We took the train from Fairbanks to Denali National Park and had Gold Star service on the train which includes a private dining car and the domed
windows for great views. All segments were 2 for 1 with coupon. We had breakfast there and
enjoyed reindeer sausage served in omelets and croissants.
We enjoyed the
scenery and spent a lot of time outside on the viewing area between cars. A
moose was spotted and Greg saw a dead moose beside the tracks. We had a great
sighting of a golden eagle sitting by the tracks, beaver dams and lodges and
lots of other birds.
we were about 3 rows back from the front of the train
in the dining car
outside viewing area
Shirley Demientieff Memorial Bridge
an airbase and early warning radar site
River Floats
Nenana River
golden eagle by tracks almost to Denali
glacier silt makes the water grey
Princess cruise tour people had the rear of the train
We arrived in Denali at 12:15 and we took the park shuttle to
the Denali Princess Lodge. We went across the street and ate at Great Alaska Fish
& Chips Co. We had 1 Cod and 1 Haddock with fries and sweet potato fries.
Really good food! We went to the Toklat Visitor’s center and the Wilderness
Access center and looked around and watched the movie.
inside the museum
We had time for a short nature walk before checking into the lodge. The Princess shuttle didn't leave early enough for us to catch the first shuttle into the Park, so we took the short trail we would have to walk the next morning.
mushrooms on our nature walk
We went back to the lodge
and checked in and our bags were waiting. (and someone else’s bag had been left
there as well). Luckily, it belonged to our neighbor and not to someone who had
already left on the train. We paid a fraction of the price to stay in the same hotel as the Princess Cruise Tour people. I booked it in advance online.
lobby of the lodge
We walked across the street and had dinner at the
Salmon Bake restaurant. We had made reservations prior to the trip and got
right in. Really good food. We had the
elk sliders for the appetizer and had an Asiago & Parmesan crusted Halibut
and King Crab Chimichangas. Greg had a sampler of the local beers. We then
shopped for something to take for lunch the next day at a local market. Cheese
crackers and some sliced Salami and some Oreos and sodas were easy enough to
pack in the little soft sided cooler we brought. Found some more ice cream to
try the local flavors.
Next morning we got up very early for our 6:00 Eilson
Shuttle. We found out that Princess shuttles don’t run that early so we walked
from the lodge to the Wilderness Access Center. We had picked up a couple of
yummy cinnamon rolls at the lodge the night before and we ate them on the
shuttle. Wildlife sighted on our shuttle was 11 moose, 2 sets of mama grizzly
bears with 2 cubs each, male and female caribou, 2 foxes, a ptarmigan, a couple
of golden eagles, a few Dall Sheep, 2 snowshoe hares, Marmots, a juvenile
Merlin, ravens, and a pack of wolves with at least 15 of them with their young.
Though I can’t be sure it looked like they had made a kill as I saw a large
animal with huge antlers on the ground and they were gathered around. They all
howled (the bus got very quiet to listen to this) and we got pictures in that
classic howling pose. The shuttle driver said he has only heard them howl now
twice in his life. It would have been great to have our current cameras with way better zoom to have gotten better wildlife photos.
Park shuttle bus to Wonder Lake
Caribou
Ptarmigan
two cubs
mama with 1 cub
mama bear
Dall sheep
very hard to see pack of wolves
Bear
bear
bear with cubs
Fox
We got to Eilson center and had our lunch and watched the
movie on hiking McKinley. We then went to hike a short trail, but were quickly
called back as they were closing the trail due to a bear in the area.
arrival at Eilson visitor's center
how do the caribou carry around these heavy things?
man these are heavy.....
We had time so we upgraded our ticket to continue to Wonder Lake. The terrain is really different during that part of the drive and not really much wildlife sited during this portion (except mosquitoes and a fox) The lake was beautiful and we picked wild blueberries. The Ultrathon insect repellant really worked and we weren’t bitten by the swarms of mosquitoes. We then did the ride back stopping for animal sightings. We did get a few glimpses of Denali as the clouds were ever moving and we got lucky and just happened to look at the right time to see the peak.
Wonder Lake
juvenile Merlin
caribou on ride back from Wonder Lake
moose
moose & baby
the baby was right behind her, but the gap was too small to see them well
We got back with barely enough time to make the 8:30
Cabin Nite Dinner theater. (2 for 1) We met up with a couple from our roll call
who were traveling on a different schedule on their land portion, but we found
ourselves here at the same time and met for dinner & the show. The Cabin
Nite was nice enough, but in hindsight, we wished we had skipped that and spent
longer in the park. (another full day here would have been really great!) The
Princess Lodge was nice with one interesting feature…..the bathroom door
auto closes and it was like a meat locker in there. We had to prop open the
door to let some heat in.
We check out tomorrow to take the train to Talkeetna.
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