saw and heard many, many Arctic Ground Squirrels during my stay. I only managed to photograph one, however.

The grizzly bears were a lot more interesting than the squirrels.

And the wolves were more interesting than the bears. I very grateful to have witnessed this lone wolf trotting by our van.

Tuesday's lunch spot on the tundra.

More bears; these three grizzlies were quickly approaching North Face Lodge.

The same three bears hung around the Kantishna area the whole week I stayed there. Several guests and staff members had close encounters with them, though thankfully I did not. I had to restrict my activities around camp, however -- I was discouraged from hiking the nearby trails alone.

As reports of the approaching bears spread, many guests gathered at the end of North Face Lodge to watch. Firecrackers were used to encourage them to leave before they got too close.

The swans in Wonder Lake were popular subjects for the photographers among us.

On Wednesday's nature foray, we discovered a bull moose upwind of us. It was a quite a ways away, so we walked across the tundra for a bit, keeping a kettle pond between us and the moose, for a better view.