In Denali to Mile 66

As part of our camp reservation, we could not drive our vehicle anywhere else for three days.  We had to select a final destination on the camp bus, and were given one reservation for the bus.  After that, if we wanted to ride the bus, it was on a first come, first serve basis.

We chose the Eilson Visitor's center at mile 66, because it was not the full ride to mile 92, which takes 11 hours!
Our ride was slated for 6 hours.  However, because we are picking it up at our campground, which is an hour from the visitor's center, and being dropped there, too, we shave about two hours and 20 minutes off the ride.

The ride is in school buses and they recommend that you bring a pad of some sort to sit on.  We opted to take our chances rather than lug around a cushion, but the seats were relatively comfortable, so we lucked out. The buses appear as a cloud of dust on the horizon.  I don't know why this doesn't affect air quality and disturbance for the animals.

Iglo Creek is the first stop our bus makes.  It will make a bathroom break every one and a half hours.  No coffee or tea before you get on or your in trouble!








The road is steep, unpaved, silty dirt that is flying everywhere.  It is on a ridge high above the valley floors and the view down is heart stopping.  The vistas are tremendous, and the terraine is sharp.

 I always think of the vagueness of our rivers in the lower 48 for example, when they talk about the headwaters.  Here, you can stand and see rivers starting up the mountain, follow them down the valleys to where they merge.  We saw three river systems like that from one vantage point