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Old 26 Jul 08, 08:12 PM  
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Alaska, Trains and Boats and Planes, Day10 Denali NP& HH

The Cast;

Me... Beryl (grumpys wife)
DH... Pete (love of my life, honest)
DSIL...Diane (nuttychick)
DB... Dave

1st June 2008
Denali National Park
This morning we had an organised tour into Denali National Park. We had to go on a school bus for this as no commercial vehicles are allowed in the park. We had a very informative guide driving our bus called Mark. The tour was to last for 5 hours but they went by very quickly.
This park is based around Mount McKinley or Mount Denali as they now tend to call it. Not everyone gets the chance to see this mountain as it is still a long way from where we were based, I think it was 80 miles away but today the cloud was lifting a bit and you could just about make it out in the distance from a viewpoint.

Mount McKinley in the distance to the right of centre.









We then went further into the park and someone shouted "bear". Sure enough down the banks of the road we were on and over a river there was a mother bear and her two cubs. It looked like she was teaching them to fish.
Mark, our driver said that he had only seen seven bears in all of last year so we were very lucky. Mind you, he probably tells everyone that but it sounded good and made us all feel very privileged.
We sat for a while people looked with their binoculars and tried to take photo's but it was quite a distance away as you can see from my second photo. Mine didn't come out to well as I have found on this holiday, when the zoom is full out, I definitely need a tripod with this camera.
I will post a couple of photo's one close up and one showing just how far away they were and you can see what I mean. They were also taken through a glass window.

There were two cubs honest, one is in the bushes.







We had to move on and hoped they might still be there when we came back later. We carried on, stopped to listen to a native Inuit Indian who was very funny telling us tales from his childhood to the present. We saw lots of Snowshoe Hares running around and another moose and bald eagle.
The mother bear and her cubs were still there on the way back so we stayed and watched them again, it's not every day you can do this.
As we made our way out someone shouted "moose on the left". Our driver stopped rather sharpish and as he did someone shouted "bear on the right"!
Well, moose or bear? It's a bit like daddy or chips! Everyone piled over to our side of the bus to see a brown bear, about ten yards away from our bus, just ambling through the bushes. Mark drove very slowly alongside him until he just disappeared into the bushes and we lost sight of him.

Again not brilliant but you can see how close he was.



A bear behind (sorry)


I can tell you that just about made our day. Four bears in one day.
After that we made our way out of the park after a very eventful trip.
We were dropped of back at our lodge to get ready for the second part of our day, The Husky Homestead.

To be continued;
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Old 26 Jul 08, 09:49 PM  
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Continued;

Later we had to meet a coach at 6.50pm for our visit to The Husky Homestead. This was the home of Jeff King and his family. He has won the Iditarod race with his dogs four times. The Iditarod race goes from Anchorage to Nome on the edge of the Bering Sea.
We got off of the coach to be greeted by people who work at the Homestead and they were all holding the most beautiful husky puppies. We all got to hold them and despite me wearing a fleece that had quite a bit of room in it I wasn't allowed to keep one.











We then went on to see his adult dogs. There were about 80 dogs and it was quite clear they all loved this man very much.
He showed us how he exercised them by attaching 8 dogs to a quad bike and letting them tow him around they grounds. When they came back 10 minutes later they were still just as excited as when they left.





He also exercises them in the lake by attaching them to a boat. We watched a piece of film of them doing this and they again loved it. All they want to do is please this man.

Jeff King



his weather vane



Jeff the gave a talk about his experiences in the Iditarod races. I think you must be mad to do this but hey, whatever floats your boat. If you Google Jeff King it will tell you more about him and the race.
If anyone ever goes to Denali I recommend this tour even if it's just to hold a puppy.
We were taken back to the lodge and we had dinner. When we came out it was 11.15pm. These photo's were taken then. As you can see it is still daylight.







Got back to our room after a very long but enjoyable day. I love animals very much especially dogs so today was a good one even if I didn't get to bring one home.
We move on tomorrow by coach to Fairbanks. See you then.
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Old 26 Jul 08, 09:59 PM  
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How lucky to see so many bears! The huskys are adorable - I want one!
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Old 26 Jul 08, 10:03 PM  
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WOW Beryl,how amazing to see the bears( and there behinds) Those husky pups are soooo cute.Could hardly believe some of your pics were taken late at night! What an amazing day
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Old 26 Jul 08, 10:41 PM  
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Fantastic photos Beryl. What a lucky lady you were to see so many love things.
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Old 31 Jul 08, 07:15 AM  
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Hi Beryl,

fab photo's again... from the first one of mount McKinley and the those capturing the bears. It must be fantastic to see Bears wandering around in their own environment. The huskies are gorgeous too. (I luv the close up one, with the blue eyes)
How strange was that... taking 'daylight' pictures at 11.30pm ?
What an absolutely awesome trip !

I'm currently in Florida (Cape Coral) and just thought I'd have a quick look if you'd added anymore days... keep up the good work your trippy makes excellent bed time reading !

Next ... (please )

Jay
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Old 31 Jul 08, 08:47 AM  
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Husky Homestead is Carys' dream, Beryl! I will show her this when she is done with her breakfast!

Fab once again! x
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Old 31 Jul 08, 09:08 PM  
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Thank you all so much for your lovely comments. It makes it worth doing x
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Old 5 Aug 08, 10:37 AM  
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How cute are those puppysI bet it made your day to see all the wild life, another great day pal.
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Old 5 Aug 08, 10:37 AM  
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