Denali Over Murie's Plains
Alaska
Denali, the highest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet, rises cleanly above a broad sweep of autumn foothills and open tundra plain deep in Denali National Park. The mountain's entire south face catches soft late-afternoon light while the ridges below it fold into deeper shadow, the rust-reds and dark browns of the fall tundra running all the way to a pronounced ridge in the lower right of the frame. Dark braided streams thread through the open plain, their channels picking up the low light in thin silver lines.
A clean view of Denali's full massif like this is rare. The mountain generates its own weather and most summer visitors never see much more than the lower flanks, even on trips that spend multiple days in the park. Early October is one of the better windows for the upper mountain — autumn color is at peak across the tundra, the summer weather pattern has broken down, and the real winter storms that lock the road corridor haven't yet arrived.
Denali (Mt McKinley) and Muries Plains, Denali National Park, Alaska. Photo © copyright by Carl Donohue.