Labor Day weekend 2005. Linda had Friday off, so we had four days to play. Unfortunately, the weather didn't look like it would cooperate. The forecast was sunny on Friday, then rain for the rest of the weekend. We decided that we would do a short over

Here is the hike that we did. We planned to hike to the north end of the ridge (marked "Long" on the map), but due to our 7pm start time(!), we didn't make it there before dark. It gets dark at 9:00 pm this time of year! We actually used head

I took these next two pictures of Denali from the Petersville Road on the drive in. A very beautiful area.

A good description of this hike can be found in '55 Ways Into the Wilderness.' The hiking starts above treeline on a 4-wheeler trail. Linda starts up the trail with Petersville valley in the background.

Soon, the brush gave way to open tundra with lots of great views to the east.

The blueberries were still in season, despite the fact that their leaves were already bright red. These were some of the biggest and best tasting blueberries I've had in Alaska.

At the top of the first hill, we were greeted by a great view of Denali. As you can see, the clouds were already starting to move in.

Hiking across the fall-colored tundra between lots of small lakes. A very cool place.

Darkness was coming quick, so we camped at this lake, just inside the Denali State Park.

Denali on the right, Foraker on the left and our tent right in the middle.

I swear that mountain has a magnetic attaction to cameras. I tried to take pictures of other views, but the mountain kept pulling me back.

Sunset over Foraker.

The next morning, this was the view of Denali from our tent. The rain had started at about 3:30 am and it was now very foggy and rainy. Since we wouldn't be getting anymore views, we packed up camp and headed to Talkeetna, where we enjoyed lots of good