Day 20 - Into the park

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Today we went exploring for wildlife on the shuttle bus system run by the park. It took us 5 hours going 35 mph (at best) to get to a place called Wonder Lake, a location perfect for viewing Mt McKinley, when you are lucky enough, she shows some of herself (ie not much)1 out of every 4 days.

The early morning started out well with sightings of Dall sheep, moose, caribou and then a grizzly bear off in the distance. We even got a glimpse of the top of Mt McKinley. Something we have picked up on is that it is not very often in the summer months to see McKinley (or local name Denali, meaning "the high one"), as it has its own weather system, and what can be a nice day everywhere else, there can be snow storms around and on this mountain.

I would have to say though that the highlight of today's 11 hour trip though was seeing a female alpha wolf walking along the road - right past the bus - looking for dinner. We were informed that she and the male had just had 7 pups, who occasionaly come out and can be seen in the river bed playing, if you are REALLY lucky...

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