12-hour Wonder Lake Shuttle Bus tour

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We all grabbed a foot long subway sandwich for our 12-hr Denali NP bus tour before heading to the bus  pickup area at Wilderness Access Point at 9:15am.

Denali NP has only one road, called Denali Park Road; it is a winding dirt road that travels along cliffs and through mountain passes.  The road is 92 miles long, and only the first 15 miles of it are paved. That paved portion, leading from the park entrance to Savage River, is open during the summer for public (non-commercial) vehicles to drive. Summer travel beyond mile 15, which is hugely recommended, is by shuttle or tour bus, or under human power.

Alaska gives a sharp contrast between man-made and God-created beauties. God's creation provides a sense of peace and solitary and reconnection to our inner world. Man-made beauty may stir up our senses, but may not be necessarily in a positive direction.

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Nancy was our highly trained bus driver and tour narrator; she worked as a bus driver in the summer and as an administer in school district at for the rest of the year.  I like her firmness on being punctual for all the toilet break we had.

Some wildlife just walked along the roadside, some along the gravel, and some appear to be small dots on the ridge.  I am amazed at how focus human eyes could be when they are determined to spot any moving animals.  Of course, binocular can be quite handy in this case.  A lazy bum that I am, I simply relied on others to point out to me the location of those animals.

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Dall sheeps, often rest on the ridge, play a large role in the creation of Denali NP (used to be called Mt McKinley NP).  Charles Sheldon's, then others, concern of the sheep overhunting that led him to lobby the congress for the establishment of the park.

The park is also a home to grizzly (brown) and black bears.  Grizzly are mostly vege or fruit eaters and live in the tundra while the black bears are carnivore and live in the forest.  Hence the bears we saw were grizzly.

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In the midst of the vastness and stillness of the mountain range, I found my solitude.  Personally, Alaska gives a sharp contrast between man-made and God-created beauties.  God's creation provides a sense of peace and solitary and reconnection to our inner world.  Man-made beauty may stir up our senses, but may not be necessarily in a positive direction.

During the 12-hr trip, we saw high mountains and valleys or tundra, rain and rainbow.  Yes, first time in my life had I ever seen a rainbow at the ground level.  Impressive.

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Our last stop into the park is Wonder Lake, one of the closest and best groundpoints to view Mount McKinley.  Just a few minutes before our turning back to the dropped-off point, suddenly those thick clouds rolled away and granted us a glimpse of the peak.  WOW! was all that I felt.  Suddenly all you heard was the camera snapping sounds.  The view was beyond description.

At the end of the 12-hr trip, we decided to walk 2 miles back to our hotel.  A pleasant walk.  We carried out spaghetti from the local famous Italian restuarant.  The meatball was made of Elk meat.  TASTY!  :)

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Sweet dreams....