July 16 & 17, 2019

Hello blog-a-sphere we are now in Denali National Park. The weather has been on the cool side but then anything below 75 is cool to me. It has been too cloudy to see Mt Denali, but will try everyday we are here and maybe. They say Mt Denali has it’s own weather system and that only 30% of the visitors will see it. The mountain itself is over 20,000 ft and about 1000 people climb “her” every year. When the park was first established it did not include Mt McKinley now Mt Denali that came much later. The native Alaskans petitioned for around 60 years to have the mountain’s name changed to Mt Denali, but Congressmen and Senators from Ohio kept blocking because it was named after President McKinley ( he was born in Ohio) It was during the Obama administration (This is the only time you will see me give that administration kudos or job well done, but job well done!) that the name was changed by the department of The Interior.

POVs are only allowed on the first 15 miles so to get into the interior of the park you go by bus. Before you get too excited these are converted school buses and the round trip of 120 miles takes 7-8 hours. The road is a well maintained gravel road. Most of my pictures were either taken though my window or over the heads of the people on the other side of the bus….not ideal. Our driver was a naturalist and had lived in the area his entire life so lots of good information. If someone saw an animal they would yell stop and he would. We were not allowed off of the bus at this time so we would not disrupt the animals feeding habits. They have a very short summer and the animals need to bulk up before winter in order to survive.

We saw Grizzly Bear, Fox, Caribou, Artic Ground Squirrel, Dall Sheep, Ptarmigan and some rabbits.

Today we took the dogs with us, but there are very few places they are allowed to walk even on a leash. We had blue sky and was hopeful, but alas no Mt Denali.

So enough typing and onto pictures!

Wanted to show the ruggedness of the mountains

Yes folks there really is a Grizzly in this picture.

Caribou

Hey you looking at me?

Saw him pounce on something just before this picture.

These Dall Sheep were probably around 1/2 mile so this is the best my telephoto lens could do. Luckily this was at a scheduled stop and they had telescopes set up so we could get a good look.