Dreaming of Denali

Today's post is an image from my trip to Denali in the summer of 2009.  Due to contrasty lighting and lots of smoke in the air from the Kantishna River fire that year, I've been working with processing this image and trying to perfect it.  I think this is as good as I'm going to get it for now.  This lovely morning I woke up at 3am to find much of the smoke (which had been very thick) had cleared out and Denali was in full view.  Later that morning, instead of waiting for the early bus to arrive, I hiked up the road from Wonder Lake campground and found some vantage points to photograph both Denali and the beautiful (but ubiquitous) fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) while I waited to catch the bus on its return trip.  I like the juxtaposition of the fireweed with smoke from the wildfire since the flower gets its name from its tendency to colonize recently burned areas.  I hope to get back to Denali as soon as possible; it is a magical place.



If you click on the above image, you will be taken to a larger version on my main website.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting the blog.