August 13: Scenic Railway Trip - Denali to Anchorage
After two full days of activities in Denali Park today we were up and out the door at 7 am for our luggage pick-up and have some breakfast before boarding the McKinley Express domed train for the scenic ride to Anchorage. So, there aren't many tales to tell today....but here's what you DO need to know. First, the train ride. One of the coolest things you can do is to ride the rails in Alaska to get from one spot to another, the scenery is truly something. There are three routes you can ride the train. (1) between Fairbanks and Denali - we were on the bus for this portion of our journey and honestly, of the three train routes, it's the least scenic. (2) Denali to Anchorage - what we did today. It's the longest, and I mean the L-O-N-G-E-S-T of the three as it covers about eight hours of riding on the train. The scenery is "good," but there's NOT eight hours worth of WOW scenery. A lot of it is just riding through the wild forest. And that's ok - it's scenic, you're on a domed train, and you're in Alaska so who's complaining. In addition on this leg you are served lunch which was delicious. For some reason today was a busy day on the railroad and there is but a single set of tracks. So twice we had to pull over and wait for a train coming northbound to arrive and pass us by, so it added about an hour to our day. (3) Anchorage to Seward/Whittier where the ship awaits. This is what we'll do tomorrow - it's about 3 hours, maybe a little longer. And the one time we did it we both said it was THE BEST "excursion" we've ever been on in any of our previous five trips to Alaska. The scenery for nearly the entire three hours is spectacular, so we have high hopes for tomorrow. Some of the shots I captured today:
One final selfie in Denali
Showing off our souvenir mugs with our morning "beverage"
(Mine was hot cocoa spiked with kalua - yummy!)
Patti has friends from high school who have bought a place in Anchorage and will live here at least part of the year. So she made arrangements for Kim and I to meet her friends Jackie & Tom Maxwell. They were waiting for us in our hotel lobby once we arrived. We made sure our luggage was in our rooms then all got into their car and drove the short distance to the restaurant Jackie had picked out. We were so excited to discover we were eating in an "igloo!" The dinner was fabulous, the company even better. Finally after dessert Jackie & Tom drove us back to the hotel where Kim and I took a look out over our balcony onto the waterfront and headed to bed. We've loved the land portion of our adventure but are so SO excited for the cruise to begin.
Well, as you can see from the photo above - the sunrise WAS amazing. And the "glass is half full" way to approach the start today was that we DID get to see that. But the truth of the matter was that the tour bus to take us all around the interior of Denali Park left the chalet at 5 am. Ouch that's early. We actually considered not doing the five plus hour adventure because we'd done it on one other trip here and saw mostly trees and mountains. But in the end, our second excursion wasn't until 5 pm, and our gal-pal fellow travel companion Patti had not done it, so we got up. BOY are we glad we did. In our five previous trips to Alaska we've never seen this much live wildlife, in person. And it was made even more stunning by new technology being used on the re-vamped school buses that are used for taking visitors into the interior of the park - where for the most part any other motorized vehicles are not permitted. The drivers now have a super-zoom video camera that feeds into monitors on the bus. I will say, that on this morning with the naked eye I personally saw more wildlife than I've seen COMBINED on all our other Alaskan trips. But here's one example....a bear was spotted, and when I zoomed in with my camera I captured the image on the right. Meanwhile the driver had zoomed in and was playing the image on the left. Yes, wow.....
Early in the trip we saw Mt. Denali - and we were told (and could tell) that probably by day's end visitors to the park would no longer be able to see the tallest mountain in all of North America. The pic below that shows you the dirt road we were on and the "tour bus."
At our first "comfort break" there was an overlook and we posed for a selfie and I took a pic of the panoramic scenery and did an intro video for the day.
Here's the screen capture of the main wildlife we saw. Our driver said that the we had topped the "grand slam" sightings level with what he called the "inside the park homeroom" of viewings" - we saw Mt. Denali, which is unusual...we saw caribou, moose, sheep, bear (3 of them), and most unusual we saw wolverines sprinting across the field. All just wow sightings.
Jeep Driving Excursion
This evening the three of us joined other guests in driving our own jeeps through Denali Park. We'd done this three years ago and while I wouldn't rank it at the top of my most favorite Alaskan excursions, I remembered it as enjoyable. And besides - what else would we do this evening? We enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner. At 5 pm we were picked up, loaded into jeeps and were on our way. Kim was the expert driver, I was the official photographer, and Patti was the official passenger :) Right away we saw a moose and her baby calf on the side of the road, which was cool. And while it wasn't a bad time, it was long....the roads were very VERY dusty and full of potholes. And honestly everything we'd normally have thought was cool, we'd seen it on the morning tour. Still, it was a pleasant way to spend the evening together with our great friend Patti :) We're up and out of the lodge by 8:30 am tomorrow, board the scenic domed train to Anchorage and will spend about six hours riding the rails south before having dinner and then on Sunday, it's on to the ship!
Today was a most, A MOST, A M-O-S-T EXCELLENT Day! The morning was great, so interesting and the weather was brisk....which for our So Cal gal-pal Patti was a welcome relief from the oppressive heat she's had, and for us Florida kids, well, it's one of the reasons we love coming here. We had to have bags out by 6:30 am (which after a seventeen hour day yesterday was no easy feat let me tell you). And we were on the buss by 7:45 am to drive to the Discovery Riverboat. There we boarded the paddle-wheeler and meandered up and back along the river while enjoying the fresh air, the narrated description and the sights along the way. Following the trip we had a sit-down lunch of salad (YES, I ate the whole thing.... you know who you are), beef stew, roasted vegetables (YES again I ate a full helping...you KNOW who you are....) and then we were back on board for a 3 1/2 hour journey south to Denali National Park. It was a scenic journey and our guide/driver Kate was GREAT keeping us entertained the entire way. When we arrived we received our welcome packets with our room keys & assignments, and info for our two-day stay.
On board the bus, bright and early for our first full day!
The River from our vantage on the third deck
The threesome are ready to roll!
The bush pilot takes off right in front of us, WOW
Just a few of the amazing homes
Checking out the view
"They say" that only 30% of visitors to Alaska actually get to see Mt. McKinley. Our guide Kate was thrilled that today was such a clear day and we got several glorious looks at the mountain. She was so excited that she finally found a spot to pull over and let us take a photo of the mountain. Pretty cool.
Denali Excursions: The Girls Take An ATV Adventure!
After getting settled (in about twenty minutes) we gathered again for a quick dinner in Denali Square (a part of the development built by Holland America for their cruise guests), and then Kim and Patti headed off for their excursion. They were taken into Denali Park where they mounted All Terrain Vehicles and drove themselves around to see the sights. I understand Kim did all the driving, and kudos to Patti for being brave enough to be the co-pilot :)
And they're OFF!
Staying on the trail
"Over the river....."
A great way to be up close and personal in Denali Park
They MADE IT!
Mark Flies Over The Mountains & Glaciers - I MUST APOLOGIZE
Not wanting to ride at ground level, I took the "high road" by flying with Denali Air along with seven other intrepid passengers as we took off from a gravel runway and headed high, HIGH over the mountains of the park in search of the glaciers and the centerpiece of the park.....Mt. McKinley. Here's why I must apologize - I cannot put into words, and even when we get home and I make the highlight video it won't be anything like what the real experience was like. The first clue I'll give you is that in the one hour flying adventure - where I was the co-pilot (WHOOO HOOOO!) I took over 100 photos. Going through them was hopeless and so I have what are a very small sample of what I saw. The second clue I'll give you is that with each passing five or ten minutes just when I was thinking "It doesn't get any more spectacular than this....IT DID." And as we got close to Mt. McKinley, our pilot Bob said, "Let's get closer" - and I was astounded at how close we were, buzzing over the glaciers and snow-covered mountains. Then he said, "There it is...let's get up close and personal to that bad boy!" And I thought, "Seriously, how close can we get?" RIGHT UP TO THE FACE, most, MOST astounding my friends. Enjoy the photos, but accept my apologies as it really was tons more spectacular than this.
The co-pilot gives the "OK" that we're ready for takeoff!
OH MY we are so close to the tops of the Alaskan Range of mountains - amazing
"Are you seeing this?" WOW
LOOK at the glacier winding back for miles, YOWZA
Just stunning scenery
EVERYWHERE you look....360 degrees of towering, snow-covered mountains
"Pilot Bob....take us right up to Mt. McKinley!"
There it is....the one, the only, Mt. McKinley
That's me....THAT'S MT. McKINLEY - RIGHT THERE, oh my
Watch the Video Highlights!
Just so you know.....tomorrow we tour the park and the bus leaves - IT LEAVES at 5 am. Do you realize how early we are getting up? This is our vacation :)
Well, to end the story before we tell it......we're here and with our luggage! And THAT should give you an idea of how the majority of the seventeen hour day went :) It all started well - we got to the airport anticipating difficulty finding a parking spot, but there were more than 1,000 (very much unlike when we arrived for our recent Great Lakes cruise). We got our bags check within fifteen minutes and cleared security without any issues. AND the plane was there and on time.
The flight to Atlanta was an early arrival and we had time for a quick lunch. Got to our gate and shortly there after the plane was there with plenty of time to spare. It's all good! The only concern we still had was that our connection in Minneapolis on to Fairbanks for the final leg had a 1 hour and five minute layover and we had to go from one end of the terminal to the other. All the passengers were on board and the captain came on and said, "Ladies and Gentleman this is the Captain speaking. I was called in because the captain scheduled for this flight was not available. But now we have a captain and he's arriving at the airport shortly. How long it takes him to get here, through security and so on, we hope is no more than a twenty minute delay!" UH OH....that REALLY cuts into our connection. We were scheduled to leave at 3:20 and by the time he arrived and we pulled away from the gate it was 4:15. Now it's really, REALLY up in the air if we'll make it. Still, I thought even though we had to traverse the entire terminal, Minneapolis is not a big airport. I anticipated a 40 minute turnaround from landing to take-off. "PROBABLY" can make it....what about the bags? One thing at a time! Kim was certain we wouldn't make it. I did look at alternative flights - all for tomorrow morning. We landed at 5:32 pm and were off the plane by 5:45. Speed walk through the small terminal (whew, glad I was right about that) and arrived to be the next to last couple boarding the plane. Well, at least we and our three days of carry-on clothes would be in Alaska tonight. I said to the guy at the gate, "We just landed fifteen minutes ago - chances on the bags getting here/' He replied that the bags have a better chance of making the connections than the people LOL - hopeful.
The final leg was a five hour flight and after already having been on two flights, and the 2 1/2 hour flight of stress to Minneapolis, the last leg was a long one. But in the final hour the mountains of Alaska came out to welcome us and it was wonderful.
Deplaned, went to baggage and began the anticipated wait - would they come? Oh my, one of the first set of bags. One bus left with guests - not ours, and it was almost 40 minutes for another bus to arrive. Tired, but still.....hey we ARE here and are bags are ALSO here. Grateful for the little things, right? Got to the hotel and at the airport we had been given a welcome packet with our room keys, no need to stop at the desk. Went up to the 8th floor, room 815. Keys don't work. Sigh.....back to front desk. Makes us new keys.....back up to 815. Don't work. Then we hear a voice from inside the room, "I think you have the wrong room." You have to laugh at the end of a long day, don't you? Back down. "Still don't work?" the clerk says, "Uh no, someone is in that room." Got our right room (818) and back up to find our bags in the room. WHOOOO HOOOOO!
We are out the door by 8 am tomorrow to begin our first excursion on a riverboat then the bus ride to Denali National Park. We both have excursions upon arrival - a full first day in Alaska awaits!
