Ptarmigan Tracks

5/20: Six wolves trotting along Grant Creek.

6/6: Eighty-six snowshoe hares on the road between Toklat River and Camp Denali.

6/7: Many caribou calves in nursery herds.

6/10: Horned Lark nest on Camp Ridge lined with willow catkin seed fluff, holding four eggs.

6/11: Ten Mallard ducklings newly hatched at Mile 74 pond.

6/13: Moose and calf feeding in Nugget Pond at Camp Denali.  Bull moose in pond the next day.

6/17: American Dipper nest on the drizzling wall of schist along Moose Creek with hatchlings being fed by two adults.

6/18: Wolverine on Gravel Mountain.

7/4: Osprey circling over the lodges.

7/23: Beavers swimming with poplar branches in MP 81 ponds for the first time in almost a decade.

7/29: Two short-tailed weasels scampering on the Moose Creek bridge.

8/4: Lynx stalking and killing a snowshoe hare alongside a Camp Denali bus.

8/17: Three juvenile Peregrine Falcons calling and harassing one another near Wonder Lake.

8/20: River otter crossing the road in front of a North Face Lodge van.

8/21: Sandhill Cranes heralding fall with raucous calls overhead.

9/1: Hawk Owl perched on the tip top of a spruce outside Potlatch (two Hawk Owls would later make regular appearances around the staff cabins).

9/8: Aurora borealis throughout the night and continuing in the north past sunrise while guests arrived to breakfast.

9/8: Black wolf digging at roadside on morning bus ride out of the park.