Denali National Park

I don’t think I’ve ever taken a picture of a national park entrance sign, but because Denali is so huge, and because we spent 4 nights camping deep within it, it felt really special.

We hardly saw the sun the whole time we were there, but the vistas were still gorgeous…

…and the open spaces were immense.

I found some buddies…

…and some butts.

I like the idea of wildflowers in the foreground, trees in the middle and snow capped peaks in the distance, but I’ll keep working on my technique.

Fireweed lines all the roadsides with pink, and up close it’s even prettier:

This was the view from the riverside just behind our camp –

It was a pretty dreary day that we had reservations for the day-long bus ride deeper into the park, but the awe-inspiring views kept us glued to our windows.

Animals can’t care about the weather, and we had some great sightings on our trip.  First up, a Hoary Marmot, or “Whistlepig” as it’s also known –

(if you zoom in you can see his teeth)

A Red Fox posed several minutes for us –

We saw several small and large herds of caribou…

…and they were still shedding their winter coats.

When we reached the Eielson Visitor Center, the farthest point that the bus system was running this year (mile 66 into the park), there is said to be a fantastic view of Denali peak (weather permitting).  This was our view:

(Actually, that was a view down to a river below the mountains, but you can see how low the clouds were.)

In our travels throughout the state, we were using a very detailed book entitled “The Milepost”.  At numerous times in the description along the Parks Highway (Alaska route 3), points were noted to have great views of Denali “(weather permitting)”.  It became our running joke of the trip.

The clouds/fog lifted enough for us to take a mile loop through the tundra vegetation at the Visitor Center and see some neat things – grasses…

…wildflowers…

…ground cover…

…and an industrious Antelope Ground Squirrel.  He was pushing the dirt he’d excavated from his burrow away with his back feet.

(note the dirt on his nose)

On our way back to our campground, everyone on the bus was treated to a not very common sight here –

This was a sow with her (probable) 3 year old offspring (since it was almost her size).

I enjoyed the color variations and contrasts.

Our last animal sightings were of Dall Sheep.  They are the only white wild sheep in the world.  They are in the same family as bighorn sheep but these are in the group called “narrow horn”.

Again, I’ll let you zoom in on the subjects, as they’re not very sharp, due to the distance they were from us (way up on hillsides).

You can easily see why these are referred to as “braided” rivers –

Now that picture shows the beautiful blue sky and sunshine we were treated to on our 4th day in the park, after spending almost the entire day in the RV on the 3rd day due to rain, cold and overcast.

We were finally able to take advantage of camping deep in the park, by being able to take another bus ride back to Eielson Visitor Center.

What I thought were stupendous views before, were even more jaw dropping with color added.

This is what we missed as the view from the visitor center 2 days previously:

(we couldn’t even see that path down at the bottom of the picture, when we started out on it then)

Even with persistent clouds, I was thrilled to see all the green, as well as snow patches –

On this trip we had lots of close encounters with caribou…

…and saw some gorgeous racks.

Caribou are the only members of the deer family in which both sexes have antlers. They also lose those antlers every year and have to grow them back (each one can weigh 18 pounds)!

This cow is showing off her pretty white socks, while the old bull keeps his nose in the sand to keep the bot flies from laying their eggs in his nostrils.

I’ll close with this pull back shot, allowing our friend to give a sense of scale to the grandeur that’s Denali.