Traveling with the Grobmyers August 11& 12 , 2024 Denali National Park

 Yesterday morning we drove over to the Denali visitor’s center to check it out and get our Passport stamped. We have a Tundra Wilderness Tour this afternoon that will take us into Denali. There is a very small part of the park that you can dive to in your car. They have these big buses that will take you back on 5e unsaved road. That is why we went to the visitor’s center this morning. It is a nice center. They had two films. One is about the sled dog teams they have at the park. During the winter they use them to travel the back woods of the park.

They have several Jr Ranger programs throughout the park system. This one was identifying scat!

From the fires from about a month ago.

Our hotel up on the hill. 

Our tour started about 4:00. We were really hoping we would see a lot of wildlife since we had not on the earlier part of the trip. We did see some animals especially with the help of our drivers video camera with 60xmagnification.

We saw a lot of these little birds on the side of the road. They do not migrate south they stay for the winter. They will turn white in the winter with feathers on their feet too. They can fly sorta like a chicken.

The silt is from the glacier runoff.

The fireweed were really pretty all through the park. Legend has it when the blooms reach the top it is time for fall. Some of the leaves are beginning to change colors. The fields are beginning to get a golden color too. On the fireweek the stem turns red when it finishes blooming.

On the side of this hill is a momma bear and two cubs. Can you find them? Don’t feel bad I didn’t find them either.

There they are.

A little ways down the road we saw three caribou on the slope of the mountain. They were on the other side of the bus and far away but I do have pictures. They have beautiful racks of antlers.

We then saw some dall sheep. I don’t know how they walk of the side of the mountain like they do. We watched one walk across. It’s amazing he made it on that tiny ledge.

Some more of the fireweed. It grows best in areas that it is hard for it to grow. After a wildfire the fireweed is some of the first things to sprout up and grow in the burned areas.

We saw a little snow covered mountains. But we didn’t join the 30%club that can see Denali. With all the cloud cover we have had we would have been surprised if we had.

There are three signs they have on the road going up the mountain. I would like one of these for my backyard.

This morning we drove over to what they call “the village”. It’s actually a strip of shops and small food eateries. We didn’t find much. There were some very nice artwork though. We drop up the road to the town of Healy for lunch. On the way we had a surprise.

A moose!!!! I saw something and my first thought was a horse them remembered where we were.

We kept hearing about the 49th State Brewing as being a great place to eat. There was one in Healy so we decided to check it out. If we had not we wouldn’t have seen the moose.

We had a really good lunch. Joe had a Yak burger! I did the fish and chips.

This huge crow/raven/black bird.came swooping down in from of me and started yelling at me.

We drove back through the front of Denali and we found a surprise.

Another moose! So that made for a good day today.

Some flowers from the last two days.

And a very noisy squirrel 

Everywhere we go they taunt me with the bear cam.

Tomorrow we head north to Fairbanks. I hope it clears up some so that maybe just maybe we can see the northern lights.