DENALI

After staying in  North Pole we drove to Denali, AK. We stayed at the Denali RV Park just out side of the park.

The afternoon that we arrived we made arrangements to take an 8 hour bus trip into Denali National Park  the next day.  You can drive in the first 15 miles of the park at anytime.  We drove in hoping to see a view of  Mt. McKinley the tallest mountain in the US.  The people up here call the mountain “Denali”  (the big one). We were not successful  in seeing the mountain, but did see a large moose feeding in the willows.  All we could see was his head and rack.           

The next day we got on the bus for our tour.  We saw grizzlies with cubs, moose, caribou, wolf, sheep, fox, golden eagle, lots of snow shoe hares and ground squirrels.  The wolf was the star of the day. Standing in the road and then walking to the bus and on past not paying any attention to us. The wolf was wearing a collar so they can be tracked.  Only the Alpha male and female wear a collar.  The grizzlies are blond in color with the cubs being darker.  The moose, sheep and caribou were quite a ways from the road so the pictures are not to good.

 

The moose are a long way off as are the dall sheep.  The bears were closer.

Here is the star of the day.  This was worth the whole trip.  Such a beautiful animal.  The caribou were high on the side of the mountain.  It is hard to explain this site,  the driver had just said she could not stop in the next 5 miles as it was the denning area for the wolfs and there was the wolf standing in the road.  That was my birthday present.  The caribou  are on the side of the mountain in this picture.

Here are the bears enjoying the day.    One lone caribou.       

The golden eagle  flying low over the landscape.  Looking for lunch. 

It was a long day and we were glad to be back in town.  That evening we went to the Great Alaska Fish and Chip restaurant for dinner.  The food was good but there could have been a couple more pieces of fish.  The next morning it was raining and I didn’t want to hook up in the rain so we stayed another day.  Later in the day we drove back into the park and had a close encounter with a female moose. She was feeding along the road in the willows.              

She posed for some pictures here.  The ladies notice the long eye lashes she has. Down the road a ways we saw a car pulled over looking at something we stopped and saw this coyote hunting along the edge of the road for dinner.  On the way out of the park this rabbit was sitting.  It is a good thing for the rabbit he was here and not several miles back down the highway or he would have been dinner for the coyote.  Actually this is a snow shoe hare.

Besides all the animals, we saw beautiful scenery and flowers.                          We had rain but the mountain tops had a  fresh coat of snow.  Very beautiful.  It is awe inspiring coming around a corner or over a hill and see these mountain scapes unfold in front of you.

The next day we were off to Talkeetna.  Talkeetna  is a small town that was started because of the railroad.  Lots  of little shops and restaurants.  We kicked back while Wayne and Diane took the flag train ride. Barb and I rode this train the last time we were in Alaska .  We saw these flowers as we were driving around. On the morning we were leaving this area  we still had not seen the mountain.  On the way out of town we stopped at a overlook for one more try to see it.  There she stood in all her glory.  What a sight.