[at-l] Denali

[buchanan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (S Buchanan)]

Shane Steinkamp wrote:
> No, and it's something everyone should do once in a lifetime.  After that,
> Alaska is a pretty big place, with many beautiful places - and people are
> far and very few between in most of them.

I feel gifted to have had the chance to spend three weeks up there.
Most of it was spent in the interior - the Yukon Flats.  So very
different from the mountains of the Alaska Range, but with a beauty all
its own. A horizon and sky that goes on forever. The midnight sun
dipping down and kissing the river.  Riding in the boats on the Yukon
with the Gwichin (I was staying with the locals) as they went out to
check the nets during the salmon run (you could get seriously lost out
in the multitudinous wanderings of the many arms of the river at that
point. A 'braided stream' on a grand scale.) . . . spending time out at
"fish camp" with them (oh yeah - they gave me the "guest of honor" plate
- three fish heads in the broth in my bowl, just staring up at me - and
then when I gamely poked my fork into the bit of filet still left around
the gill area, they all started laughing at me! "No, Susan!  You're
supposed to start with the eyes!"). . . learning the edible plants and
harvesting "high bush cranberries" and wild rose hips, while Daryl stood
guard for grizzly.  yep.  quite a trip. Quite a place.  Quite a people.

Denali NP is not to be missed. I got to spend a day in Kenai Fjords NP,
which is also an amazing place.  I got on one of those tour boats there
to see the whales and otters and glaciers.  Spectacular.  And spent one
day hiking in the Chugach State Park outside Anchorage (spending the
time between my flight out of the interior, and my flight back south out
of Anchorage). Wish I had more time in every single place I got to!

suz