There is a gravel road that covers about 90 miles of the park. They don't allow private cars into the park, and your choices of transport are hiking, biking and taking a bus. We opted for bus tours. Our first stop was a deli so we could get sandwiches for lunch, then we dropped off Patty and Bill for their Tundra Wilderness Tour. Pete and I had opted for a cheaper tour without narration that would take us to the Eieslen Nature Center which was 50 miles into the parkWe were on the bus with 35 other eager sightseers at 8:30 am. First order of business was our driver telling us how to behave when we see wildlife. Our driver was a 20 year veteran, and had seen all the imbecilic behavior known to humans and told us what not to do: don't yell at the bear, don't bark at a wolf, don't make a lot of noise or the animal will run away, etc. Pretty common sense stuff, except that most of these behaviors were exhibited by our bus mates when we actually saw animals.
And we did see a lot of animals! First we saw caribou down on the river plain, one was cooling himself in the snow bank, and another was drinking and trotting through the water. Next we saw grizzlies, but they were far away and sleeping, so it was not very interesting. We saw dall sheep quite close up, there were 8 of them and they all looked pretty young judging by the size of the horns. The highlight of the wildlife sightings for me was seeing a wolf - he came out of the underbrush toward the side of the bus where I was sitting so I shouted out, "wolf, 3 o'clock" which was the code to tell the driver to stop and the passengers where to look. He was incredible looking with golden eyes that stared right at us and his coat was very full. 
He quickly got spooked by all the commotion on the bus and took off into the underbrush, but luckily for us came back out on the road in front of the bus. We followed him for about a mile and watched him catch a mouse before he finally left the road. We also saw a golden eagle from above; I didn't realize how large this raptor is - we got a great look of him perched on a rock in Polychrome Pass and then he took off.The weather is so changeable in Alaska. Our first view of Mt McKinley was clear, but within 30 minutes the mountain was covered by clouds. As we made our way out toward our turnaround point, the clouds kept gathering. As we were headed back to the bus after our break, the clouds opened up and it started to hail. It quickly turned to rain, but fortunately didn't last too long.
After our tour ended we picked up Patty and Bill, and then grabbed beverages at a nearby liquor store. Diane, we finally bought Bill a beer for Father's Day! We enjoyed exchanging stories of what we had seen and learned together at our cabins. It had been an amazing experience!
Dinner was within walking distance at a restaurant called Parks 229. It's named after its address, which is mile marker 229 on the Parks Highway (Alaska State Route 3).
The restaurant features as much locally procured produce as possible and could fit in down in the Bay Area. We enjoyed fresh local oysters, crab cakes, and champagne to start. Bill and I had the salmon ala salade nicoise: with red potatoes and hericot vert, topped with basil, grated hard cooked egg, and black olives. Patty had the vegetable lasagne cooked with housemade pasta that featured chevre, spinach, and asparagus. Pete had the bouillabaise that was served with local Alaskan halibut, clams, scallops, shrimp, and saffron aioli. For dessert, we had chocolate pot de creme and fresh berries (blue, black, and strawberries) served with cassis.Tomorrow we will try and ride the Denali park road and see how far we can make it with the tandem on that gravel road.
How do you top THAT day? I look forward to finding out - thanks for buying Dad the beer - I'll return the favor when I can! (Maybe we'll see you while we're in CA?)
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