Denali mammals

Denali Mammals

a web page by Don Roberson

The
Denali
Big Five

Dall's
Sheep

Caribou

Wolf

Grizzly
Bear

Moose

all seen
from
Jen's
Toklat
bus
3 July,
but some
of these
photos
taken a day
or two later

In Denali National Park, mammal viewing is usually confined to what is seen from the buses that travel the gravel roads into the interior of the park. This is Jen's bus (left, with Rita), whose route was out to Toklat and return, a 5 hour trip we did in the afternoon & evening of 3 July. We were extremely lucky to see all of Denali's "Big Five" mammals (above), with Wolf, of course, as the unexpected highlight. Our lone wolf was actually on the paved portion of the road near Savage Campground that is open to the public.

On July 4 we booked an airplane flight by Mt. McKinley itself (low clouds precluded seeing the top of the peak) and landed at Kantishna, which is at the end of the gravel road through the National Park. We then took a bus back through the 92 miles of park road to the entrance, seeing all the large mammals again (except Wolf) but missing the one that we had wanted the most. At day's end we stopped to take this photo of the park entrance sign (right), and just moments thereafter our 'most wanted' mammal -- Canadian Lynx -- crossed the road right behind the sign! I didn't manage to get a shot off as it trotted across but what a treat anyway!

Throughout our 3.5 day visit here, we searched for and enjoyed the smaller mammals as well, setting up this gallery (below) of a Denali "Little 5" set of photographs.