With an entire Sunday on our hands, Mike and I agonized over how to spend it. It was the only day we had entirely to ourselves in Alaska, and we didn’t want to waste it. We decided to drive to some places within an hour of Anchorage. At a gas station at 11:00 AM we talked about Denali National Park. It was four hours away. We exchanged a look, paused for a moment, and scrapped our Anchorage plans in favor of a drive to Denali. When would we have another chance? We stopped in Eagle River (just outside of Anchorage) for coffee at a place called Jitters, and hit the road.

The drive in itself was gorgeous: a never-ending array of fall colors and sweeping vistas of mountain ranges stretching hundreds of miles in the distance. We stopped at every scenic overlook we could find, and a few times, we just pulled over to the side of the road even when there wasn’t a turnoff.

The four hour drive stretched into five or so. Our first glimpses of Denali (a.k.a. Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America) were shrouded in clouds, only tiny slivers of the enormous mountain peaking through. The further north we drove, the clearer the weather became, and eventually, we had a clear, blue, sunny sky.

Sadly, we just barely missed the end of tourist season, so everything, and I mean everything, is closed. We might not have been able to take bus tours or anything, but the drive and the overlooks were plenty. Once we got to Denali National Park proper and turned back toward Anchorage, we saw Denali in its entirety. Words cannot express the enormity of everything we’ve seen. Pictures don’t do it justice, because you just don’t get the depth and detail.

We got back to the Anchorage area around 10:30 and grabbed burgers and a beer at North Slope Restaurant in Eagle River. Our bartender was a wacky, middle-aged woman who had moved to Alaska 14 months ago (We didn’t ask why). We should’ve gotten her on videotape.

Wow. I still can’t believe we drove to Denali. We saw some of the most awesome, beautiful sights a person can see. Seriously, Alaska is always a life-changing experience. It’s mind-blowing. We’re lucky guys. Thanks, NTC.

(Pardon the unpoetic nature of my blogs and descriptions of what we’re doing. I feel like I should write something weightier than what I have been. Oh, well.)