I have to admit it, I love mountains. I can't get enough of them. They are my favorites subjects and I always try to visit them whenever I travel. The one that I have always wanted to visit is Mt McKinley in Denali National Park, Alaska. Mt McKinley is the highest peak in North America. The mountain was originally named Denali or "High One" by the Koyukon Athabaskan people who inhabit the area around the mountain. A gold prospector later named it "McKinley" to provide political support for then-president William McKinley. I was fortunate enough to visit it this past summer. When planning the visit, I found out that Mt McKinley was visible only 30% of the year. I read about visitors who stayed a week and never saw it. We would only be there for three days and were hoping to get a view of it. When we checked into the lodge, it wasn't visible and I was worried that this was a bad omen. A few hours later, as we were about to board a bus to Talkeetna, I wandered around to the back of the lodge and saw this scene. The clouds at the top of the mountain had cleared out and it's majesty was revealed. Just to give you a size of McKinley, this image was taken from about 90 miles away.
All Aboard the Alaskan Rail
After our stay in Denali National Park, we boarded an Alaskan Rail train. The train would take us to Whittier where we would board our cruise ship. This 8-hour train ride is something everyone should have on their bucket list. The scenery is spectacular and when the weather is right (as it was on this day), Mount McKinley can be seen in all of it's grandeur. Our train car had a glass dome for viewing the gorgeous Alaskan countryside. I quickly determined that shooting through the dome was not going to work due to the reflections, so I quickly headed for the open-air observation decks to shoot images from the speeding train.
This image was taken from the caboose of the train shortly after leaving Denali. The locomotive was chugging alongside a river bend in front of some of Denali's beautiful mountains. This is a train ride that I will never forget.
Open Range
Continuing our adventures in Alaska, we visited Denali National Park on a pretty dreary day. While it didn't rain much, it was pretty raw out. Since we didn't have a car, we took a tour of the park hoping to see some wildlife. Even with a car, you can only drive as far as we did on the tour. To be able to go further into the park, you must arrange an expanded tour (wish we knew that going in). Unfortunately, while we did spot a few animals, they were mere specks in the distance. Despite the lack of wildlife and the gloominess of the weather, the scenery was outstanding. I was struck by the amount of open range in the park and how the mountain range contrasted with it. The clouds added to the gloomy mood. As I studied the scene, I was reminded of the words "...Purple Mountain Majesty..." in the song, America the Beautiful. It seemed to me that the words were inspired by these mountains.
Soaring the Alaskan Range
After our overnight stay in Anchorage, we hopped on a bus for 3 hours to Mt McKinley Lodge. I was really looking forward to getting to the lodge because it looked like a nice day where we might have a chance to actually see Mt McKinley (the mountain is only visible 30% of the time). Even more exciting was that we had signed up for a Mt. McKinley Summit Flight that afternoon. We got to the lodge (yes, McKinley was visible), had lunch and hopped on a 45 minute bus ride to Talkeetna Airport (the lodge is pretty remote). On the way, my wife Carol muttered "I don't know why I agreed to do this" (she is not the best of flyers). When we got to the airport, we were assigned a small 10 seat airplane. She was assigned the co-pilot seat and was told not to touch anything (like she would have). I was alone in the second row and our friends were in the back row. To complicate things, it was raining and a fresh storm was approaching. Off we went anyway.
On the way to Mt McKinley, we soared above the Alaskan Range and this image was taken en-route to Mt McKinley. The majesty of this mountain range is something to see. It was pretty challenging to photograph from the plane. I kept getting the damn propeller in my shot and shooting through a small window at such high speed was a challenge. All-in-all, I do it again in a second but I'm pretty sure Carol won't.