7/18 In Denali National Park

We arose early in clear sunlight, navigated the driveway from hell, had breakfast at Rosie's and arrived at the Park to caatch our shuttle bus. We had a driver named Heidi who I would guess was a woman in her fifties. She was a schoolbus driver in Anchorage during the school year and loved the Park and driving so much that she got this job during the summer. She indicated that although shuttle bus drivers didn't have to provide commentary, she had spent a lot of time learning about the animals and plants of the Park and liked to talk, so we were going to get extra for our dollar, whether we liked it or not. She was very good. She had a very good working knowledge of wildlife biology, animal and plant ID and geology. Also, she had driven the road so many times she knew the good vantage spots and where we might see wildlife. She really produced since we saw a wolf and a caribou walk past the bus as we were parked on the side of the road. We saw 5 grizzly bears quite a ways off, but still clearly visible with binoculars, and we saw many Dall sheep as wel as snowshoe hare and ground squirrels. We rode in to Fish Creek and them disembarked. As the bus pulled away we walked off into the bush and spent an hour and a half roaming the hillsides, sneaking up on caribou (not very well), eating lunch and relaxing It's very difficult to put into words the huge scale of the place, the quietness and the sense of wildness that I felt here. Eric, Lou and I talked about this and agreed that although a road runs through the Park and planes take tourists on flights over it, this is a truly wild place where whoever walks off into the bush to camp or hike, takes that walk with the understanding that there are forces out there that may prevent you from returning.