Saturday, September 28, 2013

"...in Wildness is the preservation of the world." - Henry David Thoreau

Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Sketch of Mt. Denali from Eielson visitor center  


This month friends of ours in Alaska invited Linda and I up for a grand Alaska adventure. This was a truly unprecedented opportunity to see the real Alaska with good friends from a unique perspective, they had won the Denali Road Lottery. Each September the Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska hosts a four-day event called the "Road Lottery." During these four days, winners of the lottery drawing are given a rare day-long permit, allowing winners to drive personal vehicles the length of the 92-mile Denali Park Road. Routine travel in the park with private autos is prohibited and with exception of the Road Lottery visitors must use buses operated by a concessionaire to travel the park.

We started our grand Alaska adventure by visiting and hiking the Matanuska Glacier and jumping on the Denali Highway for a 135 mile journey along some of the most pristine and wild country anyone could image. Denali Highway is lightly traveled, mostly gravel road with a posted speed limit of 30 mph and is just a spectacular drive. Traveling this you get a real feel for the wildness and immensity of Alaska, and ending at Denali National Park you're treated to “the Great One” Mount Denali.

A place to remind you of the vastness and grandeur in nature and take you on a transcendent journey into the sublime.

Mount Denali photographed at Reflection Pond in the Wonder Lake
area within Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska (9/15/13). 


 "...in Wildness is the preservation of the world."
                                                                                                  --- Henry David Thoreau




Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Floating Clouds





A study of clouds floating over Cedar lake at dusk. I will never tire of watching clouds and their boundless display of color, shape, and size. One can gain a great deal of personal perspective from a little cloud therapy.  A few hours quietly contemplating them can open an entire new viewpoint, they just make me appreciate our beautiful and wonderful world.

                                   Floating Clouds at Dusk on Cedar Lake 5x7in oil on panel ©Jim Serrett








Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim