Travel Tuesday Alaska Day 3 Denali National Park

Continuing along with the Alaska travel series, day 3 was a fantastic day. We woke up to sunny skies, and Mama moose made another appearance, but this time she brought the twins with her. These two pictures were taken from the balcony of our room at Lakeview Inn in Healy AK.

At 8:30 am we did an ATV tour from Denali ATV Adventures located in Healy AK. The tour does not go through Denali NP, but it goes through rugged terrain and trails just outside of the park. It was fun and the Fall colors were just starting.

We then had a 2:30 bus tour at Denali National Park. The park is still closed at mile 43 due to a landslide, so it was a 5 1/2 hour tour. We chose to do the Denali Transit bus, and our driver was fantastic. She stopped at every wildlife sighting, and she did a great job narrating the tour.

My main goal for this trip was to see the Fall colors. The Fall colors in Alaska are different from the Fall colors here in New England. In Alaska, the tundra changes to some beautiful reds and golds, vs here in New England we have all of the colorful maple trees.

 The first 15 miles or so travelling into the park there were some Fall colors just beginning to come through. Gradually, the colors were turning a gorgeous pastel color, something I had never seen before. You can see the colors in this moose photo that I took.

 The further we went into the park and into higher elevations, the colors came on stronger. 

We were fortunate to see a lot of wildlife. Here is a photo of a Grizzly Bear that the bus driver spotted. It was the first Grizzly I had ever seen. It was so far away, it almost looked like a brown dot in the landscape as you can see in this next photo, but I love the colors of the tundra.

The next Grizzly that we saw put on quite a show for us. We were told that it's unusual to be able to see a Grizzly sitting and relaxing this time of year, as typically, their nose would be to the ground foraging for food to prepare for the long Winter. He looked like an adorable teddy bear.

He walked around for a bit, and then sat down again to scratch an itch.

We saw more Grizzlies...... A female with her two cubs.. It was difficult for me to position myself to get photos of the two babies, but I was able to capture one photo with Mama and one cub.

We then stopped to see another Grizzly Bear who was foraging for food.

Then, walking uphill.

It was one of my favorite days of the trip.....a beautiful sunny day full of fun and adventure. I don't think I can pick only one favorite day, though. 

Stay tuned for day four.