Caribou and Bear

A quick pic post, since the visitor center wifi works, even though they don't open until tomorrow.  There were a lot of caribou yesterday. 

These I saw when I was on the bike.  At first, he was looking at me head on and mostly I saw the antlers and my first thought was - why is there a windmill up there.

This, despite how remote it might look, is looking under the bridge at Savage River.

We never would have seen this bear if there hadn't been a bus and several carsfull of people with their binoculars aimed out into nowhere.  Since there were lots of caribou to be seen, we figured maybe it's a bear for all the people to be looking at something so far away.   For the most part, the bear was in the brush and occasionally you could see a glimpse of blond fur in the binoculars.  I'm guessing the bus driver knew there was a bear in the area (there was a cub too) and was looking out for it.

We stayed after everyone left and I was able to catch this quick shot as the bear got out of the brush for a moment.  It's a long ways off.  I could make up a number, but really, with the long vistas in Denali, it's really hard for me to guess how far things are.

OK, that's enough for now.  There are more animals to see.  I'll put up birds and other pics later.  The mosquitoes are already out despite the wind and they're checking me out.