Wednesday, June 27, 2012

In the Land of the Midnight Sun.

We completed the Alaska Highway, and continued to Fairbanks for 3 days and then to Denali National Park.  In Denali we had some good views of wildlife including 2 female grizzly bears with 2 cubs.  The second grizzly bear with cubs was less than 20 feet from the park bus we were on.  We rode the park bus 66 miles (one-way) on a dirt road to the Eielson Visitor Center where there is (sometimes) a beautiful view of Mt McKinley, all we saw was clouds and rain.  To help us feel better about not seeing the highest mountain in North America (20,320 feet) we learned it’s estimated only 15 – 20% of park visitors see McKinley and during the month of June McKinley is visible on 4 days average.  We also visited the sled dogs and saw a demonstration of dogs pulling a sled on gravel.  Denali is the only National Park where dogs are used to patrol the park in winter.  Tomorrow we go  to Denali State Park where good views of McKinley occur along the Parks Highway.  We plan to stay in the area as long as it takes to see McKinley?  We were told winter is the best season to see Mt McKinley, I don’t think we’ll stay that long.  Following are pictures from Denali National Park. 
Grizzly Bear and cubs.

Moose.

Ground Squirrls.

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