Home of the Smiling Bears

Perhaps the most fascinating experience wondering through the ecosystem that we know as Denali Park, is observing the symbol of savage wildness in North America - the grizzly bear- at work, surviving.

Watching a lone boar lying paws up on a remnant of a snow bank on a hot summer day to keep cool, and he is anything but the killer so feared by Hollywood actors. Catch the aggressive behavior of two-year old cubs on the verge of being driven, by what they had known as a caring mother, out into a harsh environment to fend for themselves, and the image of "cuddly", Teddy bears isn't real, either.

Yet another personification of the grizzly may the most accurate. That of being a "bear" É as in a good-old boy. Want a plot for a TV sitcom? How about the story of a Toklat colored (read, shaggy dishwater blonde) brown that inhabits Sable Pass. Let's picture him just a bit on the shuffling side, a real loser when it comes to keeping girls interested. He would love to dine on moose calf, but that really only happens at special times of the year, and Toke sometimes finds himself on an omnivore diet, that may even include flowers. Even worse, he is half the size of the big guys that live closer to the ocean where salmon litterly leap into their mouth. (lucky bums).

Thinking that way - Hey, Toke, we share some of the same problems,- makes me feel righteous about protecting my Denali Park buddies, even though they are a bit grizzly, in that I also know that out of an estimated 100,000 grizzly bears in the Lower 48 states in 1850, less than 1,000 remain today. Alaskas population of Ursus arctos horribilis (even the scientific classification is a slur) is estimated to be 31,000. Unless you can afford the time and expense of flying to McNeil River Sanctuary, or Admiralty Island, then Denali is the best place in the North to connect with this vital part of an Alaskan scene.