The Bus Ride

The only way to see Denali is on a park bus, so at 8:55 a.m. on Friday morning, we met the one for which we had tickets.  It was already relatively full, so Don and I got one window well seat, and Katie and Bart got the other.  CJ and Kara sat closer to the front.

The weather was not great . . . cloudy and rainy.  We were not optimistic about the ride nor about getting to see Denali, but forward we went.  The first few stops were pretty ordinary, and we only saw a few bears and a caribou.  When we were at polychrome, besides the beautiful rocks and colors, I came upon a covey of Ptarmigans.  I had not realized how gorgeous those birds are and was lucky to get this photo of Pterry Ptarmigan.

As we were getting close to Eileson Visitor Center, Rex, our driver, kept saying that he was concerned that the ride to Wonder Lake would be awful.  With the dreary weather, animals would be hard to spot, it would be rainy . . . but don’t let me discourage you, he said.  You are making your own adventure.

We were surprised when we came back to the bus after lunch and nearly everyone was still on the bus. I guess we were all risk-takers – or we believed that the lighter skies would bode well for the rest of the journey.  Either way, we all headed out again, including the family with the 4-month-old baby that only cried when he was hungry or when the bus stopped . . . or when he needed to have his diaper changed, which the mom and dad did in the bus.  It was a bit odoriferous . . . but that’s babies!

We were hoping the Mountain would appear, but it did not.  But bears did . . . and a lot of them.  

These guys were on the left side of the bus but eventually just walked down the road.

I think this is such a pretty picture, despite the lack of good light

I think we saw at least 15 of them in the 10 hours we were on the bus.  We also saw a fox, courtesy of Kara, and a few caribou.  We were hoping for a moose in the kettle ponds, but that was not to be, and when I found out there are only 77 wolves in the park, I doubted we would see one. 

Fall is coming to Denali – we saw plenty of gorgeous landscapes, lakes, and trees.  

We decided to walk the last mile of the way to get all of our steps, and by the time we got home, we had had an awesome day, and we were plenty tired.