A (very) small tast of Denali National park

(picture of Denali, taken at the visitors center, because that's the only place where we saw it today....).









There is one - and only one- thing one learns when spending only one day in Denali National park, and that is that one day does not even come close to being enough.  Denali is so vast, so wild, so varied, so empty and yet full of life, that one day is just a laughable amount of time.  Denali has been there for millions of years, and it feelslike  that would be the right amount of time to really experience it....

This being said - one day is what we had.  A rainy day at that....  But we made the most of it. We choose to take a bus tour about 60 miles inside the park, with a wonderfully knowledgeable and funny guide, and that was clearly the right choice.  Of course I would have preferred to put on hiking boots, load a back pack and just start walking.  But then I would have seen even less of it - although maybe got closer?  I don't know - the tour was really wonderful, and a great way to at least cover a lot of grounds and see a lot of stuff.  Although - the "lot of stuff" did not include the mountain itself, which remained stubbornly hidden by the gloomy weather. We consoled ourselves by realizing that we are indeed in the same boat as the great majority of visitors to the park.  The mountain rarely reveals itself on the first try.....  But we did get to see the promised grand views (which are almost impossible to capture on picture), and some wonderful wild life:

 We saw a few ptarmigans - the state bird of Alaska,

 A juvenile golden eagle,

 in the distance, a heard of caribous, with many babies (hard to see on the picture)

 Some dahl sheep - also accompanied by bouncy babies,

 a couple of grizzly bears....  this young one seem completely oblivious of our bus, and came quite close.

 These male and female caribous, just strolling along in front of us.

 And several male moose, one alone (and posing for the tourists), and below, 3 of them hanging out together (which surprised me as I thought they were solitary).

I have to admit that the moose and grizzlies did give me some pause regarding the idea of donning hiking boots and hiking in the back country.  Bears are a bit scary.... (Although moose kill more people, and that's even scarier).  It was nice to see a few ptarmigans (Alaska's state bird) and a golden eagle. 

 This being June, there were wild flowers everywhere, including thousands of bluebells, and many more that i did not recognize

 The park is crisscrossed by many rivers - which are very wide, and run across flat gravel beds that have been carved over millions of years by glaciers.

The water is completely clear, and the mixture or rocks, testifying to the power of the water carrying mountains downstream, is beautiful.

By evening, the sun came back, and we had a lovely view while enjoying a simple meal at our hotel.

Speaking of our hotel - on the road leaving to it, there are many quirky road signs.  This one is by far my favorite.  But I like  too...... 

But I like this one  too......