dear God,
when are you going to stop messing with me?
-liz

denali

when i last spoke of the mountains, of the rivers, of beautiful, rich land, it was not something i had immediate plans to return to. but as summer made its way along and plans were made and remade, alaska is what finally came and what finally stuck.
denali was breathtaking. i became enamored with the land, the raw beauty of it all, with the tundra at high elevations, the grizzlies at lower, the savage rivers. enamored with the beauty in the names- nenana, and teklanika. de'naina. and i wanted nothing but to stay and to live.merely living was enough. every breath, every thought - these were amplified and i felt like i have never felt. i have fallen in love with the mountains, so that even if i tried i could not leave them behind.