Alaska~Denali Part One

I am back for more Alaska fun. This day was our first chance to see Denali (aka Mt. McKinley).



I had no idea it wasn't called Mt. McKinley anymore until we started researching Alaska. Now I have completely forgotten that I called this mountain Mt. McKinley my whole life until a month ago! There was all kinds of controversy about the name, if you want to read about it click HERE. We read it is only visible about 30% of the time. We knew we would be around the mountain for three days and hoped we would be able to see it at least one day. We started the day by driving to this cute little mountain town, Talkeetna. 

It was a little bit chilly!

There she is, that beautiful mountain!

We found a nice guy all by himself willing to take lots of pictures of our crazy family to attempt to get a good one! We had no idea how long our window was to see Denali so we were trying to take advantage!

Then we headed up the road, stopped at the The Flying Squirrel bakery for a quick little snack.

We drove to Denali State Park and stopped at another viewpoint. Still visible! Woo-hoo!

We took several remote viewing shots. Our camera is hooked up with our phone so we can click the button on our phone to take the picture which goes much faster than self-timer, and with two little girls we need as many chances as we can get in a short amount of time. Just as we got all set up for our first picture, this lady walked right through our shot! I was going to be furious if this ended up being our best picture! haha! Luckily, it was not, so now it's just a funny picture to remember the lady that walked right into our picture!

Ramsey the model!

Everyone enjoyed Ramsey very much!

Matt took this picture of us taking a picture. Looks like it's going to turn out great!

I guess I missed her best smile...

Hanging out near the tallest mountain in North America!

Here was the prettiest background...not the best pictures...

Matt and Ramsey went up to the top of the hill to get some more pictures.

What a boss!

From above, there was a better view of the river valley below.

Iconic Denali.

Jumping at Denali.

We pulled off the road at another good viewpoint. The girls were sleeping so you just get pictures like you used to, Matt and me!

We stayed at McKinley village which is where most of the cruise lines have resorts for their passengers to stay on the land portion of their trip. They were celebrating Christmas at the Chalet! It was the perfect time for us to get there-we LOVE Christmas! :) They celebrate all of the holidays during the summer. I guess not too many people come to celebrate Christmas in Alaska!

We took a quick walk along one of the paths at our resort to check out the beautiful scenery!

We walked over to the Princess resort to check out their shops

and grab dinner.

We had an amazing view!

And Ramsey ate most of our french fries!

We headed back to our room to get the girls ready for bed.

Then we headed to Denali Square to listen to live music around the fire pits (which I did not take a picture of...) We had a great time chatting with some of the other guests, and a few of the seasonal workers!

We walked back to our room on this beautifully lit path.

Come back soon for my next post-our day in Denali National Park. We saw some pretty cool wildlife you will want to check out!