Denali, 2025

We had visited Denali on our 2002 Alaska trip and had had such a good visit that we didn't want its memories over-written. The mountain is notoriously cloud-covered, and the bus ride back to the closest visitor center is seldom rewarded with the sight of any more than its lower slopes. But we got to see the whole mountain, and some animals too, in 2002. For 2025, we just did the drive toward Fairbanks, enjoying some excellent views of the south side of the mountain, and spending the night in the main Denali NP campground. 

Leaving the state fairgrounds, near Anchorage, the alpine views to
the south and east weren't bad

Nice highway views of Denali, many miles away, from the south

Clouds spilling over a distant range

Valley view

Street scene

Beetle-kill in the park was some of the most extensive we've seen

Us before Denali, 2002

Caribou

Grizzly at a comfortable distance across the meadow

Mama and two moose cubs crossing a lake

Denali as we saw it in 2002

Visitor center chart showing the mountain's
days of visibility that summer

Scenes From The Alaska State Fair, 2

 Continuing our day, August 17th, at the Alaska State Fair...

Crafts are always the most amazing

Ideas for Penelope

Who maybe should enter the NC state fair...

Not the old-fashioned way, but hand-made nonetheless

Souvenirs de Paris

Pizza cones

Interesting costumes

The usual rides...only smaller, more portable...

Never miss the Tilt-A-Whirl or the pixie dust spreader

Cannoli shoppe

Ad majorem gloriam Dei

The show-stopper for us was the Elks' Rat Race...wherein a live rat
spins on a roulette-sort of wheel and you bet ($.50 max) on which
hole he'll disappear into

The MC was a hoot

I still say tied-fly ear-rings could be very popular among fly-fisher persons...

It was a fine old-timey state fair, not a lot of the new-fangled
gimmicky stuff

Scenes From The Alaska State Fair, 1

We always do state fairs whenever they cross our path, and Alaska can now join Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Montana, and others. The state fairgrounds are in Palmer, near Anchorage. It was only the 2nd day of the fair, and thus we missed much of the livestock and farm offerings...Alaska grows some enormous fruits and veggies, but they appear only in the fair's latter days, after soaking up as much daylight as possible. Nonetheless, we found much that was interesting, much that was characteristically Alaskan, and much that was amusing. We took nearly 150 pix between us, which we have edited down to this and the next post.

With Smokey

Kiddie water-zorbing

Sign of the times

Copter rides

Sculpture

Crab cage

Axe-throwing

Tundra dogs

Still growing...

Save the grizzly bear

Haven't seen these in years...

Street scene

Mostly beers and porters and such

Vicki's was better

In one of the aisles of the huge crafts building

Personal favorite

P

Lace-making the old-fashioned way

Library quilt, Vicki's favorite

Bottle cork art