DENALI NATIONAL PARK,  AK

Friday, July 15, 2011

UP,UP AND AWAY!!

For a day without a plan, we sure packed a lot into this one.  While I cleaned up the inside of the coach, LeRoy and Dick took a walk and came across animal bones, and what looked like an imprint of an animal where it lay on the ground.

A coal mine tour was posted on the white board in the Wagon Master's window. I thought we were carpooling to the Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy, AK but LeRoy took a detour to the golf course.  We found a road that led to the hydro plant and then the road that led to the coal mine.  The gate was open so we drove in following another car about 3 miles on the left side of the road according to the signage.  We arrived at the office only to find out we were supposed to wait at the gate.  Oops. About 10 minutes later the rest of our group arrived with the tour guide for a walk through of the office, board room and lab.  The guide, a seasonal employee during the summer months and a teacher the rest of the years, told us about the equipment and science of how the coal is
surface mined and of their success with reclamation.  Surface mining is similar to open pit mining.  The coal lies in 3 or 4 layers, each with about 20' of silt when the entire area was covered by water.  The UCM is family owned, founded by Emil Usibelli in 1943, and has approximately 130 employees.  The Usibelli coal is among the lowest sulfur coal produced in the world. UCM supplies six interior Alaska power

plants including Healy and ships coal to South Korea and Chile. 










As we drove away from the coal mine tour LeRoy asked me again if I wanted to take a flight to Mount McKinley.  Considering it was a beautiful, sunny day with only a few clouds and we just happened to drive by a small air strip, and we were leaving tomorrow, I said OK, let's check it out.  It just so happened that a flight to the summit of Mount McKinley was leaving in 30 minutes.  Before I knew it we were in a 8 passenger 1977 Piper Navajo plane preparing to, hopefully, see Mount McKinley.

 Pre-flight instructions included seat belting, head set operation and how to use the oxygen mask.  OXYGEN MASK?!#!  What had I gotten myself into?  LeRoy got to co-pilot altho I don't think he could see over the dashboard.  I sat behind him with a window seat over a wing.  Before I knew it we took off and were on our way to see the "Great One."  We were told to keep swallowing or yawning to pressurize our ears and about 13,00 feet were told to put on our oxygen masks.

I thought we were high enough at 6,000' but we were expecting to climb to nearly 21,000' to catch an amazing view of Denali which is 20,320'.   We flew below the clouds, in the clouds and above the clouds hoping to catch a glimpse of North America's highest peak.  Unfortunately today was not the day, again.  We got to within 1 1/2 to 2 miles of Mount McKinley at about 16,500' with an air temperature of 8 degrees.  I looked out and said "hi" to my Mom. 

Sorry to say we had to turn around as the "fuzziness" (fog), as the pilot called it, would not go away.

Everyone aboard asked questions and the pilot showed us surrounding peaks like Hunter Mountain and Moose's Tooth, the Eldridge and Ruth glaciers.   We saw glaciers, blue glacial ice, rivers and even a base camp where mountaineers begin their climb. 

 We even saw some of the bus trails that we had been on the day before. After a smooth landing we went to the 49th State Brewery where we had a delicious steak and triple chocolate mousse pie.  It was the best steak we had in a long time.

After dinner, we had our picture taken in front of the movie prop from "Into the Wild" that is on display at the 49th State Brewery.