Denali NP Drive 16APR05 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, REG!!!

This was a wonderful day drive. We went to Healy, which is a small town 11 miles from the Denali Park entrance, and spent the night at Nord Haven Motel. It was a really nice little motel. There were only 3 or four rooms being used. The only problem is that in AK hotels/motels there usually isn't any loud air system that is on to drown out the noise made by guests. I wish, since there were only a minimal amount of occupants, they would have put no one on the 2nd floor, or ALL of us on the 2nd floor.Back to the Park...since it was Reg's birthday, we were on a mission to find Dall Sheep! He's been wanting to see one so badly! We did spot 4 or 5 of them high on some rocks. We watched them til they disappeared over the mountain. We also saw white (winter plumage) ptarmigan, 2 male moose, and a rodent that was similar to a small prairie dog. We also spotted a mom and her calf outside of Fairbanks as we were headed home. Reg spotted the baby first. We pulled over to watch it and take pictures. That put us between the mom and her baby. UH-OH! Thanks goodness we were in the Xterra! As soon as we drove up a little, the mom headed across the highway to be with the calf. We did turn around and get some pictures of them together which they kindly posed for.