White remains the color of the day with snow still dominating the landscape at Denali National Park and Preserve, but park rangers say they will not be deterred by the icy grip of a lingering winter.
Park spokeswoman Kris Fister Tuesday reported that "lengthening days, milder overnight temperatures, sightings of migrant bird species, and the arrival of summer employees are all signs" the park will soon greet summer. Or at least that's her story, and she's sticking to it.
Park partner Alaska Geographic optimistically opened the Denali Bookstore on Monday, and Fister reported other facilities -- the Denali Visitor Center, the Wilderness Access Center, the Morino Grill, and the Backcountry Information Center -- are set to open on schedule May 15.
"The season's first interpretive offering, the daily 2 p.m. sled dog demonstration, commences" that day, she added. A sled-dog demonstration seems at the moment wholly appropriate.
The National Weather Service snow station at park headquarters was reporting 23 inches of snow on the ground as of Sunday -- up from the 15 inches back at the start of March. The National Weather Service's Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center reports a higher than normal snowpack over much of the Alaska Interior, as well as in the Anchorage area, and on the Kenai Peninsula.
It is inevitable, according to the weatherman, that this snow will melt, but that has only increased concerns about flooding due to runoff. But at least Alaska is at last warming up a little beneath a warm sun, though night-time temperatures at Denali continue to drop into the teens.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com