Sue & Paul's Alaska Travel Adventure

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Day 19 - Healy and Denali (6/1/99) We started the day with a 9:30 horse ride, from Denali Saddle Safari. It lasted about 2 hours and took us across the tundra. It was sunny but cool, and we were dressed in our usual layers. We saw a Long tailed Jaeger, an unusual bird with a long ribbon like tail. With this tail as a stabilizer it was able to hover in mid air. After the ride we saw a porcupine along the stables road.

 
Photos: A fox too busy 'marking' to run away, and the view from the "GrandView".

We returned to the park access road. Along this stretch of road we were able to see Mt McKinley which is about 50 miles away. Many days it is obscured by clouds. This was our third day at the park, but our first view of the 'high one'. We had more good luck in our wildlife spotting. We saw our first bull caribou. It looked like it had been through some rutting battles. We also spotted a healthy looking fox that was so busy marking it's territory, it allowed us to get quite close.We identified some sparrows, an American tree sparrow, and White crowned tree sparrow. The Healy area also has coal deposits and active coal mine. (See photo below)

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