27 July 2006
Day 11: 12,000 feet over Denali
Drove back up the Kenai Peninsula through often heavy traffic to Anchorage, then continued north toward Denali. I got the car washed before leaving Anchorage, which helped a little.
Upon arrival in Talkeetna (traditional staging point for McKinley climbs) I arranged to get on a flight with Talkeena Air Taxi for a two hour flight with glacier landing — starting at 7:15 PM!
Used the 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens this time. If anything, I needed to go even wider, as the plane flew too close to the mountains to capture them (especially Denali AKA McKinley) at 24 mm. Conditions were partly cloudy to mostly sunny. The light was a bit harsh at 7:30 but had improved (warmed) quite a bit by 8:30 or so — unfortunately, by that time we were leaving Denali for the return to Talkeetna.
Spent the night at the hostel in Talkeetna (as a break from camping and to avoid paying $200+ for a single room).
Departed Homer area about 9:30 AM AKDTArrived Talkeetna, Alaska (62°19'N, 150°6'W) at 4:30 PM AKDT
Sun: 5:07 AM - 11:05 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,481 miles
Distance to the arctic circle: 302 miles
Distance to the north pole: 1,916 miles
view routeDistance driven: 318 miles
Total driven: 4,059 miles
27 July 6:30 PM AKDT