Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Denali

After overnighting at the Denali Chalet, we set off for an 8 hour Tundra wilderness trip. We had a few stops for restrooms but it was full on all day. We were given a snack box and had regular supplies like dried reindeer flank, moose balls and bears paws.
It was a day of wonderful sightseeing with mountains  covered in snow. We don’t mean a light dusting it was the real snow that will not melt until next spring.. We did not get a view of Denali or Mt. Mc Kinley as you might know it. This is the highest mountain in North America and has a higher rise from the base to the summit than Everest. The sightseeing was just perfect.



We also had our best wildlife sightings. We saw Dol Sheep with full turned horns, Grizzly Bears twice, the first a single ant the second was a group of three and a few Arctic Ground Squirrels  and a variety of birds including Golden Eagle and ptarmigan the Alaskan State bird. We had previously been told that the state bird was the mosquito! We will check these out again in Amazonia.


                                   Our first bear sighting

                                   Our second bear. Can you see the two bears in the next photo?


                                 This is a Dol Sheep. It is not a mountain goat but we did see them a few days ago
                 The view out of the window. Eight hours non stop spectacular viewing!

                                 Rob's turn again for a silly photo. It is rutting season!!

5 comments:

Kate said...

I am sorely tempted to comment on the moose balls as a snack, but instead I will say that the scenery looks incredible! Looks like you are having some amazing experiences.

gailandrob said...

The other piece of local advice is that moose poo makes an excellent fire starter. You will just have to make do with kangaroo poo

Miss Di said...

Wow! Cool photos!
I will stick to using sticks to light our fire as not too many kangaroos in downtown Newcastle, wait I did see one this week. I served it medium rare with coleslaw.

Miss Di said...

PS Yes I can see two bears. But only when I enlarge the pictures to full screen
!!

Amanda said...

Moose balls. Mmmmm.
The boys are very much enjoying the animal photos.
They're not quite sure why some bears are brown and some are white, Harrison thinks it might be because some were playing in the mud.