August 13 - 15, 2024 Denali State Park

 August 13th, 2024

We left our little place in Talkeetna and headed north in the fog.

Oh My!  We have some blue skies!

And the mountains:

We stopped at the Denali South Viewpoint:

The mountain is in there but cloudy.  If you look in the middle of the picture, Denali is behind the break in the clouds.  Hopefully we will be able to see it in its full glory!

Heading north to the campground:

We landed at Byers Lake Campground in Denali State Park.  The reviews said that the road had potholes and it did.  As long as we took it slow, it was okay.  The campground is beautiful and it is almost empty.  The sites are large and spread apart.  We will be here for three nights so hopefully the weather will cooperate.

After setting up, we went to the Alaska Veterans Memorial near us.  This has been on my bucket list.  We have passed by many times but never stopped.

"The memorial consists of five 20-foot tall concrete panels, one each to represent the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, arranged in a semi-circle. A statue of two Alaska Territorial Guards, carved by Canadian sculptor George Pratt, greet you at the entrance. On each panel is a short history of that branch's contribution to Alaska."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Veterans_Memorial

Territorial Guards Statue:

The panels:

Back of the statue and the view:

Inscriptions on each of the panels:

Other smaller panels:

Andy at the panels - they are huge!:

Next to the panels is a display area on Alaska and the wars. 

Interesting article on bush pilot rescue:

So sad:

A good read - they found the plane remains in 2016:

Around the area is lots of plants, flowers, and trees - it is beautiful:

Not sure what these berries are but they are a rich red color and then turn to orange:

Fireweed turning to fluff:

There is a saying: "When fireweed turns to cotton, summer will soon be forgotten".  

"As each successive flower blooms above the one underneath, Alaskans begin to mark their calendars. As the older blooms seed and turn to cotton and the last of the flowers garnish the top of the reed, one can be rest assured, that according to legend, winter is six weeks away."

Yep, it is soon time to head out.  Bummer!

This is the height of some of the fireweed.

https://medium.com/usfws/fireweed-c0b0f07d905c

Back home, we enjoyed a campfire and made steak and baked potatoes over the fire - YUM!

I found a website, that had a live picture of Denali.  We checked it a few times to see if the clouds had  cleared.  After supper, it looked like there was some clearing so off we went to the viewpoint.

A little hard to see but there she is!:

What a treat!  One of our views heading back to camp:

"Denali (/dəˈnɑːli/; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft.  With a topographic prominence of 20,194 feet and a topographic isolation (the distance to the nearest peak of equal or greater height) of 4,621.1 miles, Denali is the third most prominent and third-most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denali

https://www.nps.gov/dena/learn/historyculture/denali-origins.htm

What a great day!

Stats for today

Miles Traveled:  62 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Alaska:   Talkeetna Spur Road; Parks Highway - AK3;

 August 14th, 2024

Today was road trip day.  We headed south to the Denali South Viewpoint State Park but no view.  We decided to head north to the Denali North Viewpoint State Park with a quick stop at K'esugi Ken Campground.  We were going to stay at this campground but it was reservation only and it was all booked.  They do have four first come first served sites but I didn't want to chance it.  The campground is more modern than where we are staying and they have electric.  Maybe next time.

Along the way:

Glaciers on the mountains:

Denali is hiding today:

Our last stop for the day was Hurricane Gulch Highway Bridge.  We were on the Railroad Bridge a few days ago so we had to check out the highway bridge.  It is 558 feet long and 254 feet above the gulch.

The gulch is breathtaking.  Because of the traffic (plus the lack of space), I did not take pictures from the bridge.

More information can be found here:

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/alaska/hurricane-gulch-bridge-ak/

https://www.alaska.org/guide/alaskas-most-photo-worthy-bridges

I did find a little path that took me to an overlook of the gulch:

Another look up the gulch - no traffic, so I stopped the car and took a picture:

Beautiful!

Heading back, had to stop and wave to folks on the train:

We spent the rest of the evening outside with a campfire.

This is our site:

Even Gray came out for a while:

Another enjoyable day.

August 15th, 2024

Today was a cloudy, rainy, sunny, cloudy, rainy, sunny kind of day so we just hung out.  By evening it was raining!  Oh well!  

Tomorrow we head to Denali National Park so stay tuned and enjoy today.