Denali

I left Fairbanks and headed south on Hwy 3 (the Parks Highway) to Denali National Park. I arrived around 5pm (still plenty of light) and booked a flightseeing ride on a small plane. It was sunny and warm, so I took off in the Jeep south, hoping to see Mt. McKinly (otherwise known as Mt. Denali). Little did I know that the first viewing of this mountain was over 100 miles away! I drove south for about 20 miles and took some nice pictures of the surrounding "hills":






The scenery was really beautiful. Around 8pm, a group of us went up in a small plane for an hour flight to check out Denali. Here we are approaching our aircraft:



It took as about 25 minutes of flying time till we got to the mountain, which was surrounded by clouds. The mountain itself was very nice, but the entire flight to and from the mountain was even more beautiful:




Denali





I was lucky I made the flight that day, because the next two days were miserable, weather-wise. The entire mountain range was shrouded with clouds, rain, and 50 degree weather. I didn't see so much as a hill after that flight! So, my advise is to skip Denali unless the weather is nice!