The Park Road
In an effort to preserve the fragile ecosystem of Denali National Park and Preserve, the National Park Service has limited access on the park road for private vehicles. We did pass a couple on bicycles that our driver/tour guide described as meals on wheels for bears….
Since the park road is closed to private vehicle traffic, bus tours are the easiest way to see the park interior. We took the Tundra Wilderness Tour that travels 62 miles into Denali National Park to Stony Hill Overlook. There are some sections of the park road with very steep drop offs, no guard rails, and only enough room on the road for one bus to pass at a time. Now our tour driver told us not to worry, no bus had ever gone over the side. However, since coming home I have discovered that this is not quite true. One bus did go over the edge back in the 70's soon after the bus system was started, and there were a large number of fatalities in this accident. This happened at a time when the bus drivers received a very minimal amount of training. The park insist bus drivers today are put through extensive training before being allowed to drive the park road. The park uses only old school buses. I suspect one of the reasons is that the roads couldn’t accommodate anything bigger. But these buses do seem to blend in with the scenery better. Anyway, these sections of the road are interesting, especially if you are seated by the window by the drop off. As was I……
The Park Road
In an effort to preserve the fragile ecosystem of Denali National Park and Preserve, the National Park Service has limited access on the park road for private vehicles. We did pass a couple on bicycles that our driver/tour guide described as meals on wheels for bears….
Since the park road is closed to private vehicle traffic, bus tours are the easiest way to see the park interior. We took the Tundra Wilderness Tour that travels 62 miles into Denali National Park to Stony Hill Overlook. There are some sections of the park road with very steep drop offs, no guard rails, and only enough room on the road for one bus to pass at a time. Now our tour driver told us not to worry, no bus had ever gone over the side. However, since coming home I have discovered that this is not quite true. One bus did go over the edge back in the 70's soon after the bus system was started, and there were a large number of fatalities in this accident. This happened at a time when the bus drivers received a very minimal amount of training. The park insist bus drivers today are put through extensive training before being allowed to drive the park road. The park uses only old school buses. I suspect one of the reasons is that the roads couldn’t accommodate anything bigger. But these buses do seem to blend in with the scenery better. Anyway, these sections of the road are interesting, especially if you are seated by the window by the drop off. As was I……