Denali National Park

This is one of the most amazing places on earth!  I love seeing animals in their own habitat and they are all over the 6 million acres of park.  Luckily, some are visible from the roads that are restricted to only shuttles and tours.  We took a tour 66 miles into the park and saw incredible things.  First, the scenery itself is gorgeous.  But. . . driving along we saw a porcupine waddling across the road.  He stopped and stood up on his hind legs to see what we were.  Then two young red foxes(is that the plural?) watched us from the road.  So far it was a great trip. . . then gigantic caribou were visible along the crest of a nearby hill.  Next a Mom Grizzly with 2 blonde cubs romped along the hillsides.  A few miles later a bull moose left the roadway to chew on bushes next to the road so we could stop and admire his very heavy antlers.  It was like every turn in the road we saw more animals.  None of these are fed at all, no supplemental feedings and no interactions with humans other than faces peering through the windows of buses.  Even the shuttle driver was awed by a pack of wolves - 11 in all, including a bunch of pups and the great big pale alpha female.  On our way back a big bull caribou ran straight towards the bus before veering into the bushes.  Huge animals!  More moose, caribou and bear families were visible.  I'll post some photos when the internet connection is more stable.  I think we took about 500 between the two of us. 

Later we went to the dog kennels within the park.  It's the only National Park in the nation that patrols by dog sled during the winter.  We got to meet the dogs and the handlers, some are volunteers and some are rangers.  If you ever get to this park of Alaska, the Denali National Park is a must see!