Denali Education Center
Thanks to Jill and the Denali Education Center I get to stay here in the woods on the Nenana river and the edge of Denali National Park for my remaining days in Alaska. Immediately when I arrived (via 6 hour gorgeous bus ride from Anchorage), everyone greeted me and made me feel at home, as if I had always been here. They showed me around, including their center where they host all kinds of events and is home to wonderful local art, their “beach” on the Nenana river and the largest solar panels around which heat the water for the Elderhostel. All in all an amazing place!Tomorrow I plan to do some hiking and lots of painting and am looking forward to getting to know this spot over the next few days.This picture was taken a midnight, just to give you the idea that it really doesn’t get dark here this time of year, even if the sun does set, it comes back up a few hours later. All this daylight gives the sense of many days all crammed into one.Yesterday we hiked up the Russian River through some forest full of bear signs to a series of waterfalls where we saw the first salmon running. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to see this, this is something every human should witness in my opinion. To see these salmon jumping and swimming, negotiating the fierce currents with all their strength just hits home how that is what they have to do. We can do the things we need to do and even if it feels like swimming upstream sometimes, we add all the feeling of this is too hard, I can’t do this, I don’t want to, etc. when really all there is to do is keep swimming.Alaska is a powerful and wild place, rich in life from the little that I’ve had the chance to see. Making little paintings might seem silly in the bigness of this place, but in a way it could be just right and what there is for me to do in my short time here. And besides, I’m really enjoying it!