hard to even imagine that there were mountains there! 

Pictured: Denali with reflection in Wonder Lake, Denali again in the afternoon, Reflection Pond view without the mountains (after the clouds came in), muskrat, ”wave” bank of clouds over glaciers in the mountains,  boreal chickadee