Amongst the Wildlife

So, as the alarm sounded at 4-30 a.m.I’d had less than 5 hours of sleep, and as you may expect very tired ! A quick bowl of cereal, sandwiches to be made for later in the day, and we were off to Denali state Park http://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm ready to catch the 6-30 a.m. bus to the Eilson visitor centre http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/the-eielson-visitor-center.htm 

The journey to the visitor centre from the park entrance was likely to take around 4 hours each way, dependent on stops, as the drivers would stop at any time that wildlife was seen as we travelled along…

The jolly driver introduced himself, told us all to ‘keep our eyes peeled’ and set off… we were soon stopping, as in the fields at the side of the road,a moose was seen, traversing the fields, and as it crossed the road behind us, a young moose was following it ! –a good start to the days wildlife spotting !then as we continued the antlers of a Caribou was spotted above the vegetation nearby..and soon we were on to the gravel/dirt road of the preserve proper, with a cheery ‘Hello’ from Ranger Nancy, at the checkpoint, who wished us good spotting, and almost immediately a Lynx was spotted skulking in the undergrowth, alongside the bus – very unusual and rare – we were doing well, with the sun coming up, and prospects of a really nice day in the wilds ,and soon, our first sighting of a blonde coloured Grizzly Bear in the distance , and as we continued more views of Caribou, and then the unusual sights of Polychrome rocks http://www.degginger.com/Professional/Aerial-Photography/5945885_P4NCkN/922916597_gJvsT#!i=922916597&k=gJvsT– which had been coloured and affected by tremendous heat..then as we continued we saw, exposed in all it’s glory - Mt McKinley , again an unusual occurrence,and good fortune for everyone !

Soon we were spotting grizzly bears all over the place, getting closer and closer to us –e3xactly what we had come to see, but didn’t expect to see so many !

We arrived at the visitor centre shortly before 11 a.m., and after a quick snack walked 500 feet up to a ridge, overlooking the wild grounds, and just managed a final view of Denali as the clouds came in to cover it for the day , well we had seen it 2 days in a row, almost unheard of !

We then returned down to the visitor centre, just as they were closing the trails, as a bear was getting a little too close for comfort !and so we got the 1-35 p.m bus back, again seeing lots of bears, including a mother and cub, that we had seen earlier, although by now everyone was worn out, and had seen enough bears !, as well as Golden Eagles, Dall sheep, moose and caribou, and returned to the park entrance visitor centre shattered, and ready for a snooze !

We all returned to the campsite, for a shower, and visit to a nearby Pizza place for ‘Sam’s Hot and Spicy’ Pizza, and collapsed into bed at 10..Goodnight