Pictures for Part 1

The aftermath of the forest fire. You can see on the right edge of the picture where a wetland kept the fire at bay. Just a hint of green.






This is the creek bed where we began our hike in the National Park.
The gnoll we climbed to the top of is in the background on the right.







This is our view of Denali from the far side of Byer like in the State Park. See that glimpse of whiter white in the clouds, where you think it couldn't possibly a mountain that much taller than the others? Almost parallel to the peak of the mountain in the foreground. That's the South Peak. Wow.





This is the bridge that we had to cross to get back across the lake. My sister had hiked this trail (with my Mom!) the year before and they had had to backtrack because they were told that this bridge was broken. About halfway across the bridge we discovered that the planks were broken completely through, all the way across. When we got to the other side, there were no steps to get down from the bridge (about a 5-6 foot drop). I don't think the bridge ever got fixed.

More musings to follow in the coming days...