Day Five

Today was all about the wildlife!

We got up early this morning and took a guided tundra tour into the Denali National Park and Preserve - the third largest park in the country. The goal was to see all the wildlife we could and boy did we ever.

Our first sighting was a lynx. We're told that's a rare find for tours, but we managed to spot one early on. Just as we were celebrating that small victory - there were more sightings. We saw a bald eagle, a golden eagle, and a pack of caribou high up in the mountains. Then, after searching and searching - we finally saw them...two white grizzly bears! It was a mother and her cub. We're told there are 350 of them in the park and we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the two grizzlies grazing in the brush. And the day only got better. We later saw more caribou -except this time it was an entire family of them including a mother and her calves and before we knew it they were crossing right in front of our bus. As you can imagine - everyone who had a camera was trying to capture that moment on film.

We paused briefly from our wildlife adventure - hoping to see Mt. McKinley, but the clouds just wouldn't cooperate to give us a glimpse of the mountain range - but we're hoping for a better view later.

As we concluded our six hour adventure in the mountains - we had quite the finale! More Bears! They were two young grizzly bears - this time they were brown and very playful. The two wrestled and played with each other the entire time. They really put on a great show!

We got so much more than we bargained for on our wildlife adventure and left Denali with smiles on our faces.

We are now in Fairbanks and had the most spectacular meal this evening. We ate at the Alaska Salmon Bake and I will honestly say it was the best salmon I've ever had! Most of us ate more than we should - but that was okay. It was a great way to end our day.

If you can't tell - we are having a fantastic time!

Tomorrow we pan for gold...

I'll let you know if any of us strike it rich!

Serese