I had a new job supervisor hanging out at the site. A raven sat up there on the extended stump, squawking for quite a while. I couldn’t figure out what it had to complain about: The weather was beautiful, and the job was humming along.
Everyone is a critic; even the wildlife.
Eventually, the vocal Corvus flew off to judge someone else’s work.
The view from Temple Mound
It’s not hard for me to imagine the thriving community that was once spread out in the plain below Temple Mound. Now tourists walk among the ghosts on the trails that lead from mound to mound. From the flat top of Temple Mound, I could see children climbing up the mound in the distance, their parents taking photos of the young “mountaineers” when they summited. I wondered if they realized, that below their feet, lay the bones of a population long forgotten. Or did they just see a hill that was strangely placed in the middle of a field?
The sun is actually out, and there is a zero percent chance of rain until 9pm.
What in the world am I doing still inside?
Enjoy your day.
“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”
—John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men”
Quartz Lake at the end of May. The water level was quite low, so hopefully all of this rain has improved that situation, if nothing else. The trout fishing was phenomenal that weekend.
Mudslide over the Denali Park Road
After all of this rain, things are starting to give. A large mudslide has closed the Denali Park Road in The Park. The slide, at Mile 67 of the park road, is 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The six inches of rain in the past week, on top of what already fell in June and July, was too much for the ancient volcanic ash in the soil.
Park employees remind folks that there is no cell coverage out at Wonder Lake and Kantishna, and only a few of the lodges have a land line, so people stranded on the west side of the slide will have a much needed, if not appreciated, break from smart phones and internet.
Photo credit: James Long/DNP&P
