Road Trip 2010: Day 40 (Part 2)Denali Park

As good as the wildlife viewing was, the scenery was breathtaking. After having driven through low clouds, misting rain and high winds on Saturday and then enduring the sound of pelting heavy rain on the wind tossed trailers Saturday night, we were pleased to see the blue sky making attempts to break through the cloud cover as we started.

With Mt. McKinley (Denali) still out of sight over the horizon, we would have been pleased with the vistas that were opening up about us.











But then there was a hint of what might just await us further down the road as we got a peek of Denali still so far away;


When we rounded the last curve and approached the viewing point, we all held our breaths as Denali was indeed favoring us with one of those rare days. While not entirely exposed to view, nearly the entire peak was visible.






We stayed at the view point long enough for everyone to enjoy the view and snap their photos--or have their photos snapped, as the case may be...



...and then proceeded to turn around and head back. Wildlife was still spotted but, as it was now past noon, not in the large numbers we had seen earlier. Still, the land was available for photographs.






We had a great day!

But it wasn't over. We all went to the Alaskan Salmon Bake over in Glitter Gulch for dinner. Salmon and steak, garlic mashed potatoes and roasted zucchini squash for dinner. With all the conversations and noise, you would have thought it was a family gathering and not 45 folks who had never met a little over a month ago. (Sorry. No photos of our meal. I was too busy enjoying the food and the company to even think about taking photos.)