Day 14 - Healy, AK (Denali)

We had to decide this morning if we were going to go into Denali to find something to eat for breakfast or search a litle in Healy. We got a recommendation to eat at Rose's Cafe. It was a good recommendation. Small and friendly. We'll probably head back for dinner there. The dinner menu looks pretty simple with burgers and such. They have a wall with pictures of people who have ordered their Grizzly burger. It is a burger with a one pound patty. Looks like it will definitely fill you up and will probably cause some pain too. (It comes with fries!)

We get to the bus tour with plenty of time. Our bus driver is the chatty type. She tells lots of stories and we know all about her, her family, friends, Alaska lore, and more then a couple tall tales.

The first stop is a viewing of Mt. McKinley. The clouds have chopped off the peaks but it is mostly clear. We figure we've seen more than a lot of people get to see and hope for a better view in the afternoon return trip.

The bus trip is a mostly a trip to see who can spot what kind of wildlife. The bus driver will stop on the road for anything worth viewing.

The first thing we see is a little marmot by the side of the road.

Later we see a couple Dall sheep. Hmmmm... They are probably half a mile or more away. They just look like moving white spots.

Towards the farthest point in we'll go we begin to see some caribou. At the final stop there is a pair of caribou only a couple of yards away. Up on a hill there is a herd of Dall sheep that can be seen pretty well with binoculars. The ranger have a telescopic view set up and focused on them. That brings then in really well.

There is a van with a mini nature display. Some antlers, a wolf hide, and a sampling of several types of scat! OK. I hope we get to see something more exiciting than scat!

Time to start the return bus trip now. In bus tour terms we do pretty well. A wolf is on the road. It is only 10 yards or so from us and quite interested in looking us over, standing still, and posing. Walt is able to grab many pictures. (They'll be posted as soon as we can get to a place where we can upload pictures!)

On the return trip home Mt. McKinley is now clear. Walt takes some pictures and the bus tour is done.

We've stopped for coffee here in the tourist jungle to check email, search a little on the internet, and hopefully wait out a little thunderstorm that seems to be on the way back to the Lodge.

That's probably it for today. I'll let you know if any one of us is crazy enough to try a grizzly burger.

P.S. I checked on the distance from here to home on the GPS. It says it is 3,174 miles home from here.

UPDATE: We talked with the waitress at Rose's. The Grizzly also comes with 4 slices of cheese and a fried egg on it. None of us ordered it. A guy at the table next to us did order it. He got his picture added to the wall. Some photos of photos of people who ordered this are below. Notice that some people ordered it with extra patties!