Oh yes, these are real mountains - Alaska Day 2

On Saturday, Julie, her friend Celine, and I took off south down the Parks Highway. Beautiful sunny weather (you’ll see a trend here…) and the mountain was out the entire ride. The mountain? Denali to folks in Alaska, Mt. McKinley to folks elsewhere. I’ll take the opportunity to brush you up on your Denali trivia, ripped from Wikipedia: Mount McKinley has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest, although the summit of Everest is higher measured from sea level 29,028 feet (8,800 m). Everest's base sits on the Tibetan Plateau at about 17,000 feet (5,200 m), giving it a real vertical rise of a little more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The base of Mount McKinley is roughly a 2,000-foot (610 meter) plateau, giving it an actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m). Only the experienced hikers take on Denali, as it is snow covered and creates its own dangerous weather throughout the year. I heard 3 different statistics about how often one can see it clearly; 10, 25, or 60 percent of the time it comes out from behind the clouds or haze to show its beautiful face. Why do Alaska people call it Denali, while seemingly everyone else calls it McKinley? Denali was its native Athabaskan name long before the peak was named in honor of then-Senator McKinley in 1897. I’ll stop with the chatter and get on with the pictures.

Not Denali in the background. Outside the park entrance

Denali from the park

From the South Viewpoint

Blowing snow at the top of Denali

After getting our fill photo snapping, we continued southward toward Palmer, where Julie’s friends Nikole and Jeff were gracious enough to let us crash for a few nights. First though, we drove through what is currently Alaska’s most famous town: Wasilla. If you like box stores, you’ll like Wasilla. If you want to hang out in the meth capital of Alaska, Wasilla is it. If you like traffic lights after cruising for hours at 65 mph, you’ll like Wasilla.

As we arrived in Palmer, I saw my first live moose (my first moose was roadkill)

This lady did not stop to check in

We got into Palmer in the evening, just in time for Jeff to cook us up some delicious steaks and squash. Mmmm, every road trip should end with steaks. After digesting for a tiny bit, we headed up to the Butte, a 20 minute drive from Palmer. A nice hike at sunset (10PM-ish) with a view of the mountains and surrounding area.

Pioneer Peak from the butte

Sunset from the butte, 10:15PM