21 May 2006: Day 9 – To Mt. McKinley, The Tallest Mountain In North America.

In case you are confused, Mt. Denali and Mt. McKinley are one and the same. Denali is the native American name for McKinley, and it means “the tall one”. Mt. McKinley is the more common name for this mountain among the Americans however, and it is situated within Denali National Park. Nonetheless, the journey from where we stayed at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge to the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge tt overlooks the mountain itself was a 2 hour journey by bus.

We woke up at the ungodly hour of 5am today, to catch our 6.20am tour of Denali National Park.

It was a historical tour of the park, so we were introduced to the history of how the park was founded, how the first Americans came up North to the so-called “Last Frontier” to seek their fortunes in gold, and how the Native people lived here.

Along the way, we also got to see some more animals. We saw willow ptarmigans, these fat birds tt apparently taste like chicken…



And rabbits. Lots and lots of rabbits. We counted 22 in total… And being reminded tt they were promiscuous. “Going at it like rabbits, ‘ya know?”



We also saw caribou and… and a brown bear! But this was all from the bus and they were too small to be photographed, so tt was sad.

The sky was also really grey and overcast, and it was cloudy so we couldn’t really see into the tops of the mountain range. I also had problems staying awake at points in time coz I was so sleepy.

We headed off from our lodge towards Mt. McKinley by boarding the 12.45pm bus.

The sky started out grey and overcast still, but tt didn’t stop the views from being amazing nonetheless.





That’s me, in boredom. Looking spastic. Okay, I call tt overcompensation for my sleepiness.



The Taukeetna mountain range.



Closer up.



More of the range…



And the Summit Lake below the range.



Finally, after 2 hours (and me having fallen asleep at some point in time), we reach the McKinley Princess Lodge around 2.45pm.

And while the lodge isn’t situated on Mt. McKinley itself, it does provide a really grand view of Mt. McKinley.



You can’t really see McKinley itself from here because even though the sky is clearing up by now, the cloud cover still obscures the top of McKinley, which at 20,320 feet (6194 m) is the tallest mountain in North America.

After putting our bags in our room, we decide to take a walk through the short wilderness trails in the lodge compound (we’re in the middle of nowhere so there is nowhere else to go).

We get to see the river from the wilderness trail.



And the main lodge itself.



Me with the range in the background.



And me and my parents! Yay!



And how the mountains look above our lodges.



In the evening, we went down to the Mountain View Dining Room for yet another unnecessarily laviscious dinner. I had a Monterey Jack cheese bisque, which was good and cheesy but incredibly heavy. And a dish consisting of Alaskan king crab legs, giant Alaskan scallop, shrimp, grilled Alaskan salmon, all nested in a bed of creamy linguine pasta.

And dessert… White chocolate raspberry cheesecake with raspberry sauce drizzled all over.



Me with said cake.



Yes I am happy because if it looks good… it tastes EVEN BETTER. Wahaha.

We ended dinner close to 10pm. However, this place being what it is, the sun doesn’t set till 11.24pm tonight.

And the best part? The sun has come out, so the top of Mt. McKinley is no longer obscured by cloud cover.

So here is Mt. McKinley towering over all the other mountains in the sunset.



And again.



As an active mountain, it continues to grow higher at the rate of 1 inch per year.



Me with Mt. McKinley behind.



And me and my dad.

Thus ends our day here. Tomorrow, it’s a late morning and onward to Anchorage.