Click on Photo for Larger Image

Lately I have been posting primarily bird photos on the site.  Time to switch it up a little bit and share some landscape photos.

Several years ago I had the great pleasure to visit Denali National Park while on an Alaska cruise with some my wife and some friends.  During that trip we took a six hour bus ride on a gravel road to Kantishna, which literally is as far as you can go into the park by vehicle.  In fact, most of the time you cannot drive a private vehicle on this road, and have to ride the park service buses or buses that are provided by one of several lodges which provide services in Kantishna. (There is a yearly “road lottery” that enables lottery winners to purchase a single day pass to drive a private vehicle on the road during a four day window.  Other than that, you ride the bus.)

As you can see from this photograph, we lucked out during the three days in July that we stayed in Kantishna – the weather was fantastic.  The guides at the lodge where we were staying said that many visitors at the lodge would stay for a week in the middle of summer and quite possibly never get a clear view, if any view, of Mt. McKinley (or Denali as it is known to Alaskans).  The mountain is so big that it makes its own weather and much of the time cannot be seen at all or at least the top of the mountain is covered with thick clouds.

We were extremely lucky to have fantastic weather for two of the three days that we were at the lodge, with unbelievable views of Denali and nearby Wonder Lake.  Definitely a photographers dream!