Denali National Park: Oh! the sights, the flora and the fauna

Pictures from my first Denali NP trip over 1 month ago now.

Day #1:The sled dogs. The coloring on this one was so intriguing.

Above: They really love to run, so much, in fact that they pulled this park employee over gravel. There's nothing louder than the dogs before they start running and nothing quieter than when they begin running.
Below: I went for a hike near the entrance to the park up Healy Mtn.

Before I even got to the trailhead, I encountered this female.

So I followed her from a distance, because she was going my way.

Below: The only other wildlife I encountered on that hike...

Above: Don't confuse that critter with a rabbit. Alaskans will adamantly tell you it's a 'snowshoe hare.'
Below: The view from up top.

Day 2: I took a bus the 90 miles out to Wonder Lake and back. You can only drive 20 miles or so into the park after that it's by foot, bike, or tour bus. The trip was 11 hours long!

Below: A glacier. The snow and ice is covered by debri, i.e. the glacier is the black stuff in the middle and upper 1/3 of the picture.

Below: Dall sheep

Below: Area known as Polychromatic because of all the colors. It's less pronounced because of the clouds, but beautiful. The clouds/rain gave us a rainbow.

Above: We had the good fortune of seeing a wolf, right along the roadside. FYI - that's very rare.
Below: The craziness trying to get pictures when the viewing was a really popular target, as in said wolf.

Above: Me at cool, mosquitoey Wonder Lake. Denali is in the background. Unfortunately, the clouds hide that fact.
Below: The skies cleared up in the afternoon on the drive back, but we still couldn't see Denali. Over a years time Denali is only visible 1 out of every 3 days. I have had 5 days to see it. It's only been 'out' one of those opportunities. At least I've seen it and I'll have more chances in the next week.

Below: A sign warning hikers/backpackers to avoid this particular area. The sign happens to have been chewed on the bottom by bears. Yikes.

Below: A cow and calf moose.We saw the big 5: bear, moose, wolf, caribou, and dall sheep, so it was a good day. The caribou and bear were too far and I didn't have a telephoto lenses, so I decided not to post pictures with dots in the middle of them.