While most of you were suffering in the heat in the lower 48, Barb and I escaped to the more temperate climes of Alaska, cruising the Inner Passage and taking the observation dome train to Denali. I wish I could muster up more empathy for those of you who sweltered, but I'm having trouble doing so. It was a marvelous trip, and I plan to
Observations and Take-Aways on visiting Denali.
It's a big sucker. Too big to get any perspective. In the photo above, we are about 95 miles from the mountain!
I thought, since Denali is more or less out in the middle of nowhere, we would be pretty isolated. Turns out there is a major highway that runs right past the Park, as well as a very busy railway. Princess, Holland America and several other cruise lines have extensive lodges nearby - and there is a pretty good sized village adjacent to the Park as well.
Amazingly, there was decent cellular service for the entire 300 mile inland portion of the trip. So much for the middle of nowhere.
Denali stays shrouded in cloud cover most of the time. In fact, only 30% of visitors to the Park get to see the mountain clearly. If you are among the lucky, you can claim to be one of the 30% club and buy a tee-shirt or souvenir labeled, "I am in the 30% club! Only 10% see the mountain 2 days in a row and fewer then 2% see it 3 days in a row.
We couldn't find any 2% club shirts; it must not be cost effective to print them up, but we are proud members of that group! We saw the mountain clearly on the train up, while on a bus tour of a portion the Park itself (it's 6 million acres large) and from the bus ride down to McKinley State Park.
Alas, clouds obscured much of the mountain all the time we were in McKinley State Park, which has the closest vantage point. Even on clear days, the mountain will make it's own weather.
The idyllic picture of clear mountain streams in interior Alaska is seldom the case. Most of the rivers and streams along our route were fed by glacier melt, which results in muddy, silt-laden water. Though not polluted as such, fish cannot survive in these streams.
Everybody who works at Denali - bus drivers, waitstaff, clerks, guides, even rangers - are not from around there. The Park (and town) closes in late September and almost everybody goes home - usually to the "Outside" - the lower 48. Then they all come back in the Spring.
No sitting on the deck and watching the sunset. At this latitude, sunset was about 11:30 at night. And forget sunrise - it was around 3:30 in the morning.
Most early native Alaskans simply referred to the place as "the big mountain" in whatever dialect they spoke. The name Mt McKinley was originally promoted by a gold prospector in 1867 in honor of then-presidential candidate William McKinley (who supported the gold standard, as opposed to candidate William Jennings Bryant, who supported the silver standard). McKinley never visited Alaska, and thus never saw the mountain which bore his name.
A long series of efforts to change the name to Denali, the Athabascan word for "the Great One" was rebuffed, primarily by congressman Ralph Regula from Ohio - President McKinley's home state. After Regula retired, President Obama officially changed the name in 2015. In keeping with his goal of reversing every action Obama ever made, Trump originally promised to change it back, but apparently has changed his mind.
Regardless, it will always be "the Great One."
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