Just an 11 hour bus ride and we will be to and from Wonder Lake!!
Coffee and snacks for the bus ride and we are off at 6:45am. Jimmy picks the front row seats on the right, at first i thought i don't want to be in the front but it turned out to be the best spot!!!! I really should give Jimmy more credit sometimes ;) haha
Denali is six million acres and one road bisects it. The Denali park road is 92 miles long and private cars can only drive the first 15 miles of it. After mile 15 you either have to be on a bus, bicycle or hike your way through the park.
The first wildlife we see are Caribou.. after a while it's just like "oh another Caribou" almost like they are not wild anymore. Don't get me wrong, they are pretty amazing to see. Their huge racks are impressive just in themselves. We saw a bear with two cubs eating berries near the side of the road. Bears are quite big and cool from inside a vehicle, not face to face (not that we have experienced that and hope we never do).
Along the way we stop at different spots and overlooks for about 15 minutes to get in all the views and pictures we can! The park says that you can see Denali around mile 9... we were luckily enough to see her again today popping through the clouds!! She is quite impressive and intimidating all at the same time. What else would you expect from America's Tallest Mountain?!
The road is a gravel, narrow and windy road. We see a couple bicyclist on the road and we both agree that with so many buses coming and going it does not look fun. BUT we did see Ray, the cyclist from Svens's in Fairbanks, riding down the road in the park.... he would not be surprised we were on the bus and not on our bikes.
Halfway through our day we make it to Wonder Lake, a gorgeous still Lake. We stopped on the same side as Denali so not seeing the typical picture of the Lake with Denali in the back but still so calm and zen. It would be fun to come back actually get to canoe on the lake. Back on the bus to make our way all the way back to the beginning. Saw lots of caribou and eagles on our way back.... no moose though.
Our "neighbors" on the bus were camping in the same place and got to talking about the travels they were doing. They told us that they converted a van so of course we wanted to see it. We stopped over after the bus ride and it was a pretty sweet ride. They built and made everything themselves.. pretty impressive. Now we are back on the "we want to live in a van" phase... maybe just travel in a van instead of live in the van. Having a home base is really what we want right now.
Denali is my new favorite national park and mountain! Alaska is full of nature and wildlife and probably one of my favorite places yet!! The bus was a great way to see the park but on our next visit we will do some camping further in the park and hikes.
Back to our tent and off to Anchorage tomorrow!
Opmerkingen