Mush, you Huskies!

  Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, United States
Sunday, July 5, 2009

from David's flight

A quick story before we head out to board the train for Fairbanks. It was a very busy and warm day yesterday. We spent 9 hours on a school bus in the park looking for wild life. We did see Dall sheep, grizzly bears and cubs, ground squirrels, snowshoe rabbits, golden eagles and caribou but they were VERY far away. Fortunately, John and David had their telescopic lenses! Lots of camaraderie on the bus with our new 'friends.' There are some very nice people from very diverse situations...lots to learn about people!

This land slide just happened two days ago.

David on the trail.

Bear damage to the sign.

This evening David had a great experience flightseeing around Mt. Denali. He landed on a glacier and threw snowballs. He did get motion sickness but said it was worth it. His pictures will follow as we didn't have time to download them.


John and I went to a Husky Adventure. We went to the home of a 4 time Idiarod winner, Jeff King, and two of his three daughters showed us how they train the dogs and get ready for the race. It was so interesting and we got to hold the new puppies which they said was part of their socialization training! One of the interesting things about it was the definition of a husky is any dog that likes to pull...reminded me of Taffy!! The dogs were so excited when they brought out the ropes for the sled it was like picking teams on the playground. "OOOW, Pick me! Pick me!" When the picked team left the others howled! They loved showing off all their skills and running and getting wet and playing. It was a lot of fun. Like all sports, I am sure that there is some abuse but this operation really took good care of their dogs.

holding the puppies

Aren't the puppies cute?

Ellen King

Chardonney

chardonney with Jeff King's 17 yr old daughte

dog sled

This morning John and David went on a jet boat ride. I was supposed to go also but the air quality is very bad. It is so smoky that it is hard to breathe. I decided that it was not worth risking the rest of the trip on a fun-to-do. So I stayed back, downloaded my photos, did some email, packed up the suitcases, and now am doing the blog. Not much time left for this so it will be a short one with few photos.

Mt. Denali

Mt. Denali

the whole Denali range

more of the beautiful Denali range

Denali means 'Great One'

She sure lives up to her name!

the Alaskan train

a mt. stream with a fisherman

overlooking part of the valley at Denali

Dall sheep

Caribou

Grizzly with her two yearling cubs

ground squirrel

A davibou

lupins

David took a flight to a glacier

from David's flight

landing strip

from David's flight

David and the pilot

glacier

Hope you all are well and having a good summer. Blessings, Bobbi