On the park road, Denali

Most animal sightings in Denali are from the park road, during a drive in or out, which partially explains why a 90 mile trip takes around six hours.  (The one lane dirt road, complete with occasional hairpin turns and steep drop-offs, explains the rest!)

Everyone on the bus keeps a close eye on the landscape, looking for the white specks of Dall sheep on rocky mountainsides or placid moose standing close to the side of the road.  As soon as there’s a sighting, the bus pulls over, windows go down, and cameras or binoculars are whipped out.

And even when there are no animals in view, the scenery is quite amazing.

On our final trip out of the park, at the end of our visit, we were surprised by brother and sister yearling moose at the edge of Wonder Lake.  They waded into the lake and started eating underwater plants, unperturbed by the excitement of their audience on the bus.

Any visit to Denali involves a long time sitting on a bus… but the hours really fly by with so many things to see!