flour child: wandering through the wilderness

Sunday, Day 3
denali is a gorgeous, six million square mile spread of mountains and tundra. it has one lowly access road that goes 91 miles in before becoming a dead-end. there are only three ways to see denali in one day. the first is a helicopter. this is the fastest way to get into the park, but it's also the fastest way to empty your savings account. the second is a tour bus. you get on with your group, you get off with your group, you stay with your group, and a tour guide blabs on and on the entire time. the last is a shuttle bus. you get on at a designated time, but you can get off anywhere in the park, at any time. though there are a few predetermined stopping points along the 91 mile jaunt, you can simply ask the bus driver to pull over if you think you'd like to get out and explore elsewhere. this third option struck our fancy. you basically book your bus ticket based on how far into the park you'd like to go. we decided on the furthest point, which would take us past wonder lake, known for picture perfect reflections of mt. mckinley. now mind you, this is wilderness, so the roads are intentionally crude. taking a bus on a 91 mile tour of dirt roads is bound to take a while. 12 hours, to be precise. sounds daunting, but we were sure the views at the final destination would be well worth it. we boarded at 7:30 am. our bus driver spent the first few minutes explaining the rules. we were basically in control. if you spot any wildlife, you simply say "stop," and she'll stop the bus (turn off the engine even) and let everyone try get a good peek at the animals in their natural habitat. same with exploring. if you want to get off, just tell her to stop and you're on your own. we were stoked.

we spent the first five or six hours just gawking out the windows, stopping frequently whenever someone on the bus yelled for us to. and then people would go crazy, literally, scrambling to try and snap 50,000 pictures of one dall sheep speck several miles up in the hills or a moose antler peeping out from behind a tree. this got to be a little annoying, to say the least. but we were determined to get to the end of the road before ditching our vessel. when we finally hit wonder lake, we were the ones yelling "stop." we grabbed our gear and hopped off. it was kind of nice to be left standing there in silence....all alone, no bus engine, not a soul around for miles. we began to trek closer to the lake, but were soon disappointed. it was too cloudy to see ANY of mt. mckinley. you wouldn't even know it was there if there weren't pictures to prove it exists. it's kind of like this giant rocky phantom. the disappointment thickened as the clouds started to drizzle rain and the hawk-like mosquitoes discovered us. maybe we should have stayed on the bus just a little longer. we hit the bug spray and tried to shelter for a little while until the rain passed. when a camper bus came rattling by, we decided to hitch a ride back to a prettier, more hiker-friendly area. we had breaked at a rest stop that was quite beautiful an hour earlier in the trip. we arrived there and found the weather to be much more agreeable. so we were off and roaming again. my idea was to take a rounded hiking path, but marcus' sense of adventure led us the opposite direction. he wanted to be away from the tourists. he spotted a grassy cliff far in the distance and we began hiking toward it. it was at this point that we realized what tundra really is: marshland. the ground was a virtual sponge. it felt as though we were walking on wet pillows. it was thick and puffy and dense. i was taking knee high steps to march through it, and by the fourth or fifth step, our shoes were too soaked through to do anything about it. we figured we might as well go see what was over the edge of that cliff, because our feet couldn't get any wetter. as we drew closer, you could hear the roar of rushing water. we looked down on several small waterfalls barrelling into a large creek. quite beautiful. we snapped a few pictures, but as we turned to go back, i realized what we were facing...an exhausting, uphill marsh trek back to the road. it took 40 minutes to get out of it. at minute 38 i was ready to punch marcus for insisting that we be adventurous. it was the kind of hiking that makes you feel like you're going nowhere. you take one step and your foot sinks down 14 inches. mini, wet jungle. once we were finally back on the road, i started to enjoy myself again. the views were incredible, and the silent solitude of nature was deafening. we walked and walked and walked. two buses passed us, but i wasn't ready to give up our perfect journey, so we decided to wait on the next bus before heading 5 hours back. we spotted clusters of caribou in the rocky crags and watched two gulls dive-bomb a hawk over and over. we breathed in the cool, crisp air, stared at the towering black mountains with blankets of green surrounding, and felt like surely we were sampling a piece of heaven. further and further we walked. we kept looking back to see how far we had come. the road snaked its way through the hills for miles in front of and behind us. this was incredible. until....3 hours in. the sky had started to darken with the threat of rain. our shoes were still sopping. wet socks are definitely uncomfortable. our legs were starting to tire. we hadn't seen a bus pass in over an hour. now we kept looking back, not to see how far we had come, but in hopes of catching the glimpse of a dingy bus, bumping down the road. no such luck. i was starting to get worried. one should have passed by now. and then....the last thing in the world i wanted to hear. a bus heading in the opposite direction stopped beside us on the road. the driver told us that just around the bend, there was a mother bear feeding her cub just 50 yards off the road. panic. the recommended distance for bear sightings is 300 yards or more, and the most aggressive bears are mothers protecting their cubs. i was frozen. marcus, of course, was eager to see this "magnificent" sight. i couldn't move. all i could think about was being attacked by a giant, angry bear and being left to rot in the wilderness. so there i stood, alone in the drizzle, while he headed off without me. where was that bloody bus?! five minutes passed. then ten. great. now i was too scared to go see if my husband was eaten by a bear while i just stood there i fear. what a stupid trip! why did we even come here? and then, relief. as marcus came over the crest of one hill, a bus came over the crest of another. i think we actually cheered out loud about the latter. and wouldn't you know, there were exactly 2 seats left. wet, cold, and tired, we settled in for the long ride back. we pulled in to the park visitor center around 9:30...that's 14 full hours since we had left. we skipped dinner. a warm, dry bed beat anything after our long day. looking back now, i would do it again in a heartbeat. i would bring that machete, some bear spray, and a dry pair of shoes, but i would go back without a doubt.

Pictures, Day 3

~having fun at one of the rest stops on the way in~

~wonder lake in the rain....not much "wonder" that day~

~we didn't take this picture...this is the view we were hoping for at wonder lake. if you compare this picture with the one right above, you'll notice that mckinley has mysteriously vanished...very elusive~