Our pickup was I think 0545, so we could be at the park in
time for an 0630 bus to Eielson Visitor Center, which is
66 miles into the park and about halfway down the park road.
It's 4 hours in and 3 hours back (people are more into
oohing and aahing on the way out), with a half-hour stop at
the center, on an old school bus with school bus windows
and wonky school bus heating that is either too hot or not
hot enough. Our cheerful and chatty driver Ray was a
wellspring of information on things geological, historical,
and zoological - the very model of a modern major general,
if you will. Still, it would have been fun to have Seat 2A
as our guide, but it was his day off.

We loaded a cooler of snacks and dips and cheese and a big
shopping bag full of chips and dippers onto the bus with
us. It was suggested that we bring the 5 partial bottles
of leftover wine and some beer as well, but it was deemed
not worth the trouble to pack the glasses, and this would
have involved a third mule (and a fourth, if we took the
glasses). Perhaps I should have thought to bring plastic
cups, but then again there was no rest facility on the bus,
and the bus was pretty full - I was pushing it a little
just bringing the one cooler.

It's a fairly rugged 66 miles on a gravel road - compromise
between accessibility, one goal of the park, and maintaining
the wilderness, another. No private vehicles (with some
exceptions) after a certain point 17 miles in. Modest net
elevation gain but substantial variation, as we went through
four mountain passes - Sable, Polychrome, Highway, and
Thoroughfare, each with its own charm and views - I think
Polychrome was the most spectacular (as it should be, given
its name). The appeal of the geologic beauty rivals that of
the animals, and I say that even if we got hardly a glimpse
of the namesake mountain.

There are a few rest stops on the way, where squeegees are
available so people can attempt to get some of the crap off
their windows - the gravel-mud roads and the moisture
conspire to give a coating of gray mud on the windows that
obscure the view, and which returns within a few minutes
of cleaning.

Procedure. Peek out the dirty windows as best you can, and
then when someone sees something ("stop! stop!") all the
windows get opened, and people crowd to the sides, forcing
their noses and/or cameras out for a view of whatever there
is to see.

Wildlife sighted: Several herds of Dall sheep, one fairly
close. A medium-size grizzly, very close. A couple herds of
caribou, one very close. A lone wolf, pretty close but
trying to pretend he wasn't. Another couple bears. The last
bear sighting was right by Eielson, so the alarm was sounded
and folks were held in the protection of the building or the
vehicles until the critters had left, and they took their
sweet time about it. Which led to some mighty good photos.

Lunch at Eielson (creepily named after someone who died in
a plane crash) - to get really neurotic about it, I'll tell
you that we had artichoke-Parmesan dip, artichoke-Jalapeno
dip, hot salsa, seafood salad, hummus, and 3 kinds of cheese
served with pita chips and corn chips, all still good and
fresh and abundant.

When it was time to load up, the misty weather had somewhat
cleared, though it was way too overcast throughout to get
any kind of mountain view.

On the way back, fewer wildlife sightings - whether that
was because it was midday and the animals were on break or
because our eyes were tired I don't know.

We had time to see the park visitor center, but after having
seen the real thing it's not a big deal to see pictures and
models, so we left after a little time.

The trip fro was quicker than the trip to, which was good,
as magic111 had a plane to catch. We got him to the airport
an astonishing 2 hours before his flight, even with a short
tour of Lake Hood seaplane port before.