I returned this fall to Denali National Park where I spent a week hiking, cycling and flying across the Denali landscape. The colors were vibrant and there is nothing like an aerial perspective of The Great One, Mount Denali.
Narrow Passage
An Alaskan passenger train enters Denali in fall splendor
Along the banks of the Chulitna River on Denali's east side grows some of the most magnificent stands of larch and aspen.
Thorofare Pass shows off fall's colors and winter's early snowy arrival
Arrival of autumn's first snow
The high peaks of the Alaskan Range have already received their first new snow of the season.
Snow coats the highest peak. In days it will reach the valley.
Spruce trees stand silhouetted against the snowy peaks of the Alaskan Range, one of only 15 species of trees that can be found in Denali due to its cold, wind, elevation and short growing season.
Banked by vast fields of blueberries, turned red by autmn's chill, Wonder Lake stretches to Denali.
Denali's floor is carpeted with berry bushes, lichens and small grasses that have adapted to its unique environment
In this harsh climate, the tundra floor is carpeted by plants that, to survive, will grow only a few inches.
Cranberries and soap berry can be found across the Denali tundra.
Denali Park Road
Denali Park Road in fall
Fog rises in the distance above Wonder Lake, as Denali gleams in the early morning sun above Nugget Pond and the red berry bushes and yellow larch that surrounds it.
Denali reflects in Nugget Pond
Surrounded by berry bushes that have turned red with autumn's arrival, Nugget Pond is the perfect place to watch Denali in the morning cool.
From the steps of the lodge at Camp Denali lies exquisite Nugget Pond and one of the best views of Denali
Aerial view of Denali's stream beds that carry the sediment and stone ground by the glaciers and snow atop the nearby mountain.
Denali's riverways glisten below
The peaks of Denali reach more than 20,000'
Clouds form almost daily around Denali's peak as the moist air from the Pacific is forced up and into the subzero air that surrounds the mountain's highest peaks.
Denali in Black and White
A flightseeing plane is dwarfed in the Denali mountainscape
A high mountain ridge guards the entrance to Denali's peaks
An ode to Ansel Adams who photographed this scene of Wonder Lake and Denali in 1947 and marveled then that "Alaska is one of the most impressive reservoirs of beauty and wilderness - an inexhaustible resource for creative interpretation."
In early September, the larch and aspen along the banks of McKinley Creek turn a resplendent yellow.
Miles of blueberry bushes carpet the shores of Wonder Lake as the Alaskan Range and Denali catch the morning sun.
A large boulder is a reminder of the glacial forces that shaped the Denali landscape
Termination Dust, as the first snow is called, coats Denali and the ridges below it, above Wonder Lake
From the shoreline of Wonder Lake, Denali stands clear this September morning.
The Alaskan Range and Denali beckon in the distance beyond Nugget Pond
Denali Portrait
Denali Beckons
Golden leaves, red berry bushes, blue skies and a clear view of Denali greet me at sunrise by Camp Denali.
Reflection Pond Panorama