Alaska: Departure from Denali

Alaska: DAY TWELVE





We had viewed almost animal that you can think of in Denali. We had the opportunity to go wildlife viewing with Travis and other park rangers in the evenings. We put the scopes and binoculars to great use. At one point, we followed a juvenile wolf for about 10 miles! It was so cool how steady his pace was and how much ground he covered in a short amount of time. At times, we were close enough to wildlife that I could take some decent photos. It would have been a lot better with a higher quality camera :)

















As we were parked, this wolf trotted past us like he knew he owned the road :)


He was so close, I could have stuck my hand out the window and gave him a head massage. He was on a mission - he was fast enough that I could only get a couple of pictures. This was the best one without too much of the windshield gunk.



It was sad to know we only had one more day in Denali National Park. We decided to go one more adventure hike.

This time we would hike in a different habitat: river beds and spruce forest.

On the other side of the river, you could see Travis's cabin and the rest of the Residential Area.

.......Inside the Spruce Forest that Travis named "Dead Hare Forest." He said that the owls capture hares and consume them from the tops of the trees. The remaining body parts fall to the forest floor. Apparently he found skeletons all over. We believed him - because we found some too! Ha ha

:D

The moss that blanketed the ground was so thick that it was like walking on pillows. At least this is how I described it to Ava. She thought it was so fun - she'd jump and then land on it on her behind. It was steadily raining at this point of our hike. By the time we got back to Travis's cabin, we had to change our clothes. It rained the rest of the evening. Visibility was bad for wildlife viewing that night, so we stayed indoors.

The rain was cold and wet, so we hiked back quickly. By the time we returned to the cabin we had to change our clothes. It rained the rest of the evening. Visibility was too poor to go out and view wildlife, so we stayed indoors and relaxed on our final night here.

On our drive out of the heart of Denali - we saw some more Brown Bear, Dall Sheep, and Moose........

We drove back to Anchorage and then got on Seward Highway, making sure to stop at Beluga Whale Point again. It was a much more pleasant day today than it was last week here.

Info on the Beluga Whales..............

We were lucky - because a lot of whales were out today! They were pretty hard to photograph.

We hit the highway again and stopped somewhere in Chuchuga National Forest where there was another gorgeous glacier.

The ice was so cold it was blue.

There was a river not too far down the road that was FULL of spawning salmon. Surprisingly, there were no bears around taking advantage of this.

Well, we still had about 60 miles to Seward where would spend two nights :)

Another beautiful/eventful day coming to an end..................