1 July, Denali National Park. Magic.

I took a short break from blogging, but am back at it.  Our trip from Fairbanks was uneventful except for constant rain.  We have discovered that Alaska gets a lot of precipitation.  The forecast for Denali was dismal, but we had a super break in the weather as the photos below will attest. Denali is an incredible place, but can be a frustrating place to visit due to the persistent horrible weather. 

We took one of the Denali contracted tour buses.  It took us 60 miles into the park. It was a bit pricey at $130 per person, but we found out it was well worth the price.

Our bus driver/naturalist Cindy navigated some sporty wet roads against steep drop offs.  This was on the way to Polychrome Pass. Most of the road was perfectly fine. 

As a registered therapy dog, Bean had a front row seat.  Our trip was over 9 hours. He was an absolute angel spending much of his time looking at the scenery as all the rest of us.

Caribou dotted the scenery. We surprised this buck crossing the road into a wash.  

Along the way we saw a lot of wildlife including three grizzly bears.  This mother and cub were about a quarter of a mile away.  Christopher got the best quality photos with a Sony camera he had rented for the trip.  We sat in the bus for over 20 minutes watching the mother feed while the cub played.

On Polychrome pass, Chris and I got a good look at this Willow Ptarmigan. She was accompanied by a newly fledged chick.

Chris and I got off the bus a few miles from the turn around to look for Northern Wheatear.  Just over the hill John, Pam, Mary, Christopher and Bean saw this herd of caribou crossing the road.  It stopped a couple of buses in the process.

Then the magic happened.  It turns out about 20% of Denali visitors on this tour ever see Denali.  It's normally shrouded in clouds, rain, and fog.  It had rained all morning. It was raining with low overcast and fog when the tour started at 2:20 PM. So were were not optimistic. But then the clouds began breaking up from the west until the sky was cloud free before we departed. 

Chris getting horny at a rest stop. 

This magnificent 20,300 foot mountain had been in snow for over a week.  The Park Service said there were 144 climbers on it this day, so they must have been thrilled to see some sunshine, but we imagined they were trudging though deep snow.

Christopher is happy with the opportunity to see this mountain on his only visit to Denali.