Tuesday, June 4, 2013

WE SAW GRIZZLIES TODAY!!!  Today we went on the Eielson Visitor Shuttle which takes you 66 miles inside the park.  We started at 8:30 this morning and got back around 4:30 this afternoon but it was a great day.  We saw lots of dall sheep, caribou, moose, a porcupine, a fox, some ptarmigan (the state bird) and 3 grizzlies plus a lot of gorgeous scenery.  We were hoping to get a good view of Mt. McKinley but it was covered by clouds so we didn't.  There were lots of nice people on the bus and our driver was great - it was just a long day on a school bus.  We did see 3 grizzlies today, however, two of them were pretty far away so we couldn't get any pictures.  The first one we saw was right next to our bus and just stood there the whole time we were there.  We got some great pictures - if you can check out the size of the claws.  It was just the most docile animal but I was really glad we were inside the bus!

Last night we did learn a lot about owls.  For instance, their neck will rotate 270 degrees, they have 14 vertebrae in their neck, their eyeballs are flat and do not move.  The moose that was in our campground yesterday is back today - even closer to our spot.  Guess she likes this area.

Anyway, here are some pictures from today.

Ptarmigan - the Alaska State Bird

Grizzly - check out the claws

Grizzly

Dall Sheep

The view from Eielson Visitor Center