I got up a little early and took a walk around the grounds of our motel in Cantwell, Alaska, finding mostly the usual suspects plus Swainson’s Thrush and Gray Jays. At 7:30 we all set off for the breakfast place just up the road, but it turned out not to be open as we had been informed it would be. Joyce and Nancy remembered a breakfast place a few miles up the road and we went there and indeed had a fine eggs and reindeer sausage breakfast. We also had them fix us a box lunch for our bus trip. On to Denali NP where after parking at the wrong place I finally got us to the right place to get on our bus. We got started right on time and it wasn’t long before we saw our first moose, then another (photo), plus some grizzlies (photo), and some Dall Sheep (photo). I got not-so-good pictures of most of them since we stayed on the bus and shot pics through the windows. We also got views of a Gyrfalcon on a cliff probably near a nest (photo). We rode all the way to Toklat where we wandered around for awhile and returned to the bus for the trip back. At Igloo Creek we got off and walked about four miles to the next campground where we hailed a green bus, got on, and rode back to our car. On our hike we got a Boreal Chickadee, which was new for the year. When we got to our car, we went a little way north on the Parks Highway to a commercial section where we found an open-air restaurant. Since the weather was fantastic, we sat outside and each of us split an entrée. In addition I got a chocolaty dessert and four forks. On our way back to the motel we stopped at the “229” and got some food for breakfast. After reaching the motel we took a walk along a trail on the motel property to a picnic table overlooking a stream. It was a nice little walk. I didn’t last very long when we got back to the room. The new bird brought the year’s total to 620.
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