more pictures to come

I'm sitting in an RV in Homer, Alaska. I can see the ocean, snowy mountains and even a volcano or two (I'm told -- though they don't look any different than the other mountains). Behind me there are actual glaciers in the mountains.
We spent the last three days doing Denali National Park. We took a train from Anchorage to Denali one day, spent the next day in the park itself, and then took a bus back south the next day.

For some reason, our internet connection at the RV park won't let us upload pictures (either to blogger or via email), but I can tell you a little bit about our time in Denali and maybe upload pictures once we get to Seward tommorrow.

I have seem some really beautiful places in the last few years. The Pennsylvania countryside is a peaceful, rolling hills sort of place. When Mark and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge at night, that was a beautiful experience. But I can say with all certainty that I have never seen anything like Denali in all my life.
The mountains, of course, are amazing. There's only one road into the park, and a shuttle bus takes you in. Most of the time we were in the park, we were above the tree line, so even though the mountains towered above us, we were in a raised valley -- 2,000 feet or so -- and I felt like I was in this totally secret place. Only one road, and only an occasional park bus at that, very few hikers visible. There are no trails in Denali... The mountains were covered in tundra, the short spongy grass and miniature flowers, and only sometimes would there be bushes -- maybe five feet high -- but no trees.
Before we went into the park, we were told that it's pretty rare to be able to see Mt. McKinley; it's only visible maybe one out of every five days. The rest of the time it's covered in clouds. So when we got to mile nine into the park (our first chance to glimpse it), and it came into view clear as day, there was an audible gasp in the bus, and even a few cheers. The tour guide said she hadn't seen it since May 29th. It's the biggest mountain in North America, and has the biggest vertical rise in the world (while Everest is 9,000 feet higher, McKinley looks higher because it starts at a lower point). After that, our whole way into the park (four hours in, four hours out, not counting hiking time), everytime it came into view, the people on the bus would get really worked up. It was incredible how white and snow covered and dramatic that mountain was. I'll certianly post a picture when I can. It's interesting, though, how most of the mountains weren't that jagged and snow covered (just McKinley and its buddies) -- just smooth and green and tall and rounded. It was so easy to picture where the glaciers must have plowed their way through.
We saw a lot of wildlife -- a momma grizzley bear and two cubs (from far away), moose, and lots of caribou and bighorn sheep really close up. One caribou got on the road in front of our bus and walked right in front of us for about 15 minutes; we just had to slow down and drive with it.

I can't believe how lucky I am to have seen a place like that.