However, our last day at Denali we spent the day on our own, not on the park buses. As mentioned in an earlier post, you can only go about 15 miles into the park without a bus, permit or other special circumstances. But, a lot can happen in 15 miles.
We went into the park 2 times on this day. One time in the morning to spend time at a spot at the end of the 15 mile drive by Savage River. We remembered there was a hike there we wanted to take. So, we packed up our lunch and snacks and our hiking gear and set out. On our way up, Ira caught sight of the sun hitting a bull moose's antler, so we pulled over. We saw a huge bull moose, but it was quite far away. Then we noticed a female (cow) with the bull, and another bull, too. So we patiently watched them for almost an hour.
During that time, a couple of Alaskan ladies stopped, obviously set up with very nice camera gear, to observe with us. I got into a conversation with them and they both have husbands on the military base in Anchorage and one was a photographer. We immediately clicked and we had a wonderful talk sharing stories. I was telling the ladies that I've never encountered such kind, generous people as Alaska has. They said they hear that all the time. One told me she felt because there were so few people, that you embrace people more easily. The other woman told me she thought maybe it was because whoever lived in Alaska really wanted to be there and were happy. We exchanged business cards and promised to be in touch with each other. They would actually like to come to Vermont to photograph fall foliage. Also, during our conversation, they told me a photographer had told them the night before, in the same location we were standing in, a bunch of folks saw about 13 bull moose! That was a nice encounter. I do love the Alaskan people.
Back to the moose story, which this time, wasn't spectacular. It was nice watching the huge creatures, though they were such a distance away, I really could not photograph them with my small camera. We really needed to get close enough to get some good photos.
But, along the way into the park, we viewed more dall sheep then ever. They were everywhere. They are really hard to photo, too, because they are always waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up there!
When Ira and I got to Savage River, we did hike. And because we were alone at the time, we made lots of talking and chatter so we did not startle any bear that might have been around. This is rather funny, because Ira and I normally hike and are quite quiet, so this was a change for us. I kept nervously chatting as we walked making sure anything around would know we were in the area. I suppose I would get used to this, but it does making hiking less relaxing. That said, the surrounds made up for my nervousness of predators.
 |
| Looking right straight up along the trail. |
 |
| Ira, was much less worried about bear than I was! Savage River flows behind him. |
 |
| So many of the water flows in Alaska have braided rivers where the water changes its course as it rises and falls with snow and rain. |
After our hike, we sat by the river and watched the dall sheep up on the hillside. We brought our reading books with us and just sat out in the beauty for a while reading.
Once done, we started back down the road, and came upon another bull moose sighting. This bull wasn't as big as others we saw, and again, was too far to get any good shots. But, we did decide that we wanted to come back to the park later to try to see a good, up close bull moose. So, we went back to our cabin, showered up, did our souvenir shopping. Once done, we grabbed a pizza and went back to the park and had a picnic. We didn't see much but stopped every mile or so to scan the areas for moose. We went all the way to the end of the 15 miles, back to Savage River, and turned about to come back out of the park without much luck. Other than, we agreed that Denali is like the Grand Canyon again in that it changes with the change of light. So it was wonderful to see such spectacular light changes.
And, we had another sighting where way off in the distance there were a couple of cows and again, a couple of bull moose, but too far to photograph. All fun to watch, though.
Then it happened! We came around a corner and a car was parked with a gentleman saying, "Bull moose, bull moose!" We stopped and pulled over. Sure enough, there he was!!! The one we waited for! At first, we could only see his antlers. As you can see here, he still is in velvet except for some spots he is starting to scrape down. Notice how HUGE the rack it. That speaks to his age and size.
 |
| Here he is with ONE of several cows he had in the area. I think we counted 4 or more right there!!!! |
 |
| The bull was rocking his head back and forth here, demonstrating there was another bull in the area, but at this point, we couldn't see another one YET!!! |
 |
| Very hard to realize how huge these critters are, but trust us, they are mammoth! |
Within minutes of our stopping to view this moose (not kidding here, minutes!) over 30 (Ira thinks 35) cars showed up and I am telling you, we had never seen so many big, money cameras in our lives. People were standing on roofs of vehicles with huge scopes, cameras and more gear than I had ever seen. It was like a major event was happening, camera people running everywhere anticipating where this bull was going. And Ira and I were there with our little point and shoot. Now, if we got these photos...you can image what those guys got! In talking with them, they were professional photographers who also heard about the nightly viewing. The park buses were stopping, it was quite a sight how many people were watching this bull. That said, a bull of that size was rare and the pros told us so. The bull began rocking his head back and forth and one of the pros told us there had to be another bull around as that is what they do with other bulls come by. And sure enough, another big (not as big as this guy) bull showed up, though by this time the sun was beginning to sink a little making it hard to photo (9PM at night) and nobody could really get photos, but we saw him. There must have been about 4 or more cows in that area, too.
As the bulls moved away and the light got harder and hard to view them, the crowd broke up. Camera equipment went back into cars and trucks and we were all on our way having seen just exactly what we came for! We were so happy we were able to observe so closely these creatures. We see plenty of moose in Vermont, but they are nothing like these.
Denali was really, really good to us.
They told us, that only 30% of the people who enter the park EVER get to see Denali the mountain. Not only did we see it in 100% clear weather, we saw it that way for 3 days! And, we saw MOST of it another day (90% of the time it was clear). Around here, they actually sell t-shirts for a 30% club, for those who get to see Denali on a clear day. That was not a t-shirt for us, as we saw it for FOUR days in a row. And the wildlife gifts we received from all of our sightings were beyond words. We are so happy we had such a marvelous time after enduring the soaking rain we had. It turn out well.
Denali was, indeed, really, really good to us.
Today (8/28) we arrived back at Anchorage and we fly out tomorrow for home. It is a night flight so we won't be back until Friday morning.
We welcome coming home as it is where our heart is, but we will leave a bit of us behind in Alaska. We will pick that bit up when we go back again!
See you in Vermont!
The Vermonters Going to Alaska!
