Alaska Cruise 2014 - Mooses, Mountains, and Grizzlies on the Denali Wilderness Tour

What a beautiful morning in Denali!  Our group of eight decided to head off to the Welcome Center and do a short hike before our 7 hour tour through the park.

As we were pulling in to the park there it was~!!  My first Moose!  (one to mark off the bucket list)  A momma and two babies walking on the road.  The day was off to a great start!

I don’t recall the name of the trail but it was a pretty easy walk through the beautiful woods to a Beaver Reserve.  Oh wait, what is that 25 feet in front of us?  It’s the momma moose and the babies.  There was a few of us that were getting a little too close for my liking.  I’m glad I watched the “what to look for and do with the moose in the area; if their hair rises it’s time to get behind a tree as they are about to charge!”

There were eight of us and very thin trees around- so I’m glad momma was calm that day as I don’t think the trees would have protected any of us!   But what a wonderful thing to get so close to nature.
Then it’s back on to the bus for a 7 hour tour.  The bus was not a motor coach it was a regular bus.  Yikes what are we getting ourselves in to for 7 hours!  The first three hours started out a little slow as I fell asleep wondering how I was going to make it on such a long journey a head.  We finally stopped for a break at the Visitor Center which was a nice break, but still no sightings of animals anywhere.  I was able to pick-up a moose antler which I thought I could pick up with one hand to find out these things can weigh up to 40 lbs.

Things started to pick up on the second portion of our journey.  After a snack lunch everyone started to perk up and start chatting and having a good time.  We chuckled when the two in our group cannot stand heights and the Fireball Whiskey was brought out to assist with the climb up the mountain.  It was so beautiful up there but so very easy to breathe.  The highest point we got on our journey was only 4300 feet but it still had the feel & look of these mountains appearing higher then they were.
Then the clouds opened and we were able to see the right side of Mt. McKinley.  The lady on the left side of the bus started seeing a bunch of different animals: Caribou & Dall Sheep, Marmot, a Fox walking on the side of our bus without a care in the world. And to the left side of bus where I was sitting, my eagle eye started to spot things too!   A lot of things started popping up.  The bus driver was so impressed she wanted us to go on all the tours with her   She said the only thing missing was a grizzly.

The tour was coming to an end when I notice a white face and two black eyes staring at me, I immediately screamed BEAR because I was so excited, and I scared the bear so much it was like he was thinking – A Bear? Where?!  I BEST GET OUT OF HERE!  and off he went and started running!  He was running in the right direction so we were able to keep an eye on him for awhile.  He was a white and black bear, his face looked like a polar bear.  He was a big boy!

The tour bus driver didn’t want us to share too many stories with the other visitors as she said that it was very odd for us to see so many animals that day and there are several times most people only get to see one or two things!  The 7 Hour Tour turned to 8 but boy what a trip!