Today we made it to Denali National Park and Preserve.  We got a peak of Mt. McKinley and if you look very closely you can see it in the picture sort of 1/3 of the way from the left with clouds around it.  Elevation is over 20,000 ft.  There’s a north and south peak, the highest point in the North American continent.  We could barely see it off in the distance.  We took a 6 hour, butt numbing school bus-like shuttle through the park up to Eieslen station.  This is the best way to see the park, as all private vehicles are restricted after 12 miles into the park.  The road goes down to one lane and you have to be a very skilled driver to drive the buses around.  Roger was very impressed.  The drive gave Roger time to look around and admire the scenery.  To me, after a while it all started to get overwhelming.  However it was fascinating to see that the Spruce firs go away at only about 2500 feet and after that it’s scrub brush and tundra.  Today was a gold star bear watching day, we saw 9. 

The group pictured was probably 150 yards away.

Of particular pleasure for some on the bus were two different sows with their respective twin cubs.  Our driver estimated that the cubs were spring cubs and less than 6 months old.  (Can you hear all the cooing in the background, “oh how precious”.  Of course I’m thinking yeah right, until you cross momma bear.)  We saw several caribou, a herd of Dall Sheep way off in the distance, and a red fox off in the distance.

Fortunately we had our binoculars, so we could make the sheep and the fox was on the move, so he was easier to spot with his very fluffy tail, that looked as long as his body.

Because my biggest Blog fan was asking where the pictures were of the wildflowers, Roger made a special stop to take a picture of Firefox.  I don’t know the name of the white flower.  The bluebells are out right now, and the state flower forget-me-not isn’t in bloom yet this far north.   For those bluebonnet fans, I learned today that in Alaska they aren’t called bluebonnets, that up here the wildflower is known as Arctic Lupine, not to be confused with their puny cousins down in that little state of Texas.

Denali is a little disappointing in that there aren’t the standard hiking trails that we’ve come to enjoy in the “lower 48.”  Instead you can go tramping anywhere in the park, at your own risk.  I’m just not comfortable wandering that far off the beaten path, and Roger has concerns about me stepping some place I shouldn’t while looking at something, that we elected not to do any tramping.  I did wander off the gravel road just far enough away to feel the tundra under my hikers.  It’s like an extremely plush carpet with a lot of extra padding.  Amazingly soft feeling, when you think that this ground was frozen less than 2 months ago.

Tomorrow we’re headed to Anchorage.  Roger is going to be looking into some day hikes that we can take in Chugach State Park.