FRIDAY 19TH – THE DAY WE FINALLY SAW A BEAR

Today started off with some promise weather wise at Denali Lodge, so much so that we yet again booked a flightseeing glacier tour at Denali to take place at Mt McKinley Lodge which we travelled to by coach later in the morning.

But, guess what, by the time we got to Mt. McKinley Lodge, the weather had deteriorated to steady rain and all flights were cancelled. The claim to fame of this lodge is that it is the closest point you can get to Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America, by road. The whole lodge is oriented towards the mountain but all you can see today (and for most days of the year I gather) is misty cloud.

So we resigned ourselves to a gloomy indoor day and were waiting in the lodge for a photographic theatre presentation when I saw a staff member walk out on to back deck in the rain with a camera. Several others quickly joined him. When I checked out what was happening, I saw black bear come out of the forest and  happily start munching on the grass below the deck. Of course, I didn’t have my camera but the photo below shows where he was munching the grass and the deck on which we were standing.

After the theatre presentation, we put our wet weather gear on and went bear hunting. It’s pretty easy. Watch what the staff are doing. We were rewarded by a sighting of the bear in the undergrowth about 50 metres from our vantage point in a car park. The staff chased him away but hopefully he will be back and we will see him again this evening. One things for sure, I am not going anywhere without my camera.

Sorry about the quality of the photo but the autofocus on the camera has trouble distinguishing between bear and foliage. One of the staff we spoke to said they estimated the bear to be a half grown three year old male.

Tomorrow we head for Anchorage for our last day in Alaska. We’re happy to go now that we have finally been been able to get up close and personal with a bear.