Alaska – Denali State Park

Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. It became a territory in 1912, and became the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

The next day of our trip happened to be July 4^th.  We thought we would be running into lots of tourist and the day would be frustrating.  We were completely wrong. 

After our previous clear day with Denali showing well, we woke up to what 70% of the visitors see, which is "not Denali" because of clouds. What is mind-blowing is that you still see plenty of mountains, with no idea that there is a huge mountain hidden behind in the clouds. 

After breakfast on our own we boarded the bus at 7:30. We didn’t have far to go to reach Mary Carey’s McKinley View Lodge where our group would split up.

Our group started with kayaking on Byers Lake, the largest lake in the state park.

Southside River Guides provided the guide and all the equipment we needed.

Mark immediately spotted a disc golf basket, with discs.  He has now officially thrown a disc in Alaska! 

Gear up – rain pants, rubber boots, and PFD. 

 

It took a while to get everyone outfitted but we were soon on our way to the kayaks.

For this being the July 4^th weekend, we were the only people on the water. It was magical.

Everyone except the guide had a tandem kayak. 

Our entire flotilla.

Mark doing all the work in the back seat. 

The views were beautiful.

 

We saw a few birds. 

Trumpeter Swan pair with two cygnets. 

After a couple of hours on the water it was time to head back to McKinley Lodge for lunch. 

The lodge had some interesting historical items, including this unique type of power saw. The Wright Power Saw, "the world's safest power saw". Unfortunately, they didn't cut very well, so never really caught on beyond use for pruning or trimming. 

IEMCO Power Shovel

When the rest of our group came back from their hike, we switched places and our group got in a couple of vans and headed to the hiking trails.

We had a 3 mile out and back hike this afternoon.  It was getting pretty warm by now and the trail was a little steep, so once again we found ourselves sweating in Alaska. Not the plan...

Our hike started at the K’esugi Ken Campground. 

We hiked the Curry Ridge Trail.

There were plenty of beautiful views along the trail.

About 1 ½ miles up was our turn-around spot.

We passed a couple of people on the trail on our way back down but otherwise, we had the trail to ourselves on this beautiful, but warm, July 4th.

We were back on the coach about 5:30 pm and by 7:00 I was eating halibut quesadillas (two words that we'd never seen together before!!) and Mark had fish & chips at the Talkeetna Lodge.

Next time: We are back on the train. 

 

Alaska – Denali “The Tall One”

The first day of our official trip was jam packed! 

It started with bag pull at 6:30 am (bag pull – put our suitcases outside our door and someone whisks them away to the bus).

Waiting for the bus. 

We were on the bus at 7:30 for the Rail Depot. 

Annie would be our guide for the week.  She was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable.  She lives in Alaska.  A lot of the working people we encountered live in the lower 48 and come up to Alaska to work during the summer. 

The Alaska Railroad runs 470 miles from Seward up to Fairbanks.  This segment of our trip on the Denali Express would take us from Anchorage up to Talkeenta. Our group had the last car on the train. We had the "GoldStar Service", which means that we were in a special double decked observation car with panoramic windows. 

The bottom deck is the dining room.  We enjoyed a very nice breakfast.

Reindeer sausage is very popular. 

It was good.

Since we were in the caboose, we could go out the back of the train.  It was very windy!

There were only a handful of other people in our car that were not in our group, so we had plenty of room to spread out.

 

On some of the curves we could see the front of the train.

We saw 4 moose and got our first look at Denali.  Denali means “The tall one.” We were told that only 30% of visitors get to see Denali, as it is generally shrouded in clouds. So we felt a little lucky!

Our stop was Talkeetna where we got off the train about 11:00.  There were lots of folks waiting to board the train. These folks would be heading north to Denali or Fairbanks. 

We had a couple of hours in Talkeetna for lunch and sightseeing. 

 

The population of Talkeetna is about 2000.  It is known for having a cat for mayor for 20 years.  His name was Stubbs.  The new mayor of Talkeetna is also a cat. His name is Denali.

We had a group lunch at the Denali Brewing Company.

After lunch we were on our own to walk around town.  We walked down to “The River”.

This area is called Lingasdlent which translates to “Where 3 rivers join”.

Talkeetna River is on the right.  Susitna River is straight ahead.  Chulitna River is on the far left.

The rivers are glacier fed.  All 5 species of salmon are in these waters.

We also had more great views of Denali, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet (right side of photo), along with Mt. Foraker at 17,402 feet (left side of photo) and Mt. Hunter at 14,573 feet (center of photo).

The water was a little cool. 

 

After lunch we were back on the bus to Talkeetna Lake. 

Our group split up for the hike and we only had 6 people with Josh as our guide.

There are thousands of lakes in this area, and we walked by a few on our hike.

This is X Lake (Yes! There are Y and Z lakes also).

Common Loon

We picked a few blueberries to munch on. 

Josh, our guide, was very knowledgeable about the plants and mushrooms in the area. He was eating his way down the trail. He also pointed out a tree fungus called Chaga, which is reputed to have numerous health benefits and it has been harvested for centuries as a traditional medicine. 

 

Chaga

Josh took our picture standing in the exact spot a brown bear was caught on the game cam a couple of days ago. 

One thing worth mentioning is that Alaska was having one of the hottest, driest summers on record, and we were all sweating pretty good. Everyone in the group had packed plenty of warm clothing, but we certainly weren't needing it!

After our hike we got back on the bus for our hotel.  We arrived about 3:30 and had a couple of hours to walk around before dinner.

 

Most lodges in Alaska don't have air conditioning, as it normally isn't needed. Luckily our room had a fan, as it was 80 degrees when we arrived.

Our room:

 

We had a group dinner.  After dinner Josh (our hiking guide) gave a very nice video presentation of Alaska.

Next time: Did you know there is a Denali STATE Park?

Alaska - Trav–HELL Day – The Birthday Trip

Trav-hell – yep, I made that word up. 

But, if you fly much, you know what I mean. 

Even if everything goes smoothly (which our day did), travel days are always a hassle.

For my birthday trip this year Mark asked me if I wanted to go to Alaska.  (We took a trip to Alaska five years ago for his birthday.)  I immediately said yes. 

He had found a “Wilderness Rail Adventure” trip that sounded like fun so off we went.

Our travel day was long.  Our Delta flight out of San Antonio left on time at 8:10 am CDT. 

San Antonio Airport.

Not many people flying at 8 am Saturday morning.

We arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah at 10:00 am MDT.  

Great Salt Lake.

We had a 5 hour layover and left for Seattle on time at 3:20 pm PDT.

Our plane landed in Seattle at 4:30 pm.  An hour later we were back in the air headed for Anchorage.  (Arrived at 8:00 pm Alaska time zone).

After a 15 hour day we boarded a bus and headed to the Anchorage Hilton.

View out our room (8th floor).

Anchorage Hilton

We arrived at the hotel a little after 9:00 pm. Our tour group had met earlier in the evening for orientation and we missed that, but we had a nice note from our tour leader Annie welcoming us to Alaska and giving us information for the next morning. 

With our long travel day and the four-hour time difference between Texas and Alaska we thought that we'd drop right off to sleep.  But at this latitude it stays fully light until midnight, and then only gets dusky for about 3 hours, and we had a so-so night of rest. Oh well, we'll sleep when we get tired!

Next time: Denali "The Tall One"