Denali National Park winners enjoy scenery

Residents who were lucky enough to get one of 1,600 permits to drive into Denali National Park two weekends ago were also lucky enough to be graced with clear blue skies and nice weather.

From Sept. 12-15, 400 vehicles are permitted into the park. Each fall, the lottery winners get to drive farther into the park than normal, but weather plays a huge role -- some years, the winners haven't been able to get into the park because of blizzard conditions, while in other years driving rain has made the trip miserable at best.

"You couldn't have asked for a better day, and my God, the views were unlike anything I have ever seen in Alaska," said Gary Scott, who rode with a friend who won a permit. "I took five rolls of film and the couple I went with filled up a bunch of cards in their digital camera. It was unbelievable."

Next year's road lottery will start accpeting applications during the middle of the summer.

This year, the applications were accpeted starting in mid-June.

For more information on the program, interested people can visit the Denali National Park and Preserve Web site at www.nps.gov/dena.