Alaska!
ALASKA–The 49th State and Our 50th! (Pictures below. Layout is too hard in a free app.) The mountain Denali is a mountain that has held a special place in the hearts of Alaskans for thousands of years. The tallest peak in North America at 20,310 feet, and the furthest north of any mountain over 19,000 feet, Denali is subject to almost daily storms, violent winds, and extreme cold. It spends most of its days covered in clouds and invisible from below. Only about a third of visitors to Alaska will see it. We have seen it on two separate days. We are truly among the fortunate few. Animals We also saw plenty of wildlife in the park named for the mountain: barren ground caribou, Dall sheep (with a lamb!), Arctic ground squirrel and red squirrel, snowshoe hares, ravens, willow ptarmigan, giant mosquitos (still sluggish with the cold), and—of course—moose! It's been an animal-rich trip. We also saw musk oxen, reindeer and woods bison at a wildlife research facility near Fairba...