Wow what a day.
We took the Tundra Wilderness Tour, a 7 hour narrated bus tour 53 miles into the park. We booked the second tour of the day, starting at 2:30 pm.
Our driver, Justin, has been narrating these tours for 14 years. He was a font of knowledge, statistics, and enthusiasm.
There are 2 types of buses running in the park: green shuttle buses and tan tour buses. I've heard them referred to as school buses many times, but they were more comfortable than school buses that I remember.
We barely got started when we encountered a moose cow and calf at the visitors' center parking lot. Another tour driver had seen the calf born two days earlier.
We were told that cows hang out in peopled areas as grizzlies are less likely to be around people. It's a good concept, but not entirely correct we learned the next day.
A typical scene on the bus when encountering wildlife.
We were advised to get friendly with people on the other side of the bus, cooperate with opening windows for better photography, and share the view.
Black billed magpie.
Yesterday we drove past these moose without seeing them. It is a cow and twin calves not far from the road. Justin said that moose calves have to be about 14 days old before they can outrun a grizzly. This gang is hanging out, not moving much to avoid leaving a scent trail. Mom has water available nearby, perhaps willow buds to browse on, and will hope to get the kids up to speed before venturing forth.
It is interesting that the driver / guides are in radio communication, know that animals may not move much*. We first saw these moose on the way into the park, but I didn't get good photos. This photo is on the return trip, and they haven't moved*.
About half way into the our tour, we had a brief rest stop along with a few more bus loads.
Justin hopped off with binoculars to see if there were things to see. Again, he may have had advanced information to look for grizzlies in the river wash.
Far away, two grizzlies. We'll see them better on the return trip*.
Dall sheep. I didn't realize these [guys] had large horns until I got home to enlarge the photos. The contrast could be better, but this may have been shot through a bus window with maximum zoom on the lens.
The road is about a lane wide. When we met other buses heading the other way, there was some careful passing.
A ground squirrel - also known as Denali fast food. They are fast to breed, fast to scamper, and a favorite of many carnivores.
We saw many caribou bulls. They were in groups unlike some species where the males don't get along. That probably changes during mating, but this time, the guys were hanging out, the gals were off in another valley (Sanctuary) to birth their calves and avoid predators.
There were spots with big drop-offs from the road. Justin said, if it heights bother you, close your eyes.
Lunch box map.
Our tour turned around at Toklat River.
On the return trip, vigilant Ginnie was the first to spot this fox hunting.
On the way in, Justin said there was a female grizzly and two cubs (this spring's) along the way. We searched for them to no avail.
On the return trip, there they were.
Snack time.
We were cautioned to never poke anything outside the bus. All photos were shot from inside so the monolith of the bus side would present an often seen sight to the critters.
Still, this cub is wary of the very big things (2 buses) behind it.
Descriptions of bears you might encounter mention the hump and curved snout of the grizzly (not present on a black bear). Can't argue with that.
We stopped a couple of times for us all to try to find the wolf. A busload of tourists with binoculars, telephoto lenses, etc., all scanning a large panorama trying to spot the wolf.
From the back of the bus, someone looking through a huge telephoto camera lens said there was something ahead. We drove on a bit and found that it was a caribou, standing in the stream. Justin mentioned that that was a defensive position. Sure enough, we eventually saw that the wolf was there as well. The ranger had not mentioned the caribou prey.
A shot of the scene. Not until I could enlarge this did I realize that the wolf (left circle) and caribou prey (right circle) were in the photo.
Alpha male with black radio collar waiting out the caribou and/or waiting for reinforcements from the pack.
The caribou's front legs were bloody and the wolf had blood on its fur, so they had fought before coming to this stand-off, probably a temporary one at that.
Ptarmigan - Alaska state bird. If you can't spell it, call it 'chicken'. This was a male, part way through its white to black plumage change. There was a nesting female nearby, this guy was the lookout and decoy should a predator come by.
Keen eyed Ginnie spotted this coyote crossing the snow. We stopped for a bit to see it and another.
*Things don't move any more than they have to to conserve energy.
Varying hare also known as Snowshoe rabbit.
The moose cow and twins, again. Still there.
Porcupine.
- moose (many), one cow with 2 day old calf, another with twins
- caribou bulls (many)
- grizzly sow with 2 spring cubs, another with older cub
- dall sheep (many).
- ground squirrels (a.k.a. Denali fast food)
- foxes (2) (2nd one spotted by Ginnie)
- coyote (2) both spotted by Ginnie (way to go!)
- wolf (alpha male about to harvest wounded caribou in river)
- porcupines (2)
- snowshoe rabbits (2)
- black billed magpie
- ptarmagin
- spruce grouse
- golden eagle
- his experience - 7% of the wildlife sightings occurred before the first rest stop, and 93% happened after.
- [his] moral to the story: don't take the shorter natural history tour if you want to see wildlife. Bookings so far this year were running 3:1 for the shorter tour.
- almost all tours saw caribou, those that didn't were at the end of the season when the caribou likely had started migration
- all tours saw moose
- moose births average 2.3 calves
- moose calves have to reach ~14 days old before they can hope to outrun a grizzly
- caribou calves manage that after ~4 days
- about a third of the tours saw grizzlies
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