The Chuli River River

Denali. Big.


The below is on the same day from Denali South Viewpoint in Denali State Park. If you look closely, Denali is poking out above the clouds just left of center. This pic is about 15 miles closer to Denali than the last, yet it looks a million miles farther away. A pure trick of the eye.

Huge ice shelves breaking off the shorelines of the Chulitna river were sending out echoing booms like cannons.


The suffix -tna means "river" so saying Chulitna River is a bit redundant, I guess like we all say "ATM machine" which is to say "Automatic Teller Machine Machine."

Anyway, around Denali South, there were spotty patches of snow in the woods. Less than 10 miles up the road, a different story. I figured there was a 1% chance of being able to camp at Byers Lake, and apparently that was overly optimistic. The paved road to the campground, which is 100% exposed to the sun, is still under a foot of snow. I can't imagine what the tree-canopied campground was like!