Mt. McKinley/Denali

This picture was taken from the same position in my yard with the same zoom lens I used to take the picture of our house in the previous entry. That picture was taken with the zoom in the closest setting and this one was taken with the maximum use of the zoom lens.

The peak of the Alaska Range is Denali or Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America. I did some research and the real name and original name was "Denali" which means "the great one". Denali is the name recognized by the state of Alaska. In 1897 it was renamed for President McKinley, but over time people decided that to rename a peak from the original indian one was not right and the name was reverted back to Denali. The peak is approximately 20,300 feet high and is located about 130 miles from Anchorage as the crow flies.

Denali is part of the Alaska Range which is visible from the edge of our yard on a clear day. (It would be visible from inside our house but trees around us are too tall to see the range.) When it is clear--usually not in the morning--we can see an incredible distance across the Mat-Su Valley, which is the valley pictured. The valley is bordered by three mountain ranges: the Alaska range shown above to the north and west, the Chugach where we live on the edge to the south east, and the Talkeetna Range which is between the first two mentioned on the east side. It is comprised of two valleys separated by two major salmon spawning rivers. The valley is 23,000 square miles and was carved out by glaciers leaving many streams and lakes behind. This is one of the few areas in Alaska that supports agriculture. It is on the edge of the valley that we attended the Alaska State Fair the week after we arrived here in August.

Enjoy another piece of our daily beauty.