From JuJu with Love

When someone says “Alaskan safari,” you picture moose wandering down the road, wolves howling in the distance, and bears around every corner.

Reality?

Five hours bouncing down a gravel road in a modified school bus.

But honestly… I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

The reward was seeing Denali in all her glory. We were incredibly lucky because she doesn’t always come out to play, and today she put on a spectacular show.

As for the wildlife…

We spotted five grizzly bears—including a mama with her cub, two bears wrestling like siblings, and one enormous blond bear who had apparently decided napping was today’s main event.

Dall sheep perched high on the mountainsides.

Squirrels and birds kept making appearances.

The one animal everyone wanted to see?

Moose.

The moose clearly had other plans.

And then there was the glamorous bathroom stop…

Let’s just say Alaska keeps you humble. The outhouse wasn’t exactly five-star accommodations, but when you’re in the middle of Denali National Park, you learn not to be picky.

Some safaris are all about checking animals off a list.

Today’s was about something even better—watching North America’s tallest mountain remind us who’s really in charge.

And honestly…

Seeing Denali from the ground was more than enough.

Or so I thought.

After lunch, eight of us climbed into a tiny fixed-wing plane for an hour-long flight around the mountain.

For months, I’d been nervous about the helicopter ride to the glacier. I survived that.

So naturally, I climbed into another small plane.

I thought the helicopter ride would be the highlight of my Alaska trip.

I was wrong.

I’d already seen Denali from the ground this morning. It was magnificent.

But nothing—and I mean nothing—prepared me for what happened next.

As we climbed higher, the landscape transformed. Forests became glaciers. Rolling hills became towering peaks. Before long, we were flying so close to Denali that it felt like we could reach out and touch the mountain.

The pilot banked between snow-covered peaks, skimmed over massive glaciers, and gave us views that simply can’t be appreciated from the ground.

There are moments when you stop taking pictures because your brain can’t process what your eyes are seeing.

This was one of those moments.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to travel to all seven continents. I’ve stood in Antarctica, gone on safari in Africa, and ridden camels through the Sahara.

But this…

This flight around Denali has earned a place near the very top of that list.

We wrapped up the evening at the Alaska Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre, where dinner came with music, comedy, and stories from Alaska’s Gold Rush days. After spending the day surrounded by mountains and wildlife, ending it with a little Alaskan history—and a lot of laughter—felt like the perfect finale.

By the time my head hit the pillow, I had spent the day bouncing down Denali’s back roads in a converted school bus, soaring around North America’s tallest mountain in a tiny airplane, and laughing my way through an old-fashioned Alaskan dinner theater.

Some days are just impossible to top.

Today was one of them.

From Juju with love 💙