Continued from the previous page.

I spent 98 glorious minutes on top of Thorofare Ridge wandering around the tundra, first to the west of the saddle, then east, then west and back east again.

These photos are mostly in sequence so you can see the clouds build up during the time I was up there. I had fun walking around, inspecting colorful rocks and flowers and viewing the river valley and mountains to the north that you can’t see from the park road.

Although Denali was to the southwest, the mountains and valleys in every direction were interesting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close-up of a glacier on Denali's NE side

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above and below:  colorful lichens on rocks

 

Above and below:  there are plenty of colorful bare rocks, too.

I was the only one on the long ridge for over an hour.

Then six people came up. More arrived as I wandered around the plateaus on the north side of the ridge but the summit is large enough that it still mostly felt like I had the place to myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sat for about 15 minutes to eat a sandwich, looking down at the visitor center to see if Jim arrived with his bike:

 

It was so far away that I would have had trouble seeing him without binoculars. He had those – and he didn’t ride a bus out there anyway, as he had considered. More about that later.

During the time I was up on the ridge it was mostly sunny with minimal wind, just about perfect.

More and more clouds built up over Denali, however. I took this close-up just before descending back to the visitor center:

The photos on this page show the sequence of the clouds building up over Denali and the surrounding peaks. Conditions would have been about the same on Thursday when we had views of the mountain with NO clouds. We got to Eielson a little later that morning but the clouds began forming soon after we arrived, similar to today.

Keep that in mind if you're scheduling a bus ride anywhere out the park road. Our experience and that of the bus drivers who I talked with indicates that the earlier you get going, the more likely you'll see Denali.

Continued on the next page:  photos from the alpine descent, hiking the Tundra Loop Trail below the visitor center, and critters on the bus ride back to Tek

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the ultra Lab

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© 2012 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil