We are delighted to show you this incredible photo of Mt.McKinley (or Denali, if you are being PC) which Garth took today on our 3rd 8-hr bus tour you must take if you want to see the mt. up close... well, 35 miles is considered up close! This photo shows the road we will continue upon as we finish the drive. Today we were all very fortunate to see a lynx, that most elusive cat, and we again saw caribou, golden eagles, Dahl sheep, and many grizzly bears. We even happened upon a wolf kill after the mother grizzly had run the wolves off and she and her two cubs were feeding on the carcase.. Many pictures later....and don't worry you don't see that it's a dead animal, you just see the two cubs 'playing'... learning fighting, no doubt! I wished to see wolves but we were not lucky in that. But the USFS Ranger said to us as we were coming here to get online that a lynx sighting trumps a wolf sighting so I guess we will have to be satisfied with our animal viewing.
We had seriously considered not taking this 3rd trip as it's so tiring to be jostled over 120 miles of gravel road, so we got up at 1:30 am, yes, AM, and drove 15 miles to the "lookout" place where you can first see the mt. if it's clear. It's the only place the private cars can go and when we saw that it was clear, we returned to the rigs, and some of the family got a bit more sleep then we took the 6 am bus, which requires that we be there at 5:15. Needless to say, I've been up since 1 am. and am a bit weary!
But it was WORTH IT. Only 30% of the visitors to the Park ever see the Mt. It is so immense that it makes it's own weather patterns and is most often cloaked in clouds during July. Last year during July it was only seen 3 days! We took tons of pictures, of course.
Tomorrow we will spend around the Visitor Center/Park HQ complex. They've some great movies (The Wolves of McKinley, for one) that we've heard about and want to see. Garth is hopeful of keeping me out of the gift shop but you all know how futile that will be!
Monday morning we pack up and drive 125 miles down toward Anchorage and the Kenai Penn. I'd really like to take a day-trip salmon fishing excursion but that's something that Garth can't do as you all know how badly he suffers from mal du mer. Oh well, maybe I'll get offered a salmon by an Indian as won't have to go to the trouble to spending a day catching one! The local tribes can fish for subsistence living and often sell their extra fish to tourists. Perhaps I'll get lucky!
Garth is going to treat me to an ice cream cone since we are out of ice cream at the rig. Have to get to a major store soon! Lots of errands for us to do in Anchorage area. Mail stop, buy ice cream, you know, life's important things!
This has been a wonderful week here in Denali and I'm thrilled to have been along while Garth & Walt saw The Mountain. Made it all worthwhile, believe me!
More soon. Mary
No comments:
Post a Comment