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Alaska 2008: Day 9 (Denali National Park)
Posted on June 17th, 2008 4 comments
Day 9 of my trip was billed as the best day to see Alaska’s wildlife. While
it wasn’t quite the "zoo" that I was expecting, we still saw Denali’s most
famous residents: brown bears, caribou, dall sheep, and moose. Our tour lasted
nearly seven hours, with the excellent driver/guide making the time pass quickly.Before that, though, we took a trip to the park’s sled dog kennel. Denali
still uses sled dogs to patrol the park in the winter, and we got to meet and
greet most of the dogs. They’re all remarkably friendly, and they seem to love
what they do. They did a little demo with 5 dogs on a gravel trail, and they
were really moving fast. It was also funny to see how excited the dogs
when they were getting the sled ready… lots of barking "choose me!".Pictures of everything after the link!
Let’s start out with the sled dog kennel:
One of the 30+ sled dogs in the park
Love this one
This one too. These Alaskan Huskies have great ice-blue eyes!
There they go!
They had to sit in order to get their bonesThis was a little hike my dad and I took around the visitor center:
Like I’ve said, everything is SO green hereThe rest of these photos are from our Tundra Wilderness Tour inside the park:
Moose
Amazing glacial valleys
Dall sheep
A slightly closer look. Check out those horns!
Caribou
Caribou butts
Nice rack
Amazing scenery here
Really like this shot
Panoramic view (click
for larger)
Here I am, standing in the middle of a glacial valley
The rocks in the river bed are amazing
See that muddy brown thing in the center? That’s a grizzly (brown) bear
Artsy shot of the day
I was "famous" on the bus for actually getting a picture of these two brown bears
Mother is on the left, her cub on the rightThat’s all for Denali. I hope you enjoyed the photos!
4 responses to “Alaska 2008: Day 9 (Denali National Park)”
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Everyone should click on that panorama. It’s wonderful!
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Lise Wiley June 19th, 2008 at 10:29
I loved the bear shots. I also loved the caribou butt shot. I got to show my kids that even pros get the butt from animals! We recently went to Disney and all I got of the rhinos on the safari ride was the rear end. I called it my rhino butt shot. Your bears were a real treat. You got very lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
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Rosie June 19th, 2008 at 11:20
That panorama shot begins to show why most photos, as gorgeous and as well shot as yours, simply cannot do full justice to Alaska.
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Ann Black July 6th, 2008 at 08:39
Wow! The pictures of the bears are awesome. (He was famous for getting the shot on the bus! We were all jealous. My picture is of the grasses in front…) Loved the scenery pictures also..
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laanba June 17th, 2008 at 21:21