More of Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter and Mt. McKinley

We took a second scenic stop a few miles from Talkeetna before boarding the train for the remainder of the trip to Denali National Park. The three mountains are much closer from here; I don't believe there's any zoom for this photograph and fewer clouds are over the Mt. McKinley summit at the moment.

Extremely tall mountains generate their own weather because their expansive and high bulk forces wind to carry air up to elevations where it's very cold, so most of the air's moisture is forced to condensate into clouds around the summit. The difference in elevation between Mt. McKinley's base and summit is larger than any other mountain in the world (about 19,000 feet for McKinley; Everest's base to summit difference is about 16,000 feet). Winds are blowing across the landscape at 1,200 foot elevation when they meet McKinley, so in the summer the winds can be relatively warm and moist, which means lots of clouds most of the summer around McKinley's 20,320 foot summit.

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