Alaska – Denali National Park

We were up early to pick up our sack lunch from the hotel restaurant (The Perky Moose).

The Denali Tour bus arrived at 6:30 a.m.  This was an older bus and not nearly as comfortable as the luxury bus we had been traveling in.

Besides our group there were also people on the bus from 3 other hotels.  It was packed.

It didn’t take long to get to the National Park.  After a certain point, only Denali buses are allowed on the roads in the park.  We stopped a few times to get off the bus. 

This tour ran 5 hours. Our week long trip was all inclusive but I believe the cost of this 5 hour tour was $128 each.  We had beautiful views throughout the day.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of wildlife to be seen. At the very beginning of the trip a moose came out on the road behind the bus. Unfortunately no one had figured out how to get the windows open yet, so this shot was taken through the dirty window. 

The driver/interpreter was from San Antonio, Texas and had been driving this tour for over 15 years. He was very knowledgeable and kept talking about what we might see here or what could be over there, but all in all the animals just weren't cooperating. 

We finally spotted a single Brown (Grizzly) Bear feeding on a slope. It was pretty far away but we'd gotten the windows open by now and I managed to get a few good shots. 

There was still snow in the mountains. 

The buses each have a certain time to arrive.  Even being picked up at 6:30 we were not the first group of buses to arrive.  We saw a couple of other buses before getting to the visitor center.

Everyone was given a snack box with this handy map of the park printed on the box. 

The bus could only get to a certain point and then had to turn around because of a landslide on the road. The landslide occurred in 2021 and the road will be closed through 2023 while it is rerouted. 

On the way out we saw the same bear in the same spot and took some additional pictures. 

After five hours and a lot of scenery (but few animals!), we arrived at the visitor center.  We could either stay on the bus and go back to our hotel or catch a later bus back to our hotel.

We decided to stay in the park.  Buses back to the hotels run every hour. 

It was a very warm day for sitting outside eating our sack lunch.

There is a working group of sled dogs used in the park and a demonstration was scheduled for 2:00.  We had a couple of hours to kill and watched two short movies while waiting.  They were well made. 

It looked like everyone still in the park was waiting on the bus to take us to the dog sled demonstration.

We were told the dogs were friendly and we could pet any of the dogs that came up to us.  

It was so hot, none of the dogs bothered getting up. 

Finally, the demonstration started.  The dogs were ready to go. 

They took off, out of sight, then came around the corner and a dog fight started.  The handlers rushed to pull the 2 dogs apart.  Those dogs were taken away and the remaining team trotted in front of us.  

It really wasn’t worth waiting 2 hours to watch.

Since everyone in the park was waiting for buses to return to their hotels, we had to wait in line for a little while. 

Dinner was on our own. We had each been given a $50 dinner voucher for the hotel restaurant, but between the two of us we barely broke $50 total. The waitress was really puzzled as to why we didn't want desserts or perhaps a bottle of wine to use the vouchers up, but we were full and ready to get back to the room. It had been a long day.

Next time: A stop in Palmer then back to Anchorage.

 

Alaska – Talkeetna to Denali National Park

Alaska is 570,374 square miles.  It’s the largest state in the country and is about one-fifth the size of the Lower 48 states.  It is about 2.5 times the size of Texas, but with only 2.5% of the population!

Today was going to be an odd day.  The only thing we had planned was the train ride to Denali.  We had breakfast on our own then walked around on the hotel trails for a little bit.

By far the most common wildflower throughout our trip was Fireweed, named because it is one of the first plants to come back after a fire. It starts blooming at the bottom of the stalk, and moves upward. We were told that when the top flowers open Alaskans know that summer is coming to an end.

Denali was showing again this morning.  

Denali

The back of the hotel has some nice sitting areas. 

The view from there is pretty awesome. 

Foraker, Hunter, Denali

There is a very nice map showing the different mountain ranges. 

Our luggage was picked up at 9:30 and we were on the bus by 9:50. We didn’t need to catch the train until 11:30 so we were dropped off in Talkeetna to shop and walk around.  I managed to pick up a few souvenirs.

We hopped on the bus for a very short ride to the Rail Depot.  This is the same train we took from Anchorage a couple of days ago.  On that day we were getting off the train at this time.

This time we were in the next to last car.  Still a double decker with great views. 

Lunch was served fairly soon after we started the trip.  Mark had a halibut wrap and I had a French dip sandwich.  The food was very good. 

With a five-hour ride, we had a few refreshments along the way.

Wild blueberry cream soda.

While we were on the train, Andrew – our driver, was driving the bus to Denali to pick us up.  

Our 2 days on the train took us from Anchorage

to Talkeetna then on to Denali.

The train stopped in Denali NP and we spent a little time taking pictures before getting on the bus and heading to our hotel. 

Andrew (our driver) and Annie (our guide)

As we neared the park, we noticed that the air was getting hazy, and were informed there was a smoke advisory.  We were told there were about 400 fires burning in Alaska.  Even with the closest fire being 40 miles away, the air was thick with smoke.

We got to our hotel about 5:00. 

Fortunately, we didn't notice many bugs.

Our room looked comfortable but without air conditioning or a fan. It was warm and smoky. Again, not the plan!!

Our room had a small balcony with a nice view but with the smoke, we didn’t spend any time on it. 

We were all back on the bus by 5:30 to head out for a group dinner.

If you have seen the movie Into the Wild, this is the bus from the movie.  We had not seen the movie but watched it after we got back home. 

We were back at the hotel by 8:00 pm and ready for a warm night.

Next time:  Back on the bus.  This time a different bus.

 

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.