Home Photo Album Recipes Reviews Date Book Links E-mail Us

A Wilderness Adventure — Page 3

Denali Tundra Wilderness

The Tundra Wilderness Tour was the highlight of our trip to Alaska. We drove over 60 miles into the heart of the great Denali preserve and saw grizzly bears, moose, caribu, rams, gray wolf, red fox, arctic ground squirrels, snowshoe hares, willow ptarmigan (a bird that's white in winter and brown in summer), plus mountain vistas, rivers, and great plains. The day started out misty but much of the fog burned off as we went deeper into the park Mountain canyons feed down into wide river beds where bears could be seen lumbering along

Our driver and guide, Justin, had incredible eyes for wildlife. To the right, see if you can spot the grizzly bear on the mountain. If not, run your mouse over the photo to spot the grizzly.

Though the zoom lens, we watched the blond-haired grizzly mother and her two cubs as they frolicked on a rock outcropping

Predator and Prey Fascinating to watch was the interaction of animals on the food chain.

Across the narrow valley from this red fox, who a mockingbird was dive bombing, an arctic ground squirrel stayed close to his hole, being that he's a favorite dinner for the fox.

Likewise, this band of Dall sheep was leisurely feeding on a hillside until a gray wolf, below, began to approach them. Seeing the wolf, the herd quickly banded tightly together on a hill top and followed the wolf as one with their eyes and curved horns

Similarly, the bears looked pretty laid-back until one spotted a hare, when it went into a bouncing, pouncing frenzy and caught its mid-day lunch, below right.

Denali Vistas Polychrome Pass is colorful even on a cloudy day
Mt. McKinley was wrapped up in clouds...	While Cherie and Cyndi were wrapped in jackets

A large herd of caribu graze on a hill
	A pair of Dall sheep navigate a rocky craig, left A lone caribu out for a walk, above

More Bears

Out of the Tundra Returning to the lower altitude and into more forestation, we went for a walk to Horseshoe Lake and found moose aplenty, including this mom and her baby, below

Evidence of beaver, left, and of some kind of trunk bloat, right, make even tree life look dangerous in Denali

Cherie and I quietly walked around the lake and were admiring the moose wading near the shore. When we reached the remote side of the lake, one of the moose starting walking along the shore toward us, and gadzooks, came ashore right beside us. What looked like a large, elegant animal when standing knee deep in the lake turned out to be a giant when he stood beside us, with shoulders standing at least seven feet tall. The encounter was breathtaking and humbling.

Continue to Whittier and College Fjord Or Return to Denali Lodge

Or Return to the Family Photo Album