Cristina Nita-Rotaru

Associate Professor
Department of Computer Sciences
Purdue University

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Alaska

At the bar in the 229 Parks Restaurant and Tavern in Denali, Alaska, enjoying one of the best leeks and potato soup I ever had, someone explained to me and a bunch of strangers gathered around by our love for good food and nature, how he believes there are two types of people. The first who hate their first trip to Alaska, they never come back, and the second (you guessed) who let it get under their skin, and never leave. He went on then telling us stories of people he knew that came for a vacation or for a summer job, and never left. He was one of them lured to Fairbanks by the undeniable beauty of the place.

Just as I was getting ready to live, exhausted after being up for more than 24 hours that involved driving from Anchorage to Denali, a tour to Wonder Lake, and some hiking, my new Alaskan friend turned to me and asked: ``So, are you coming back ?'' To Alaska that is. I guess I paused for too long cause he looked disappointed and rushed to say goodbye, ``Oh, well... have a safe trip then ...''

So I never got to tell him that this was my second time in Alaska and second time in Denali. Never got to tell him about how pretty the drive from Anchorage to Denali National Park was, surrounded by mountains covered in snow, and how surreal it felt to be for hours the only car on the highway. About how many times I found myself gasping with a wonder I thought lost in childhood when the most wonderful book revealed new surprises with each turned page... Denali National Park is the largest park from North America with a surface greater than many of the states, host of Denali Peak (or Mount McKinley), the highest peak in North America, and habitat of many birds and animals like caribou, moose, and grizzly bears. Out of the 6 million acres, only about 90 are accessible to visitors till Wonder Lake where on a good day one can see Denali Peak mirrored in the lake. The facts speak for themselves. And still, they do not capture the essence of this place. There is something uncontrived, raw, and pure about Alaska that makes it feel authentic and unpretentious, untouchable by compromises. It's what generates real emotions in a world where so often everything seems rehearsed, making people, when the sky clears up, to run out of their cars and tell ecstatic to perfect strangers, ``Look, you can see Denali, over the clouds, right there, you can see Denali.''

p.s. And yes, if you look carefully, you will see Denali too, in one of the pictures below :)

July 2008