Denali National Park is one of the largest national parks in the country. As such, there is a staggering number of activities available to park patrons. Among the more popular activities are taking flights up to the snowy mountain itself, rafting the glacial runoff rapids, and riding dogsleds!
Unfortunately, we didn't do any of those activities... they are all pretty expensive - and sadly, that's not how we roll! Someday...
However, we still did one of the best budget activities available - the Eielsen Bus Tour of the interior of the park! The great photo above, believe it or not, was taken from the bus! We were quite lucky to be able to get such a great shot - most days, the cloud cover is so thick that Mt. McKinley isn't even visible!
The awesome thing about the bus tour is that it probably provides the most wildlife viewing opportunities of any activity available at Denali National Park. The reason for this is because it is one of the longest duration activities in the park, and also because it covers a heck of a lot of ground. On the tour, you visit both highlands and tundra, so you have chances to see the wildlife that reside in both of these types of environments, like this fox we saw next to the lodge:
The most common animal seen in Denali National Park (and much of the rest of Alaska, for that matter) is Moose. They often walk right alongside the road, so we were able to get several great close up shots of moose!
The second most common animal sighting is Caribou:
Believe it or not, the third most commonly seen animal is bear! But we usually only saw bear from a pretty good distance... I think we augmented this shot with a binocular lens...
Alaska has all the major types of bears found in North America - Black bears to the south, Polar bears to the north (but Denali is not north enough to see Polar bears), and Brown bears like the one above. However, we got to see the elusive Pink bear next to our bus!
Oh... that's not a bear, that's just a preggers Cherry!
There were also a lot of Dall's Sheep, but these were waaaay up in the mountains so they look mostly like little grains of rice:
One of the cuter animals you can see are the little ground squirrels:
We were also very lucky to see some of the Denali National Park wolf pack!
But the big winner of the day was by far this Lynx! The bus driver said it was the first Lynx she had seen all year! This guy just decided to walk across the street and chill out by the bridge for a few minutes, so we were able to get some truly awesome shots!
So, if you are ever up in Denali National Park and aren't up for flying up to the mountain in a helicopter, make sure you don't miss this great budget wildlife viewing option!
Our hospital stay turned out to be a bit longer than expected because of the operation. However, this gave Cherry some time to recover under the supervision of the doctors and nurses.
Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Melinda also came to visit!
After five days at the hospital, we were discharged late last week. Coming home has been a lot of fun, though we haven't been able to play as much Wii as before!
The first day was pretty rough. Since we don't have the fancy schmancy (and, for me, back pain inducing) hospital beds that you can adjust the position of, Cherry had a bit of a hard time getting in and out of bed since she is still recovering from the operation.
Baby Sofia also wasn't very used to feeding at the start, but now she latches on pretty good. However, she still is somewhat of a nocturnal baby, sleeping most of the day and staying awake (and hungry) in the wee hours after midnight!
Some bonus photos:
Getting ready to go home:
Attacked by a penguin:
Gator Booties:
Lookin' at you, kid!
Sofia is taking a good long beauty rest, so it's as good a time as any to try to catch up a little bit on the travelogues!
Our first day in Denali National Park started with some $12 dollar footlongs from the local Subway restaurant:
Then, we were off to hit some of the popular nearby outposts in the park, such as this trail to Horseshoe Lake, where hikers can find a large beaver's dam!
The main activity of the day, however, was a trip to the Sled Dog center of the park. In the wintertime, the rangers actually use dog sleds to patrol around the park, keeping an eye out for some of the endangered animals and policing poachers. This center is where the park keeps and trains the dogs!
Having read a couple of Jack London's novels about life in the Yukon, I somewhat envisioned all of the dogs to look like the one above - a powerful Husky with a beautiful black and white fur coat. But alas, most of the dogs were smaller than expected - but nonetheless they were very eager and very capable of pulling a large sled like this one:
After the dog demonstration, we headed to another trail to hike before turning in for the evening. As with most hikes in Alaska, you are always bound to find a few interesting specimens of wildlife!
After a day's worth of induced labor, Dr. Gomez decided to deliver Baby Sofia by Cesarean section. The surgery was performed excellently, and Baby Sofia was born at 7:55 PM on October 21, 2010! Her birth weight is 7 lbs. 8 oz. - a great size compared to her mommy and daddy!
Mommy Cherry and Baby Sofia are doing great!
It was a long and super stressful day, but holding my daughter for the first time was such an amazing feeling!
