Denali Bear

About thirty miles into the park, we noticed a long line of cars pulled over on the side of the road. If you frequent National Parks, you know what this means. Wildlife. Sometimes it's only a few white specks of mountain goat, or a caribou munching (we saw plenty of both of those). It just so happened that THIS time it was the holy grail of Alaskan wildlife-a grizzly bear.

We gladly pulled over, got out of the car and giggled as we watched him slowly move around and eat. He was very far away, and I wasn't nervous. I was simply stunned that we got to see one so soon on our drive. See his hide glistening in the sun?

We kicked ourselves for not bringing our binoculars, but we caught little glimpses of his cute face every few minutes.

We hung out for probably an hour or so. We didn't have to be anywhere. We ate some pistachios, and treated this moment like a good movie. I was happy to watch The King of the Forest forever. As we watched, he slowly made his way closer to us. 

This is when my heart starting beating faster. A park ranger was nearby, keeping a close eye on The Bugger, and warned us that we should probably stay in our cars at this point.

Even Oscar noticed The Monster.

Mr. Bear paid no attention to the line of cars and awe-struck humans. Jeff believes this is because the park service is careful to ensure that these beasts never eat human food. Even though the Big Guy probably didn't notice us, we all knew this was a profoundly dangerous animal. Hence the name "Grizzly."

We kept our windows rolled down for ideal viewing, and we began to hear The Hungry One digging and chewing!

Then-he started moving closer....

...and closer....

AND CLOSER!

He sniffed in the direction of the cars, and I wondered if he could smell our pile of pistachio shells, and then! He suddenly crossed the road. 

This is where I freaked out. We quickly rolled up the windows, and I whispered in fear "Should I lock the doors?! Oh my gosh! Oh my GOSH!! OH MY GOSSHHH!!" Jeff was giggling with delight, and reminded me that bears don't have thumbs-therefore it's difficult for them to open car doors.

These folks tried their best to "stay inside their vehicles." They were braver than I was.

We continued to watch Mr. Bear eat, and sniff, and lumber and then suddenly he was gone over a hill. We were pleased that we got to see a bear right away, and happily continued to drive. We knew that we were lucky to have an exciting bear show. Little did we know-we would get another, more awesome bear show in mere hours. Stay tuned...

xo

Alli