I'm not sure I should advertise this, but spring is clearly one of the best times to visit Denali. Corrie and I spent a mosquito free weekend in a nearly empty park under clear Aurora filled skies. Spring camping couldn't get much better, but I might need to find Corrie a zero degree sleeping bag of her own.
This post is mostly photos Corrie took.
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| Denali from the South viewpoint on the Parks Highway |
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| The NPS was advertising "find your park" for national parks week. It only took a little shoveling to find the tent site. |
It doesn't really get dark until after midnight now (The darkest point is about 2 am thanks to daylight savings time and Alaska's giant time zone). It was well worth staying up for the Aurora this weekend. We started seeing some while the sky was still a bit light and they were so bright we could see by their light once it finally got dark.
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| The first three photos are from the visitor center parking lot. |
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| During a low phase we drove about 15 miles into the park to watch them from above the trees. |
On Saturday we joined a group bike ride into the park from the end of the car accessible road. The trip was cut short by a bear who wasn't up to sharing the road with cyclists.
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| a traffic jam in Denali... I think most of the people in the park were on this bike ride waiting for the bear. |
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| Not a bad place to wait out a bear. |
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| It really is spring here... |
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| Our view for lunch after the ride. |
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| Saturday night's Aurora from about 12 miles into the park. |
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| Purple Aurora streaking through the Big Dipper! |
Love the pictures and story. Makes me want to go back.
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