Our tour bus turned around at the Visitor's Center at Milemarker 68. We had about a 15 minute break to look around, and we finally were able to see some of Denali! Only 30% of people see the "Big One" when they visit. Cloud cover, etc. keeps it hidden a lot, and it's a joke around town that the mountain isn't out. Well, we were able to see it.
Luke was so excited to chase this squirrel.
We had to get a picture of this. Sunrise-3:57 A.M. and sunset-12:17 A.M.
Jennifer showed Madison some of the mountain climbing equpment. Jennifer and Andrew did summit Mt. McKinley, or Denali as it is also called, a couple of weeks before we arrived.
The mountain is back there, way up in the sky.
Flash
You can see a small bit of it going up into the clouds toward the center and right.
Caribou
More bears-yea!!!! This was an awesome sight. Our bus driver said she'd been driving since 2005 and had only had one other bear come walking out on the road while she was driving. This was AWESOME. We stopped for quite awhile, the whole bus was silent (even our kids), and we all enjoyed watching this bear just walk by our bus.
Moving on
Uhhh, this isn't the same bear! This is further up the road, and ANOTHER BEAR came walking out. We were about to fall on the floor; we were so excited. Madison was completely beside herself. She couldn't believe it. Our bus driver couldn't contain herself either, saying it was her best day ever...until...
THE DAY GOT EVEN BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That bear had two cubs off in the brush. Madison actually spotted them, and soon, the mama bear went down into the brush to get them.
Then, she brought them onto the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was like she was putting on a show for all of us. Our bus was absolutely quiet. Everyone was in awe of these bears, and it was so awesome to see the mom and cubs.
We sat and watched them for at least 15 minutes. They just walked around.
They weren't even bothered when another bus came from the other direction. All of the tour buses were green like that.
Just another day, walking around in the park
Off they went walking down into the tundra
Loved this one of the cub standing up. They were SO cute!
Yup, just hanging out.
The mom had an itch, and we watched her back up against that shrub, stand up, and scratch her back on it. That was funny.
We also saw one moose at the end of the tour, but a lady screamed so loudly on the bus that I think it scared the moose away, so no picture.
Then, after dinner, a moose ran right across the road as we were getting into the minvan, so that was also a cool sight.
We had an AMAZING day on our bus tour. I admit I was dreading it to start, not for the scenery, but for eight hours on a bus with the kids. I had no idea how things would go, and I imagined the "I have to go to the bathroom" as soon as we'd leave a rest stop (even though they would have already gone). They did VERY well on the entire ride. There is nowhere to buy food, so you have to bring a picnic style lunch to eat on the bus. The kids are real troopers, as they proved the whole vacation (I mean, 16 hours on airplanes, good travelers!). We were so happy with their behavior, and even when we got back to the Visitor's Center at 8:00 P.M and hadn't had dinner, they did very well at dinner. We decided to go to the restaurant where Andrew works as a cook. The kids thought it was awesome that Uncle Andrew was going to cook their dinner. We had a great dinner, the kids were happy, and it was overall, a really great day.
Jennifer, we were so glad you could go along with us to show us that beautiful park. Andrew, thanks for the yummy dinner; although, I'm not sure how much you actually cooked since you were able to come out and say "Hi" to us :)
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