It is this moment that I have tried to capture in this painting. By the time you realize that this is more than just a field of grass, you may be thinking your last thought. Denali Park puts on a spectacular show , caribou, Dall sheep, wolves, and of course, grizzly bears. In the autumn, the animals are at the peak of condition. Antlers are fully grown and ready for rutting.
Winter coats are thick and shiny.
This alone would make this destination worth an autumn visit, but the glory of fall colors creates landscape vista that dazzle the eye even without the view of wildlife. When I saw this grizzly mother and cub coming down a distant slope, I kept my fingers crossed that they would come closer and head up a particularly gorgeous slope. To my amazement they did. Of course, summer turns the Arctic into the land of the midnight sun, but it is the angle of the light that makes it so special. This polar bear is peering and sniffing into the distance from a perch on the pack ice, which is the ice that freezes over the sea each winter.