Wed, Aug 7: Denali National Park

Weather good, but some overcast.

Took a tour into the Denali National Park.

This one on an upgraded school bus (better seats), lunch provided, and a narration provided.  (We took another drive into the park on Friday on the regular shuttle bus.)  

Both buses stopped to view Mt McKinley, although it was clouded in.  Apparently in July and August you can normally see all of Mt McKinley only 1 day a month, and can see part of McKinley about 9 days a month.  We were told that one could see all the Mt McKinley on Thursday, the day we didn’t go into the park.  It is better in June; you can see the entire mountain 12 days in June.  So June would be a good month to go, along with the mosquitoes.

Both buses stopped for wildlife viewing, and we saw lots of wildlife up close, including several Grizzly bears (one walked right in front of the bus), a female bear with two cubs, moose, caribou, and Dall sheep (one was walking on the road).  The Dall sheep are normally only seen high on the mountain sides as Dall dots.  The only one of the big five animals we did not see was the wolf, which is apparently rarely seen. 

 These are the Dall Dots:

                                

                                

  Click to see video of a bear  

                                
                                

We also saw willow ptarmigans, the state bird, and other birds, including a couple of golden eagles flying high. 

We did not see any snowshoe hares, which are on the low side of their population cycle, nor any lynx, which are also on the low side of their population cycle because they primarily feed on the hares.

Hares have an 8 to 11 year boom and bust cycle. When there are a lot of them, there are up to 600 in a square mile.  This leads to a jump in fox and lynx numbers. Then, all of a sudden, there are very few snowshoe hares and the lynx and fox disappear with them.