Day 19 – Tuesday, August 11th
Up EARLY for our 7:00 bus for our Wilderness Tundra Tour at Denali. Because there are so many people who want to come visit the park, a decision was made some years back that cars are only allowed in the first 15 miles of the park. After that you either have to ride a bike, walk, or take a tour or shuttle bus. A bit more inconvenient, but much nicer for the animals and avoiding creating major roads in the park. We felt it was better not to spend all of our time in traffic jams. We picked the mid-range tour that would give us a view of Denali, if the sky would be clear. When we got up,the sky was crystal clear with a bright blue sky. Oh my goodness…. this might be a good omen that we might be able to see the Mountain today, which only about 20% of visitors get to see. We both giggled with excitement as we drove the 12 miles from Healy to the Park entrance. What would the day bring?
Denali National Park is another spectacular region. Denali is an Indian name for the mountain that means “Great One” or “High One.” It is over 20,000 feet tall! Since it is so tall, it creates its own weather, covering itself with clouds most of the time. There had also been fires burning in the area most of the summer which had created what had been a nearly permanent haze, oven completely opaque. As we drove to the park, we saw clouds building to the east. By the time we were on the bus, the clouds were overhead but it still looked good to the west, where we were headed.
Our Tour bus operator and guide was a woman, about Patti’s age, Lisa, who had been doing this job for about 5 years. Before that, she was a commercial salmon fisher in Kodiak, Alaska. During the winter, down time from the driving job, she is a writer and also trains dogs and races in dog sled races. AS it turned out she was our perfect guide for the perfect day!
Among the other passengers on the bus were 14 Germans on tour. Their English was varied, and a few weren’t very interested in following the bus rules whether given in English or German. Doesn’t it seem like every tour group has to have one or two of these!? Then there was also a couple dozen of Americans form a variety of different places.
The bus was a school bus, fitted with slightly more comfy seats, seat belts and a video camera system that allowed Lisa to shoot video of animals and then have us be able to view them on little screens that pop out of the ceiling. This worked better than Patti thought, especially for some of the animals far away up in the hills or mountains more than a mile away. As we traveled the approximately 60 miles each direction on the one road through the park, we saw a moderate amount of animals: several caribou, 
a moose with two calves, several Dahl sheet rams, 
a grizzly bear sow and her two cubs, ptarmigans, a coyotes,
many snowshoe hares, arctic ground squirrels, magpies, a couple of hawks, Not a zillion animals every mile, but fun to see some wonderful animals in the wild.
But the true highlight was, as we drove along further, we started getting peaks of the mountain, brilliant white streaks of snow at its base.
Lisa assured us, that most people do not get to see this much. Many photos were taken. Then we started seeing some of the higher parts, then one of the two peaks, then the other.
The excitement in the bus began growing when hope began to grow that it might clear even more so (clouds had now been moving and gathering behind and sometimes in front of us!) Then, we turned a corner and saw a good chunk of the mountain and it was dazzling! There was an ongoing battle between some of the bus and our driver “Please stop. I must take photos NOW!” 
While there were places that Lisa couldn’t stop. As well as a spectacular spot that she wanted to get us to. We finally arrived at the end of our travels Stony Dome, and it was more than glorious. Breathtaking. You almost had to pinch yourself that it was really real. 
Everyone off of our bus as well as several others was just magnetically drawn to gaze at Denali, the great one! The bus drivers, on the several buses parked together, were also ecstatic! How much fun for them to see it, but also to facilitate very happy tourists getting to see a truly rare site! We could have just settled in and stayed for hours, but unfortunately, some on the bus had to catch planes and trains yet that afternoon. 
Lisa finally had to pull us all unto the bus where she told us the only thing worse than pulling people away from that kind of view was ripping a puppy out of their arms! It was a quieter but highly satisfying ride back. We had seen the mountain, and now anything else paled in comparison.
Lisa was a very good storyteller and had a lot of personal and historical stories to tell which we enjoyed. But mostly we thought about the mountain.
Several hours after leaving, we arrived back at the beginning of the park, and Dick and I quickly agreed to call it a day and head back to Beth and Scott’s. We took a little nap, Dick downloaded photos and then we had another dinner and a delightful evening with Scott and Beth. Such gracious hospitality!
We had considered taking another long bus ride tomorrow, but now no more big bus rides for us. We drifted off to sleep knowing that we are now half way thorough our trip, but we had seen The Mountain! Wow!
Up EARLY for our 7:00 bus for our Wilderness Tundra Tour at Denali. Because there are so many people who want to come visit the park, a decision was made some years back that cars are only allowed in the first 15 miles of the park. After that you either have to ride a bike, walk, or take a tour or shuttle bus. A bit more inconvenient, but much nicer for the animals and avoiding creating major roads in the park. We felt it was better not to spend all of our time in traffic jams. We picked the mid-range tour that would give us a view of Denali, if the sky would be clear. When we got up,the sky was crystal clear with a bright blue sky. Oh my goodness…. this might be a good omen that we might be able to see the Mountain today, which only about 20% of visitors get to see. We both giggled with excitement as we drove the 12 miles from Healy to the Park entrance. What would the day bring?
Denali National Park is another spectacular region. Denali is an Indian name for the mountain that means “Great One” or “High One.” It is over 20,000 feet tall! Since it is so tall, it creates its own weather, covering itself with clouds most of the time. There had also been fires burning in the area most of the summer which had created what had been a nearly permanent haze, oven completely opaque. As we drove to the park, we saw clouds building to the east. By the time we were on the bus, the clouds were overhead but it still looked good to the west, where we were headed.
Our Tour bus operator and guide was a woman, about Patti’s age, Lisa, who had been doing this job for about 5 years. Before that, she was a commercial salmon fisher in Kodiak, Alaska. During the winter, down time from the driving job, she is a writer and also trains dogs and races in dog sled races. AS it turned out she was our perfect guide for the perfect day!Among the other passengers on the bus were 14 Germans on tour. Their English was varied, and a few weren’t very interested in following the bus rules whether given in English or German. Doesn’t it seem like every tour group has to have one or two of these!? Then there was also a couple dozen of Americans form a variety of different places.
The bus was a school bus, fitted with slightly more comfy seats, seat belts and a video camera system that allowed Lisa to shoot video of animals and then have us be able to view them on little screens that pop out of the ceiling. This worked better than Patti thought, especially for some of the animals far away up in the hills or mountains more than a mile away. As we traveled the approximately 60 miles each direction on the one road through the park, we saw a moderate amount of animals: several caribou, 
a moose with two calves, several Dahl sheet rams, 
a grizzly bear sow and her two cubs, ptarmigans, a coyotes,
many snowshoe hares, arctic ground squirrels, magpies, a couple of hawks, Not a zillion animals every mile, but fun to see some wonderful animals in the wild.But the true highlight was, as we drove along further, we started getting peaks of the mountain, brilliant white streaks of snow at its base.
Lisa assured us, that most people do not get to see this much. Many photos were taken. Then we started seeing some of the higher parts, then one of the two peaks, then the other.
The excitement in the bus began growing when hope began to grow that it might clear even more so (clouds had now been moving and gathering behind and sometimes in front of us!) Then, we turned a corner and saw a good chunk of the mountain and it was dazzling! There was an ongoing battle between some of the bus and our driver “Please stop. I must take photos NOW!” 
While there were places that Lisa couldn’t stop. As well as a spectacular spot that she wanted to get us to. We finally arrived at the end of our travels Stony Dome, and it was more than glorious. Breathtaking. You almost had to pinch yourself that it was really real. 
Everyone off of our bus as well as several others was just magnetically drawn to gaze at Denali, the great one! The bus drivers, on the several buses parked together, were also ecstatic! How much fun for them to see it, but also to facilitate very happy tourists getting to see a truly rare site! We could have just settled in and stayed for hours, but unfortunately, some on the bus had to catch planes and trains yet that afternoon. 
Lisa finally had to pull us all unto the bus where she told us the only thing worse than pulling people away from that kind of view was ripping a puppy out of their arms! It was a quieter but highly satisfying ride back. We had seen the mountain, and now anything else paled in comparison.Lisa was a very good storyteller and had a lot of personal and historical stories to tell which we enjoyed. But mostly we thought about the mountain.
Several hours after leaving, we arrived back at the beginning of the park, and Dick and I quickly agreed to call it a day and head back to Beth and Scott’s. We took a little nap, Dick downloaded photos and then we had another dinner and a delightful evening with Scott and Beth. Such gracious hospitality!
We had considered taking another long bus ride tomorrow, but now no more big bus rides for us. We drifted off to sleep knowing that we are now half way thorough our trip, but we had seen The Mountain! Wow!
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