Where We Get Up At O’Dark Thirty (Only It Isn’t Dark)
And Play “I Spy With My Little Eye” With Grizzly Bears and Caribou.
And A Random Squirrel
We were up at 4:30 a.m. in order to have breakfast at 5:00 a.m. and be ready to board the Denali tour bus at 6:00 a.m.
We boarded the modified school bus that serves as the tour buses in Denali park. Private cars are not allowed in the park, except for specific circumstances.
It was all so, so beautiful!
We did luck out early with spotting wildlife – our driver, Jason, spotted Dall sheep. I know I saw the little white dots that were moving around on the mountainside.
And then we saw caribou. I had better luck with this.
And eventually we hit the jackpot and saw a mama bear and her two yearling cubs!
Eventually it was time to turn around and come back. Here are some photos that other people in our group were able to snap:
I snapped this one myself:
Endless beautiful vistas
We were only missing a moose, but that was not meant to be. We considered this a successful Denali Day!
We were back at the hotel before noon, and then off to lunch.
This afternoon is at leisure. The next two days are a bit crazy. We have a helicopter excursion tomorrow morning, followed by a scenic train ride (to Talkaneetka? From Talkaneetka? Not sure. But then we are on to Anchorage.
Tomorrow: Not planes, trains, and automobiles, but copters, trains, and buses.
Maryland Meshugas 