Back Blip - Denali, the great one

Today we took a tour of Denali National Park - access is only on foot or by official tour bus in order to maintain the unspoilt beauty of the park. I guess they figure that hikers are likely to be prepared for the wildlife whereas if tourists could drive themselves in they are going to leave their cars and wander around offering themselves as a light snack to the passing bears. 

It is breathtakingly beautiful - if you want to see some of the landscapes my Flickr album is here. I mentioned before that they say only 30% of visitors ever get to see the mountain, so as we were lucky that day I couldn't Blip anything else. We were only given a fleeting glimpse, by the time we got to the best viewpoint she was gone again, hidden behind the cloud. 

Measured from foot to peak, Denali is the tallest mountain on earth, and it is notoriously dangerous to climb. It was a real privilege to glimpse it twice on our trip, we were very lucky. 

We saw moose, caribou and bears - a momma bear with her cubs in their blonde summer coats. And lots of mountains, stunningly beautiful mountains that did not look they belonged on this planet. What a day it was.