Denali to Our Cruise–by Rail, of course!

 

Leaving Denali, we again boarded Alaska Rail – along with lots of others – and headed to Anchorage on Sunday, July 1, 2012.  It was another day of beautiful sights and, of course, we took lots of photos!

        

        

In the photo above, the open area above the A in Alaska is the upper level observation platform where we enjoyed the views and took photos.

         

Later in the afternoon we met up with the sister train coming from Anchorage which stopped alongside our train for the service crew to swap trains and return to their base station. 

              

              

              

Above you can see a cruise line car which has the observation deck on the lower level. After spending the night in Anchorage, we continued on Alaska Rail, heading to Whittier to board the Coral Princess.

         

         

We had a delightful morning of beautiful scenery and wonderful train photography as the RR made its way along Turnagain Arm.

         

         

   

                              

It was pretty windy in the vestibule between train cars from Anchorage to Whittier, but the views were fantastic!

          

          

          

          

The route to Whitter passed through two tunnels.  At the second one just before Whittier, the rail bed and the highway shared the tunnel – alternately - with trains having priority.

               

        

               

When we emerged from the tunnel, we were in Whittier and were soon greeted with a view of the Coral Princess.

        

         

         

The train arrived and we disembarked (Monday, July 2) to board the Coral Princess – our home for the next week as we cruised along the Alaskan coast to Vancouver.

                         

Denali National Park

 

We spent June 28 – 30, 2012, at Denali National Park, a huge wilderness area with lots of wildlife, the imposing Mount McKinley, and limited access by road.  We saw the McKinley mountain range but McKinley hid  behind the clouds during our visit.  We enjoyed the exhibits at the Visitor’s Center and took the Tundra Wilderness bus tour which continues past the limited road open to the public. 

             

             

Our tour guide/bus driver did a great job of spotting wildlife and informing us about Alaska. At one point, she stopped on a bridge and said, “Look up the river.  You can go 1500 miles without seeing any signs of civilization.”

                       

Our first “wildlife” was Alaska’s state bird, the ptarmigan – actually mama ptarmigan and her brood along the side of the road.

              

Shortly, we spotted Dall sheep on the rocky hillside where they adeptly climb, staying away from most of their predators. 

               

               

                     

                

                

                     

Of course the scenery was as awesome as the wildlife but we saw only a small sample of the vast expanses of Denali with its snow capped mountains, rivers, and winding roads.

       

       

      

      

We were fortunate to see grizzlies a couple of times including a mama grizzly with two cubs.  We viewed them from a distance but we weren’t unhappy with that. 

                  

                  

                    

                    

                    

At one of our stops on the Tundra Wilderness Tour, we checked out some good-sized discarded antlers from the park’s inhabitants.  And later on we saw caribou. 

                            

                            

                   

While we were at Denali, we stayed at McKinley Chalet Resort, a large complex with many lodge buildings and a central shopping and dining area which was reached by shuttle vans which occasionally required some waiting.  It was a nice resort employing many students, both U.S. and foreign (especially from Easter European countries). 

       

                  

Alaska Rail to Denali NP

 

Alaska Railroad is a great way to see the sights of Alaska, and since George especially likes (loves?)  trains, it was a no-brainer to take Alaska Rail from Fairbanks to Denali.  We enjoyed the ride and the views and will share some with our readers.  (Double click on the photos to enlarge them).

           

             

              

           

           

 

One of the highlights of the Alaska Railroad Goldstar service was the open observation  platform on the upper level of the Goldstar car which gave great views of the scenery and kept us out of the showers (mostly).  Cruise ship cars have a similar platform on the lower level. We ate lunch on the train and arrived at Denali in the afternoon as rain ended and the sun began shining.

              

            

             

North to Alaska

 

Our summer adventure this year was a trip to Alaska – minus our motor home and Tina.  We flew to Seattle on June 26, 2012, and to Fairbanks the next day, seeing amazing scenery even before we landed including these glaciers in the Yukon.

                    

                                   

While in Fairbanks, we enjoyed the Riverboat Discovery tour of the Chena River which included interesting sights and history of Alaska. 

            

Since many locations have no roads, individuals travel in their planes, landing on water as seen here.  

                

The Riverboat Discovery passed by the home and training area of the late Susan Butcher, 4 time winner of the Iditarod, the 1100 mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome.  Her husband spoke about her love for her dogs, and we saw a demonstration of harnessing and running the dogs.

           

The boat stopped for a tour of a re-created Chena village showing the life of the Athabascan native people in the past including a typical building, drying fish (for themselves and their dogs), the elevated building for storing that food, and a display of a handmade parka.

          

  

           

Back at the lodge, Pike’s Waterfront Lodge that is, Irene greeted the moose outside the lodge and George paused by the sign for the start of the 2003 Iditarod.