The buses are school buses, and you get friendly with your neighbors really quick. How it works is the bus drives the road and everyone looks out their windows. If anyone thinks they see an animal they yell “STOP!” and say what they think it is and where it is. If it is an animal, everyone pulls down their window, the bus driver stops in the best spot, and you must be completely silent (good luck with that). Then everyone pulls out cameras and binoculars and there is a lot of shuffling about and cramming yourself next to people on the side of the bus the animal is on, and whispers of “Where?” “I see it, I see it!” “I can’t get that picture…” and general stating of the obvious about the animals including color, numbers, ages, sex, and anything else that comes to mind when you see an animal in the wild. Eventually the bus driver turns on the engine and drives off, and the conversation really picks up with happy exclamations, and showing of pictures on view screens and telling of related stories of wildlife in Alaska.
Besides wild animals, the other thing everyone wants to see is Mt. McKinley, also called Denali which means “Great One” in the native Athabascan language (it’s the tallest mountain in North America). People in the area use both names to the confusion of many tourists – and really I think they favor Denali, which they should. But for clarities sake I’m going to refer to the mountain itself as McKinley. It is only visible 20% of the time, and many people who come to Denali never get to see it because even though it can be a clear day, the mountain literally makes its own weather, and its favorite weather is cloudy. The Eielson Center is the best viewing spot and has markings on the ground for various heights and then when you look up you can see an outline on the glass of where McKinley would be if you can see it.
So how did I do on the bus ride? Excellent!!!!!!!!! I did see McKinley, although from a distance – it came out while we were on our way home. I saw a ton of animals including bears and bear cubs right on the road. I saw moose bucks – which was a first as I hadn’t yet seen a moose with a rack and that does make them a lot more impressive. I saw Dall sheep, caribou, red foxes, hares, ground squirrels, ptarmigan, and various birds. While I got some great and some not so hot pictures, I tried to remember to put the camera down and just use the binoculars at times to really enjoy being able to observe the animals in their environment (I even had rented better binoculars from the WAC as a special treat).
I would rate the ride as a wonderful experience that is hard to describe. Truth be told, you can see these animals in zoos, but it is completely different spotting wild animals – even ones in the far off distance in terms of feeling generally lucky to just be alive in the world – in their world – for a day. Also the scenery along the whole ride is jaw droppingly beautiful, especially the section called Polychrome and its colored mountains. Most of the park is tundra and trees don’t grow there, which almost has the effect of a huge expanse of ground carpeted with green and bordered by various types of green or snow topped mountains as backdrops. And don’t even get me started on the clouds here – dramatic and changing, and the lighting designers for the park as they cover patches with shadow and highlight others with rays of sunlight.
My only regrets – I could probably have done with a little more packed food, and I want to see a wolf and a lynx before I leave Alaska.
The bus trip inspired some epic walks – more on that tomorrow…
Pictures: McKinley; Scenery; Animals
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