June 7 – Denali National Park

This day we boarded a modified school bus to travel about 60 miles into Denali National Park.  The road extends only 92 miles into the park (it doesn’t go all the way to Denali), but we were able to go about 2/3 of this distance in the time available to us.  The weather was good to us, and the wildlife was active.  We were lucky enough to see all the “big stuff” except for wolves, and lots of “small stuff” in addition.  Here are some examples:

The state bird of Alaska.

Willow Ptarmigan

This nest of ravens was in a sheltered location under a bridge.

and this gyrfalcon nest was on a sheer cliff beyond reach of all predators.

Gyrfalcon on Nest

Caribou were very plentiful throughout the park.

Caribou

Caribou

and the only known wild white sheep, Dall sheep, were plentiful.

Dall Sheep

Dall Sheep

We were excited to find plenty of grizzlies around.

Grizzly

Grizzly

Grizzly

Grizzly

Grizzly

Grizzly

Grizzly

and we were very lucky with moose, finding a number of them grazing along the park road.

Moose

Moose

Our big lucky break came with a close encounter with a female and her twin calves grazing on willows just by the roadway.

Moose

Moose

Moose

Moose

Moose

Moose

Moose

Moose

Moose

The scenery was magnificent even when it was overshadowed by the wildlife.