Alaska: Day 10 of NaBloPoMo

It seems like this single-topic NaBloPoMo might be cheating, but life is BUSY this November. I started a new job on Friday, but I'm still dragging from an early-season Crescent City cold, so it's been tough. We're recruiting for my old position, I'm learning my new position...also recruiting for a new VISTA. I have jobs to fill! 

So I'll take my cheat and stick to my topic.

We stopped for part of a day and one very fun night outside/in/near Denali National Park to visit with Jim and Jess, friends from Michael's ELEDP days. Jim made CHIEF while we were there, which was very exciting. Also exciting? Denali's fairly new main visitor center and the nearby Murie education center. 

There was so much art in both places and it was all art to a purpose, there to teach something cool about the park. In this photo, for example, is just one corner of a massive quilt made by a local quilter's guild. It is a map of Denali National Park depicting its different ecosystems. The boarder featured scenes from a variety of those ecosystems and you can see that even the background was treated thoughtfully, with animal tracks quilted onto the white. It was very, very cool and there were a couple other quilts from the same guild in the visitor center as well. (I was only going to do one picture, but it deserves more, so enjoy!)

(Teaser for tomorrow: I got to pet a BABY DINOSAUR at Denali!!)