On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
arrieve
I meant to submit these pictures for National Parks After Dark, but got too busy. I think they’re worth it any time — Denali National Park is one of the most magnificent places on this planet. I count myself very lucky that not only did I get to spend several nights there, but I also got to see the namesake mountain, which is often hidden by clouds.
Denali, seen from Wonder Lake.
Denali is almost all pure wilderness. There’s one road, and only the first 15 miles are paved. Private vehicles aren’t allowed past that point, so it’s a six hour ride on one of the park buses to the lodges in Kantishna. You can also fly, but then you would miss the amazing landscape, as taiga gives way to tundra.
It was late August, so fall had already arrived on the tundra. All of these pictures were taken while bouncing around in a bus on gravel roads, but fortunately I was able to capture the colors.
Most of the road is only one lane, often along steep cliffs with no guardrail, but I was so entranced by the scenery that I hardly noticed, and I’m usually a nervous wreck on mountain roads.
This picture was actually taken the day we drove out of the park, when the sun came out, and shows the difference the light made in the tundra. Those snow-capped mountains in the distance weren’t visible at all the day we drove in.
We saw moose and caribou and grizzlies from the bus, most of them too far away to get decent pictures of, but here’s a grizzly that was more cooperative.
The first morning in Kantishna, we woke to steady rain which continued most of the day, so I didn’t venture far from the lodge. Fortunately the next day was absolutely perfect — clear blue skies with a few clouds. This is Wonder Lake, not far from Kantishna.
And there it was — another shot of Wonder Lake, with Denali in the background. My companions on the hike were a family of four who were also staying at the lodge. While we waited for the guide, they asked the manager if it was still possible to book one of the flights around Denali.
He checked, and the pilots were willing to do an extra flight over their lunch hour because it was such a spectacular day. “There are four of you? There’s still one more seat. Do you know someone else who wants to go?”
Four heads turned simultaneously in my direction. I hadn’t even considered doing a flight — scared of small planes, so not my thing, too expensive, etc., etc., etc. — but I know when I need to forget all of the reasons to say no and just go for it.
So I said yes. To be continued…..
Scout211
Oh my. These photos are spectacularly beautiful.
Lapassionara
What wonderful photos! Thank you!
ljt
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Great photos of Denali, the kid was up there in September, only got to see a partial view.
Sister Golden Bear
Gorgeous! One of the places I hope to visit when we can travel again.
ellielou
I had the very great pleasure to stay at the same lodge near Wonder Lake in 2009. One of the best experiences of my life. We were also lucky enough to see the mountain. Thank you for these wondrous photos.
JanieM
I agree with “spectacularly beautiful.” The third and fourth look like paintings, the grizzly is unbelievable, the story is fun — will be looking forward to hearing how the flight went.
Wow.
BigJimSlade
Such fantastic landscape!
namekarB
A very reasonable choice on the flight even with the fear . . . I still remember my first flight on a Huey in Vietnam with my legs dangling into the abyss over the edge of the floor on the chopper. But after a few more flights it became a wonderful panoramic experience. I would love to do that at Denali.
CaseyL
Glorious photos! I went across on the bus in mid-June a few years ago, but the weather was overcast and rainy the whole time. It didn’t bother me much, but I was traveling with three people who complained the entire trip – until I moved to a different seat to get away from them!
I would love to go back sometime, later in the year, when the weather maybe clears once in a while.
Dagaetch
Magnificent. Definitely a place on my bucket list.
StringOnAStick
That small plane flight to Denali and landing on the Ruth glacier was one of my top life experiences; I was so excited on the plane that I could barely sit still. Watching the plane become a tiny dot against the rock as the pilot did a loop and then came back for success has dropping.
Thanks for the reminder! Lovely fall foliage photos, absolutely gorgeous.
StringOnAStick
@StringOnAStick: Thanks kindle autocorrect. I meant to say “come back for us was jaw dropping” but no, kindle knows better yes it does.
rikyrah
Denali is on my bucket list
Pictures… Beautiful??
Kent
Great shots. You were lucky with the weather. I was one of the last to be able to drive my truck all the way to the end of the Denali park road before they closed it to private vehicle traffic in the 1990s.
Fun fact. Denali is the most massive single mountain on the planet and tallest from base to peak. Everest and the Himalayan peaks reach higher elevations, but their starting base is so much higher. If you were to slice both Denali and Everest off at the base and sit them side by side, Denali would be much larger and taller.
arrieve
I’d love to go back there. I might never get that lucky with the weather again, but the park is worth seeing in any circumstances. It’s still amazing to me that it’s just been left as wilderness. There are a few rest stops on the road, where you can pee and buy postcards, but basically there’s nothing there but park. It’s a dreamscape.
Mary G
Those colors are amazing. I was booked to go on this trip sometime in the 90s, but was too sick and had to cancel. My friends went without me and complained that it rained almost the whole time and they never saw the mountain. This is going back on my bucket list.
eclare
What incredible photos of Denali! And I was definitely one of the nervous Nellie’s on the bus when I went.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent:
That would be Mauna Kea, though most of the mountain is under the Pacific.
Benw
What the great googly moogly. These are <insert effusive adjective here>
jl
Thanks for wonderful pix. They bring back memories. I camped and hiked around the Wonder Lake area several times. Only times I got a good close up view of Denali, at least from the ground, was when I was hiking around Wonder Lake.
Edit: of course, you see long distance views of Denali from a wide area. IIRC, you can see it on a clear day almost as far north as Fairbanks. I remember once going to Fairbanks as the sun was, sort of, setting, it looked like a big pink heap of snow to the south.
Dan B
@Kent: O remember seeing scale models of Everest and Mt. Rainier, another mountain with a low elevation base. The Mt.. Rainier model was taller. I checked the scale and despite my doubts the scale of the models was identical.
The mountains on the left of the last photo are about the same elevation as Rainier. Denali dwarfs them.
Skookum in Oly
What a beautiful place! I hope to get there someday. Thank you for sharing.
WaterGirl
@Benw: There are only so many superlative words for beautiful things – don’t you just hate it when the first person to comment uses the one you were thinking?
These are truly spectacular. Can’t wait for tomorrow.
Miss Bianca
One of my biggest regrets in life is that I didn’t go to Denali when I had the chance, back in 1984. Hitchhiked to Alaska with a friend, we worked on the fishing boats together. She went to Denali after we were let go at the end of the season, I hitched back to Seattle with a boy I met on the boat. Shoulda gone to Denali, instead…
Thank you for the photos!
Steve from Mendocino
The colors really are nice. I had no idea. The patchy light in several of the shots is fun. Nice series.
philpm
One of my bucket list visits. I did get to see Denali from a rather great distance when I was in Anchorage on a business trip in 2003. I realllly want to see it up close. My daughter would just be happy to see the bear that close.
Your pictures are fantastic, fantastic colors and lighting.