To fly or not to fly?

Our scheduled activity at Talkeetna today was a flight in a small plane to view Mount Denali from the air and to land on a glacier.

However, the warm weather means that landing on the glacier is too dangerous as crevasses are opening up. When the aviation company picked us up they said that they were not even flying near Denali today due to weather around the 20,000 foot mountain which meant it was invisible from all angles.

So instead of having the hoped for dramatic views of Denali to share, instead these are photos taken on an organized nature walk this morning with an official Denali nature guide, Howard..

We were given lots of advice on how to deal with any large animal encounters (bears - don't run; moose - run!), treated to viewings of moose poop and tracks and lots of fungi, lichen and moss in the damp woods.

We also encountered some interesting berries..  firstly, ginseng - apparently the berries are popular with squirrels and bears but all parts of the plant are toxic to humans, except the roots.

Secondly, a kind of mountain cranberry..

These were tested by several members of the group and pronounced to be beyond bitter..

These Rose hips were ripe to the point of being almost rotten.

These berries were beautiful but we failed to find out what they were, as for these..

A number of leaves were starting to turn..

A process which happens over just a few weeks here as the temperature plummets and the days rapidly draw in.