Today Ginger and I decided to take the tour bus into the Park. Its partly cloud, and a relatively warm 55 degrees. We board the bus with 44 others, and driver Elton Parks. He makes us assured in that he has driven here for 18 years. With the narrow gravel roads, and 300 foot cliffs, we are ready to roll.
Its an 8 hour trip (4 hours out and back).
Elton is a wealth of knowledge! He narrates on geography, history, and wildlife. But for the first 2 hours, we haven't seen an animal..I can tell he's disappointed. The many berries here are full. The ideal food for bears. (Because there are no Salmon in this area, the berries exist on fruits and roots.)
On the way back, we begin to see lots of animals. Think totally we see:
2 Red Foxes, 3 Wolves, 9 Grizzly Bears, 1 Caribou, several Ptarmigans (its the AK state bird, like a Grouse, brown in the summer, and white in the Winter), numerous ground squirells
Fall is quickly approaching. Some of the Willows have turned gold/red. But mostly what is truly bautiful is the various red, oranges, and yellows of the ground covers. Pluss the diffent colors of berries. I have seen one that is really bright orange, almost looked artifical. Heres some of my shots. Don't forget by "clicking" on the photo you can enlarge it.
Ginger holding a Dahl sheep horn
Red Fox No 2
Fall colors along the Toklat River
Fall colors
Below: A Lynx crosses a dry creek.He's turned to face us.
A bull caribou feeding along a ridge
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