Denali July 29

We got up early and made it to the park for the 8:30 shuttle into the interior. It's a 60-mile bus ride in. The weather was cloudy, which meant that Mount McKinley wouldn’t be visible. I knew this from a visit my wife and I made here shortly after getting married. We both remember an 8-hour rainy ride on the bus to see one wet bear. This was no honeymoon, for the bear or us.

This trip with my daughters was a MUCH better time. The weather was as good as it gets for Denali, a little sun, rain and cool wind. It’s a tough place to hang. The ride out to the main viewing area of Denali was about 90 miles. We had a good driver that pointed out all the interesting parts of the park and stopped for wildlife sightings. You’d better bring binoculars with you. The animals aren’t running along side the bus like some Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom TV show. If that’s what you're wanting, you better stay home and watch TV. Towards the end of the day it seemed a lot a like "where’s Waldo". The clouds did clear enough to get a slight view of the mountain. We hiked around the visitor center. The scale and view of the mountains was awesome. I was glad to be able to do this. I hope the girls remember something from this trip. Thinking back to 9, I highly doubt it, but a parent has to try.

The driver on the way back didn’t talk much, so the trip seemed longer. The whole family dozed off a couple of times. The scenery was just as pretty the second time but the lack of monolog reminded me of riding the detention bus. I think you get the idea. It’s a strong memory for me even now. I think I’m digressing.

The highlight of the return trip was a restroom break. No, I am not kidding. We pulled onto a side road lined with porta-potties and found a bear waiting in line. The bear was eating blue berries on a hillside right next to the toilets and walked over to the bus when we pulled up to see what was going on. We were all busy watching him and taking pictures of course, and forgot to tell the poor guy cleaning the toilet about the bear. In fact, we were all whispering so that we wouldn’t scare him off. The bear walked right on by us and headed directly in the campground across the road. The bus driver got on the CB and started trying to warn the rangers. The guy cleaning the toilets finally overhears the bus driver and boy was he pissed. I don’t know why he didn’t say anything but you could sure tell he was hot.

To wind up the day we grabbed an Alaskan jumbo hotdog. I really don’t know why they were different than a normal hotdog. They did have bear meat hotdogs - I can only imagine how tasty that was. Probably tasted like an old camper. The ride back to the cabin was with a native guy that had only been working with tourists for two weeks. His normal job was a truck driver for the Prudhoe Bay oil company. He had been driving since 1981. He had been only driving for tourist for two weeks. The oil industry had slowed down and laid him off. He said he only had one more year and he was going to retire. I asked him what the land was like up in Prudhoe Bay. He said “Boring”. No sugar coating from this guy, that's for sure.