The good morning weather allowed us to see her! We were in the 30% of lucky visitors who actually get to see the mountain (the white thing in the right of the picture). The locals call her Denali, but she also goes by Mt. McKinley. We'll get closer!
This is a mew gull. Lots of them around.
The white dots on the top of the mountain in the middle of the picture are dall sheep. Our bus driver (the only vehicles allowed deep inside the park are park buses) told us that we'd be doing good if we were able to see the legs on a dall sheep without the aid of binoculars! As you can see, most are very fall away. We saw three groups of dall sheep.
They are hard to see, but there are 3 bears in this picture: a mama and 2 cubs. They are grizzlies... a grizzly is a brown bear, but there is a difference between interior brown bears and coastal brown bears. The interior brown bears, or grizzlies, are more blonde and are generally smaller. They eat berries, roots and grasses; the coastal brown bears eat fish, so they are heavier and have a darker coat. They are also known as Kodiak bears. If you can't spot the grizzlies in this picture, start at the largest blob of snow. Go straight down from the right edge of the snow and you should see one of the cubs. The sun is reflecting off of it somewhat, so it should be fairly easy to spot. The other two are directly to the right of that cub. They appear a little darker here, so they really look like brush spots in the field. The mama is the top one, and the second cub is below her. We saw a total of 4 bears and 3 cubs while in the park.
Caribou! We saw about a dozen or more caribou. Caribou are wild; reindeer are domestic caribou. Our guide told us that if you see a caribou with antlers in winter, it's a female. Since reindeer are domestic caribou, and caribou with antlers in winter are female, it would be safe to say that Santa's reindeer were named incorrectly. Indeed, they are chicks! Or cows, as the case may be. =)
In the middle of this picture is a red fox. Very hard to see... but it is directly under the green bush in the center of the picture. Also, from the center-right of the picture, you'll see a rock. Go straight left and you should see the fox in the center of the picture. These are scrawny little animals! We saw 3 of them throughout the day.
These channels are called "braids," created by glacial silt and run-off. 
This grizzly cub was sleeping very close to the road! The sound of the bus didn't wake him, so we sat and stared at him for a while. He never moved. He was gone by the time we came back through, though.
What a magnificent mountain! As you can see, the clouds are moving in already. It didn't take long for the entire mountain to hide behind the clouds... but at least we got to see her!
Another caribou... we ended up "chasing" this one down the road! She wasn't interested in moving until we started moving again... and it took her awhile to figure out that we wouldn't follow her into the field.
Silver fox that also didn't want to leave the road! But he was hunting, and we didn't want to disturb him. I think we were lucky to see this silver guy! (Read under "General description" on the link above.)
We should have been able to see Denali in the distance, but the clouds have hidden her. I think this is called Reflection Pond, and is where many of the Denali pictures are taken where you can see her reflection in the water. Imagine that. Well, you'll have to imagine that since I only captured clouds and their reflection.
The end of the road is Kantishna Roadhouse. We had lunch there and saw a couple of presentations about native culture and dog sledding. This is Emmitt Peters Jr with a dog sled. He talks of his father, who won the 1975 Iditarod, and all things dog sledding. He then showed us how they train during the summer, with a 4-wheeler and some rescue dogs they were training as sled dogs.
This is the original Kantishna Roadhouse. The sign out front says: Kantishna Roadhouse Circa 1919. The sign on the building says: Original roadhouse built in 1919, this cabin was used as post office and roadhouse by the miners living in the valley.
The sign on the cabin with legs says: Cache - Caches such as this are used to store food and gear out of reach of animals. The cabins in the background are used by the employees who work in the park. If you look closely, it looks like it is snowing in this picture. That's not snow - it's the cotton I told you about earlier! It came down thick that day!
Moose! We only saw 2 moose in the park... I expected to see many more!
Bull Moose!!
Ok... look closely: far right of picture, top half, you should see a golden spot. That's a grizzly. Far left of picture, bottom half, you should see a black spot in the grass, just to the left of a large tuft of grass. That's a man. A stupid man. He's taking pictures of the bear. We tracked down a park ranger. The park ranger was pissed. We assume he had a nice talk with the man taking pictures of the bear. If the bear ate the man taking pictures, you what would have happened to the bear, right? Stupid man.
A golden eagle! The only one that we saw, and not a great picture.
Legs! Here's a dall sheep with legs! We were really lucky in being able to see not only Denali and having good weather, but also the wide variety of animals that we saw. I think the only think we didn't see that we would have liked to have seen was a wolf. I'm sure we could have seen more, but we certainly saw a lot!
A better look at a red fox. Again, another animal oblivious to the big bus that just drove up! He eventually got up, stretched, scratched, and trotted off into the field.
We also saw showshoe hares, ground squirrels and brown ducks, plus numerous interesting plants, like black and white spruce trees, "drunken forest" where trees lean because of the melting permafrost, arctic poppies, lichen, wild rhubarb, larkspur, and of course fireweed, to name a few. This was a long, but wonderful day!
Caribou! We saw about a dozen or more caribou. Caribou are wild; reindeer are domestic caribou. Our guide told us that if you see a caribou with antlers in winter, it's a female. Since reindeer are domestic caribou, and caribou with antlers in winter are female, it would be safe to say that Santa's reindeer were named incorrectly. Indeed, they are chicks! Or cows, as the case may be. =)
In the middle of this picture is a red fox. Very hard to see... but it is directly under the green bush in the center of the picture. Also, from the center-right of the picture, you'll see a rock. Go straight left and you should see the fox in the center of the picture. These are scrawny little animals! We saw 3 of them throughout the day.
These channels are called "braids," created by glacial silt and run-off. 
This grizzly cub was sleeping very close to the road! The sound of the bus didn't wake him, so we sat and stared at him for a while. He never moved. He was gone by the time we came back through, though.
What a magnificent mountain! As you can see, the clouds are moving in already. It didn't take long for the entire mountain to hide behind the clouds... but at least we got to see her!
Another caribou... we ended up "chasing" this one down the road! She wasn't interested in moving until we started moving again... and it took her awhile to figure out that we wouldn't follow her into the field.
Silver fox that also didn't want to leave the road! But he was hunting, and we didn't want to disturb him. I think we were lucky to see this silver guy! (Read under "General description" on the link above.)
We should have been able to see Denali in the distance, but the clouds have hidden her. I think this is called Reflection Pond, and is where many of the Denali pictures are taken where you can see her reflection in the water. Imagine that. Well, you'll have to imagine that since I only captured clouds and their reflection.
The end of the road is Kantishna Roadhouse. We had lunch there and saw a couple of presentations about native culture and dog sledding. This is Emmitt Peters Jr with a dog sled. He talks of his father, who won the 1975 Iditarod, and all things dog sledding. He then showed us how they train during the summer, with a 4-wheeler and some rescue dogs they were training as sled dogs.
This is the original Kantishna Roadhouse. The sign out front says: Kantishna Roadhouse Circa 1919. The sign on the building says: Original roadhouse built in 1919, this cabin was used as post office and roadhouse by the miners living in the valley.
The sign on the cabin with legs says: Cache - Caches such as this are used to store food and gear out of reach of animals. The cabins in the background are used by the employees who work in the park. If you look closely, it looks like it is snowing in this picture. That's not snow - it's the cotton I told you about earlier! It came down thick that day!
Moose! We only saw 2 moose in the park... I expected to see many more!
Bull Moose!!
Ok... look closely: far right of picture, top half, you should see a golden spot. That's a grizzly. Far left of picture, bottom half, you should see a black spot in the grass, just to the left of a large tuft of grass. That's a man. A stupid man. He's taking pictures of the bear. We tracked down a park ranger. The park ranger was pissed. We assume he had a nice talk with the man taking pictures of the bear. If the bear ate the man taking pictures, you what would have happened to the bear, right? Stupid man.
A golden eagle! The only one that we saw, and not a great picture.
Legs! Here's a dall sheep with legs! We were really lucky in being able to see not only Denali and having good weather, but also the wide variety of animals that we saw. I think the only think we didn't see that we would have liked to have seen was a wolf. I'm sure we could have seen more, but we certainly saw a lot!
A better look at a red fox. Again, another animal oblivious to the big bus that just drove up! He eventually got up, stretched, scratched, and trotted off into the field.
We also saw showshoe hares, ground squirrels and brown ducks, plus numerous interesting plants, like black and white spruce trees, "drunken forest" where trees lean because of the melting permafrost, arctic poppies, lichen, wild rhubarb, larkspur, and of course fireweed, to name a few. This was a long, but wonderful day!
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