USA – Day 11 – To the end of the road

NOTE : A quick post today – lots of photos and not much journaling.

Today we a full 12 hour day tour all the way to Kantishna (at the end of the Denali National Park Road) and back again. We boarded our bus at 6.30am and were given our lunch bag – which included 2 bottles of a water, a bottle of orange juice, 2 cookies, chips(crisps), nuts and a nut bar. Later we were given a wrap as well. We ate on the bus whenever we wanted to.

It was one stunning view after another.

Unfortunately Mount McKinley was not to be seen today :-(.

Unfortunately when we got the end of the road, where we got do a little walk with a Park Ranger, it was a little drizzly and there were LOTS of mosquitoes (though it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected). Ours was the only tour to go out this far but we were really glad we did it.

We got to visit the house where Franny Quigley (sp??) lived in the early 1900s. She must have been one amazing woman to have lived out here (even when her husband moved to Seattle).

There was a number of animal sightings including hares, squirrels, moose, caribou, dall sheep, eagles, grizzly bears (including cubs) and the rarely spotted wolverine.

Kevin took lots of photos but found it hard to get good shots as the animals were often far away in a bad position to photograph.

He wasn’t happy with what he got, but I was pleased.

The dall sheep, with 2 lambs.

The wolverine – which ran up the road in front of us for ages. Our guide said it was the 5th one she’d seen in 20 years and the first in over 5 years. So we scored big time.

I managed to photograph quite a few of the beautiful wildflowers.

This is a wild rose…

This is what our bus looked like at the end of the day.

We headed back to MH, which was parked at the Wilderness Access Center, and was amazed to find a moose and her calf in the middle of the car park!!!!

Kevin & I were so excited. The baby was sooooo cute.

We drove back to Riley Creek and hung out in the car park again so I do this post :-).

Tomorrow : Headed back to Anchorage and our last day in the motorhome.