Our view as we drove up was of gray, low clouds. No Denali to be seen. In fact, the drive up had some of the worst scenery we'd had the entire trip (caveat - we've had spectactular scenery, so the forests of spruce trees pale in comparison. If you compare to other places in the world, it's not so bad).
We boarded our school bus the next morning to ride into Denali NP. The park is closed to private vehicles beyond the first 15 miles, and the only way to potentially see the mountain is to take one of the school buses through the park. We opted for the one that would bring us to Wonder Lake, the 2nd farthest stop on the bus route, with the closest views of Denali possible. It's an 11 hour round trip journey.
As we boarded the bus, it's overcast and starts drizzling, and our driver tells us that we can sometimes see the mountain on a clear day starting at mile 9, but that we probably won't today. It doesn't seem clear, so our chances of seeing the mountain are slim. We don't see Denali at mile 9, but by mile 11 or so, the mountain has made its first appearance, thrilling all of the passengers on the bus and surprising our driver. The mountain is so white (because the snow never melts) that we all first mistake it for clouds in the horizon.
We journey through the park, getting closer to the mountain and spotting wildlife along the way. We see 10 bears, caribou, foxes, and one moose at the very end of our trip. However, most of the animals keep a fair distance from the road, so our binoculars are vital to seeing the animals. After the proximity we had to animals in South Africa a few years ago, the animal sightings here were a bit disappointing. At the same time, grizzly bears are very dangerous, so I'm not *that* upset over seeing them from a bit of a distance.
Most importantly to me, we saw Denali (the mountain) for much of the day. As we got to the Eielson visitor center, clouds were starting to build, but we still had phenomenal views. By the time we returned to the visitor center (after going 20 miles further to Wonder Lake), just the very tip of Denali was visible above the clouds. We were happy that we'd taken such an early bus out, to see Denali before clouding over.
Denali rises to 20,320 feet, the highest in North America. What makes the mountain so stunning is that it rises from a base of only 2,000 feet, and it isn't surrounded by other high peaks. There are a few high peaks to the north of Denali but none to the south, west or east. It makes it visually beautiful and an amazingly difficult climb (two climbers have died after reaching the summit in the last week, including one from the Chicago area).
We finished our long day on the bus happy with our mountain sighting and wildlife sightings, and glad to be off the bus (some of our fellow passengers were heading back onto the bus the next day - we couldn't fathom that!).
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