Bear Berry with Denali in the background, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Here is another new one – I love the bright patches of bear berry that forms on the high alpine tundra in places around Denali.  We also get the same dramatic plant in the high country around Seward – in fact I’m seeing a lot of it now.

I used a 24mm Canon tilt shift lens to get such an extreme range of depth of field – the foreground plants were just inches away from my lens, while the mountain is some 30 miles away I believe.

Bull Caribou, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Another one from my fall trip – this guy was a monster!

Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska.

This was my second evening on my recent trip to Denali.  “The mountain” wasn’t out, but there was sure a wonderful light show looking North including lightening!

Dall Sheep in Polychrome Pass, Denali National Park, Alaska.

This is the same ram in nearly the same place as my last Dall Sheep post, but the following morning – fortunately he hadn’t moved out of that wonderful patch of foliage!

Bull moose in front of Mt. McKinley, Denali National Park, Alaska.

It is always a treat to see Denali.  It is also a treat to see a bull moose up close!  But, to see both at together at the same time – awesome!

Mt McKinley, Denali National Park, Alaska.

This was my first full morning from my recent trip to Denali National Park – one of my most productive trips in awhile!

Wild lynx, Denali National Park, Alaska.

This was the same day as the sunset I posted yesterday, and of the sheep image I posted a couple of days ago – funny how some days everything just comes together!

This guy really scared us – as we were hiking around through the forest, he burst out of some trees just a few feet from us!  Fortunately, he only went about 20 feet and stopped which is when I captured this photo.  After that, he went to hunting and we were able to watch him for a good twenty minutes.  What a treat!

From what I have read, the lynx population lags the snowshoe hare population by about a year.  The last few years, there have been hares everywhere.  This year, there were very few.  So, I have a feeling that the days of spotting lynx in Denali are about over.  Seems like on my trips to Denali over the last couple of years that I have seen at least one lynx on each trip – but in the years before that, I rarely saw a lynx there.  If the lynx population does crash as expected, I’m going to miss these wonderful encounters.