Denali Park/Mt. McKinley

As I said in my post yesterday, we reached Denali National Park and spent the night there, after spending an hour or so watching the antics of the mother moose :)
This morning we got up at 5 am to head out on an 11 hour bus tour of the park. Our destination was Wonder Lake, which we reached around noon. We saw lots of neat things, so grab a cup off coffee and prepare to join the trip. I daresay wherever you are reclining as you read this is a bit more comfortable than the bus seats...11 hours is a bit long to ride a bus, but we made it :)

One of the highlights of this bus tour is Mt. McKinley. Surrounded by clouds most of the time, the following picture is the most many people will ever see of the mountain. This was how our view started out in the morning.

About two-three hours into the tour, this is what our view changed too...a practically cloudless sky and a perfect view of the mountain!!

This is the view we ended up with. Simply stunning. The park ranger we met at one of the rest stops along the way said it was the best viewing day for the mountain since the start of the season. God gave us beautiful weather and a once in a lifetime chance to see this magnificent mountain.

We took the family photo for another family on the same bus as us and they then took our family photo with the mountain in the background.

This is the peak to the right of Mt. McKinley when you are viewing it from the park road. Our bus driver said that it is even rarer to see this mountain. It is usually completely hidden by clouds.

We saw a plethora of wildlife. First up, my personal favorite, the grizzlies! Grizzlies were high on my photography wish list and I can finally mark them off! We saw four adults and one of the adults had three cubs. She and her babies were waaaaayyyy off down a riverbed so it was difficult to get a shot. I got a few...but they are so far away it is hard to see them. If you can see my logo, look directly beneath it and you will see her and the cubs.

Another thing that was really neat to see was the Caribou. This was another animal on my list and we found one very close to the road. This is a beautiful bull with the velvet on his antlers.

Though we have coyotes where we live in Michigan, I have never been able to get a picture of one. This coyote was running down the road before dashing into the brush. So I had to come all the way to Alaska to get a picture of a nuisance coyote :)

Doll Sheep were on my list as well. We spotted some early on in the day, but they were very far up and difficult to see. This big boy was right near the road as we were on our way back. Just look at those horns! There were also two ewes with their babies up on a cliff. The picture is far back, but hopefully you'll be able to see them.

The prairie dogs are cute little critters and really not that shy. Mom and I had one walk right up to our feet! It was actually kind of aggressive! It was fun to see them pop in and out of their holes and one was being a little pig!

We saw one snowshoe hare right next to the road. Our bus driver said that their numbers are down this year, but sometimes they can see up to 150 in one day. This year they are lucky to see two-three a week.
What he said is that their numbers will skyrocket for several years until there are so many of them they are overrunning the tundra. When the plants they are eating are getting eaten back too far, they create a secretion that when the hares eat the plants, it causes them to not be able to digest any food. So they basically starve to death. While not a pleasant thought, it is necessary to allow the tundra to recuperate before the numbers go back up.

We were almost back to the park entrance and we still had not seen a single moose. Lydia happened to be the one to spot our only moose of the trip! This cow was off the road about fifty feet munching on the bushes.

Our destination was Wonder Lake, which we reached around noon as I said before. It was a beautiful spot, with Mt. McKinley to our backs, though by that time it was once again cloud covered.

At the lake we saw this gray jays (That's what Lydia said they were...I didn't look them up)
They came right up to the picnic tables looking for scraps :) It's kind of hard to see, but in the first picture, the bird has both it's feet off the bench in mid hop!

I just had to include this picture....the colors are just so neat! It reminds me of a model train display.

So that sums up our eventful day!

Tomorrow we are heading to Anchorage. We have been hearing about a raging wildfire over there and the road is even closed in some places so we'll see what it all looks like when we get there.

Thanks again for all your comments!