4:23am, Ring, Ring, Hello? Mt McKinley is visible. Thanks, Click.
We all hurried down to the main lodge and sure enough, there it was. Finally, months of planning, that seemed to be for nothing, all paid off. I don’t quite know how everyone felt at the time or if there were tiny tears in the corner of their eyes, I was too busy trying to get that perfect picture of the mountain. It was a short window, the small opening clouded over in less then 30 minuets.
We all went back to our rooms and caught a little more sleep. After breakfast we were on our way east, through Wasilla were we stopped to by some snacks at Carrs and a Subway sandwich. Then we went through Palmer and some other small towns before we made it to the Matanuska Glacier and it was worth stopping for. There was a rest stop were we stopped, but I most enjoyed a little pull off after the river, from here we could see where the Glacier was born.
Continuing east, we got closer and closer to the Rangell Range. Mom picked out a large mountain in the distance and the closer we got the bigger it got. We were pretty sure it was Mt. Drum, it seemed to be half way up the windshield, much bigger then we remembered it to be, but then when we got to Glennallen – it shrunk back to what it should be. We stopped at the same lookout spot were we camped the year before. We had a fantastic view, we could clearly see Mt. Drum and Sanford. We stopped for a while and took some pictures and then headed for the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge. Kara said it well when she said that Princess bought all the best views, so we wanted to see it from there in case it clouded over.
We got settled into our rooms and then had supper, Kara had crab, Dad and I had a fab Chicken stuffed with applewood smoked bacon, spinach and blue cheese. Mom kept it light with soup, salad and crab cakes.
After dinner we went for a walk and took some more pictures. Kara and I sat on the patio and wished they built a tower to see the mountains, because some of the trees had grown up and blocked the view partially. Then later in the night, we went for a walk down one of the trails and BAM, there was the Grand-Daddy of all lookout spots right there on the edge of a bluff. Kara ran back to the hotel and got Dad so he could see the it too. We wanted to soak it all in before the poor weather arrived.
What a great day, we were blessed to see Mt. McKinley and the entire Rangell Range and everything in-between all in the same day.
