June 1

A Day In Denali

After getting up E-A-R-L-Y back-to-back morning with L-O-N-G days each day today we had the morning to ourselves.  Well, actually we had the option to go on an eight hour tour of the park that began at 6 am but we opted out.  We'd been on this tour the last time we were in Denali and what we saw yesterday on the Jeep Highway tour was awfully similar.  Kim and I enjoyed a great breakfast (all our meals for the land portion are fully covered by the meal plan we got with the tour!) and we had a lazy morning.  We walked over to the Denali Square area, near us - just a quick word, it's pretty cool this entire complex is owned by Holland America/Princess with countless lodges, shops and restaurants.....really done well!) and had a light lunch.  We headed back to the main lodge to meet Gary & Claudia for an early dinner at 4:30 because we had early evening excursions.

My excursion was a flight-seeing trip to a glacier where we were to land and walk around.  We'd done this on our second trip to Alaska and I knew that being able to fly up there with the ever-changing weather was "iffy" - so at lunch we asked about the status and were told they wouldn't know until they did a test flight right before we left.  So as we finished dinner I checked.  Can't be a good sign when the clerk at the desk said, "They want to talk to you" and handed me the phone :(  Ronnie, the gal at Fly Denali broke the news that they couldn't go.....sigh, but then she said the would offer me an alternative flight.  Before she could go any further I said YES I'm in!  And what turned out to be really cool was I was the ONLY guest who went with the alternative so it was me and the pilot Eric.  Since we had two empty seats he asked two of "the guys" that worked at Fly Denali if they wanted to go along so "just us four boys" went for a little flight.  SOOOOOO cool as we took off - I was in the front seat (actually had a steering wheel, but told Eric I really wasn't interested in 'taking the wheel') and we flew over the wilderness then up through the passes in the mountains.  Just an amazing experience.  We landed at the Wood River Lodge which was originally built in the late 1880s and after sitting empty for twelve years has been revived this past year and will open their doors like a bed & breakfast kind of retreat this summer.  Had a full tour - and a free beer - and then back into the plane for the flight back.  Just really extraordinary.  Check out the pics below.  Meanwhile while I was flying Kim and Gary went to the Black Diamond Golf Course and played nine holes of golf on the tundra course.  What a great day all the way around!  Tomorrow we drive the nearly ten hours to Seward and board the ship to begin the Alaskan cruise :)

The Flight Plan

Alaskan Golfing