We have a new friend this year.  It’s nice to watch a snowshoe hare hop about first thing in the morning while one relieves oneself in the privy.

This morning it was snowing when I got up and the dusting of fresh snow added interest to the tracks on my walk.

Notice the fresh snow on top of this moose track – it was made before this morning’s snow.  (If I were a good tracker, I could tell you a lot more than that).

This moose poop, on the other hand, was completely free of snow on the top.  I was amazed how deeply in had sunk into the dense snow.  The snow must have melted as the moose dropped it?

We saw some awesome raised tracks in the light, dry snow of 2023. Check out these links: https://roaming-nature.com/2023/04/16/tracks-ii-week-5-in-healy/

Tracks, Day 6 in Healy

The above squirrel tracks were much icier than the 2023 tracks.  C noticed that you could brush the wet snow away around some tracks and leave a little ice sculpture.

Our snowshoe hare was nice enough to show himself yesterday,  our first morning back. I haven’t seen him yet today , but his tracks were everywhere this morning.  C took the top photo of the hare while I was out.

This afternoon we drove into Denali NP as far as Mountain Vista.  Between the Parks Highway and Denali Park Road we saw 9 Dall Sheep,  3 Moose,  3 Ptarmagin, and 1 Spruce Grouse. 

At times it was snowing hard, just like the last time we were in the Park, September 20, 2024.  That trip we also saw 3 Moose; in addition, we saw 1 Owl and 1 Ptarmagin.