A Bus Ride Through Denali National Park
When my father said we’d be on a school bus for about eight hours in Denali National Park I was a little concerned. After all, eight hours driving down the interstate feels long and tiring, with moments of boredom and needing to stretch your legs, and that’s within the confines of a more comfortable car than a refurbished school bus. I’m happy to report several hours driving through Denali is not boring in the slightest, since it has so many things a drive down the interstate lacks, namely, majestic mountains and bears.
I boarded the bus with my parents around lunchtime, and almost immediately I caught a glimpse of the biggest porcupine I’d ever seen, the only porcupine I’d ever seen in the wild. Caribou cooled off in the sunny late-June day on patches of snow while way off in the distance Dall sheep posed on the heights. Time seemed to pass quickly gazing at the mountains, looking for wildlife, and every couple of hours there would be a stop for stretching the legs and using the facilities.
Of course there’s one thing most people really want to see when they visit Alaska—bears. Our bus’s bear-sighting hopes were satisfied when a mama and two cubs were spotted walking in the direction of the road. The driver stopped the bus and let us take pictures, oohing and ahhing quietly.
I had several moose sightings, and there was so much for the eyes to feast on, from clusters of wildflowers to the snowy top of Mount Denali itself, which I struggled greatly to differentiate from the clouds surrounding it for the longest time. Fellow bus passengers patiently kept trying to describe it to me.
No matter the length of the tour currently being offered, rest assured that the time will go by quickly in Denali National Park. For more pictures, visit the Alaska Picture Gallery.