From Denali National Park to Denali State Park

What a very pleasant surprise!!!  We left the DNP area on a wet Friday morning and traveled south to a delightful Denali State Park where we spent 2 nights.  Gary is a great planner.  This park was perfect for hiking up mountains and around lakes, kayaking, and catching Mt. Denali (we think we qualify as natives now so that is what we call Mt. McKinley) with crystal clear skies.  They really should change the name back to its original title.  We are now in Talkeetna and this morning Bob took a tourist plane trip over the mountains with Gary and Floy.  The bottom four pics are from that.  Words do not do justice to the beauty of this place.

A 50's cabin out in Denali State Park that is returning to nature.

The view of Denali was even more spectacular south of DNP close to Denali State Park.

We had forgotten how much we missed paddling.  The water in Byers Lake was not that cold.

The wildflowers in Alaska are so varied.  As we drove south of DNP, we noticed that the vegetation was quite different.

View of the mountains out of the window.

This is a glacier with a small pool of melted water.  Note how dirty the glacier looks but how clear the water is.

We have seen several mountains that have this shape here in AK.  Am not sure if it is the natural shape or if receding glaciers are responsible.  Or aliens, maybe.

This is a glacier.  The dark areas are really ice.  On either side where it is brown, the brown parts are still part of the glacier and are 300-500 feet of ice.