Alaska Day 13 - Rock Creek Hike and the Ice Cream Rebellion

On Thursday morning Alex gave a lecture on how the animals have adapted to live in the Denali area.  It was very interesting.  We also got to feel the coats of several different animals.  Here I am with a grizzly bear coat.  Those claws are impressive!

Rosie is holding a grey wolf coat.

Finally, she has a lynx coat.  The lynx has big feet that work like snowshoes in the winter.  He's able to easily move across the deep snow.

After lunch we headed out for our Rock Creek hike.  On our way into the Park, we saw a moose having a snack next to the Visitors' Center.  She didn't seem to be bothered by people.

These trees are bent because of late spring snows when the trees have leaves.  The weight of the snow on the leaves bends the trees.  Most of the trees get their leaves very late to prevent snow damage.

Moose had eaten the bark from these aspen trees.  The bark on aspen trees contains chlorophyll and other nutrients for moose.

Porcupine stripped and ate the bark from this spruce tree.  Porcupines are good climbers and spend a lot of time in the trees.

Along the trail there were openings where we could get a good picture of the surrounding area.

Blueberries were on the bushes.  Grizzly bears like blueberries and can eat 200,000 berries a day in the late summer as they "bulk up" before their winter nap.  Can you imagine eating 200,000 blueberries/day?  Talk about sick!

The Great Ice Cream Rebellion.  Several members of the group talked about how good the ice cream at the Marino Grill was.  Since we left for the Denali Education Center as soon as everyone arrived from the hikes, we typically didn't have time to get ice cream.  Rosie and I recommended an ice cream rebellion - let the bus wait 30 minutes while we all got some ice cream.  Forrest is enjoying the Rebellion as are many of our group.

Tomorrow is our last day at Denali before we catch the bus on Saturday morning.  We'll start with a hike in the morning.