ANIMALS!

We have been a bit disappointed with the scarce number of animal sightings until today.... Seems they planned a surprise party for us (or maybe an early Father's Day Gift). Anyway, we saw five black bears, one shy grizzly, fourteen bison, a flock of Stone sheep and, just a minute ago at our camp site, two moose! All but the moose were sightings on the highway from Watson Lake to our current stop somewhere on the Alaska Highway in the foothills of the Rockies.
I will never look at dandelions the same again. Bears love them. Every one of our five separate sightings were black bears in a dandelion patch. Our first bear even took time off to demonstrate his back-scratching technique. He reached behind him and held the top of the small tree while he rubbed back and forth. He then walked over a smaller bush presumably to scratch his belly. They are laid-back guys.

Next attraction is the wood bison. They are resident in this area and are in constant danger living close to the highway (60+ killed a year). They are amazingly huge dark spots you can see far in the distance and they ignore cars completely. We only saw males so assume the females are hidden with calves. The males were in groups of two or four, all munching on vegetation (again with the dandelions!)

The sheep are called Stone Sheep (Stone Mountain is nearby). The young were still wobbly on their feet.