Finally, we got nearly a full night’s sleep! The train doesn’t leave from Denali to Talkeetna until 12:25 so we slept in and walked across the street to have breakfast at
the Salmon Bake. Really good blueberry cinnamon bread French Toast with fresh
berries and anything you want from their “toppings bar”.
It was another enjoyable
train ride to Talkeetna. A bear was sited and we saw some swans.
train depot in Denali
the train is coming
views from the train
the dining car
I can’t say enough about the hospitality of the folks in Talkeetna. We stayed at Denali Fireside Cabins and the owner picked us up at the train station. She gave us a mini tour of the town and checked us into our cabin and then she knew we wanted to grab a quick dinner and head to our 7:00p McKinley flight with Talkeetna Air Taxi (2 for 1 coupon) so she drove us to Mountain High Pizza Pie where we had a wonderful reindeer sausage, pepperoni, onion and roasted garlic pizza.
Denali Fireside Cabins - office
Denali Fireside Cabins
Mountain High Pizza Pie
As we were leaving the restaurant the owner of the cabins was there to pick us up and take us to the airport for our flight. She wanted to wait for us as the weather was pretty cloudy and not looking like we would be able to go, but she had been invited to dinner by friends and we said it was no problem, it really was just a short walk to anywhere around town. Our flight was canceled. Our friends that we met up with at Cabin Nite said they got their flight, but no landing. TAT said they would do their best to reschedule us the next day. We had a 7:00a 4 hour river float with Talkeetna River Guides (2 for 1 coupon) so we rescheduled for just after that.
We walked around the adorable town.
General Store- if they don't have it, you don't need it
Talkeetna's beach
It was raining as we walked to meet at the yurt for our
ride to the river float. We had time to grab some fresh out of the oven
cinnamon rolls at the Roadhouse.
We jumped into the vehicle with the river
guides who chatted and ate their breakfast on the drive to the launch site. Everyone else on
the tour had stayed at the Princess McKinley Lodge or other so we met a few
people there. We were first to arrive and donned our “Groton’s Fisherman's”
outfits. Bright yellow rubber overalls and long jacket and boots. If you didn’t
dress appropriately they had lots of fleece jackets etc. for you to wear as
well. The float trip was amazing. So serene floating down the river and we saw
at least 15 eagles along the way, both juveniles and adults.
are we having fun yet?
the Princess group arrived - on the bus they used us to model how to wear all the gear
armed with my bear paddle
launch site
safety talk
loading the rafts - of course everyone had a "medical reason" why they needed to sit up front
a couple of eagles
eagle's nest
end of river float
The weather
cleared and the sun came out and it got down right hot in all that gear! It
also gave us beautiful views of the mountains. It was looking good for our
flight to go! We had time to grab a quick lunch at the Roadhouse and had some
tasty pasties. One reindeer pastie and the other pulled pork. We stopped for
some Hot Licks ice cream at the store next door to where we stayed and owned by
the same people. Best ice cream EVER! Loved the dark chocolate.
We walked to
the airport and we got our flight and the landing at the base of McKinley! (couldn’t
use the coupon due to the rescheduling, but they gave us a discount) The
landing was really cool as the plane skids to a stop on it’s skis on the
glacier. So quiet and beautiful up there! I ate glacier snow. We got a few
glimpses of McKinley out. Beautiful views from up there and landing on the
glacier was fantastic! The people from TAT offered to drive us to the train
station first stopping at the lodge to pick up our luggage. Did I say I
couldn’t say enough great things about the hospitality of the people there?
Would highly recommend the Denali Fireside Cabins, The river float and the
McKinley flight with Talkeetna Air Taxi! We enjoyed the pizza place and the food at the Roadhouse.
modeling my glacier boots
ready to go!
taking off
landing
Greg & the pilot
DeHavilland Beaver airplane
another plane landed in front of us
another plane landed in front of us
one guy was juggling snowballs
landing skis
taking off
McKinley Princess Lodge
past the repair shop
We were back on the train after TAT swung by the lodge to pickup our luggage and our leftover pizza. (that
the owner of the lodge took from us and put it on a plate and dropped it by our
cabin and put it in the fridge for us while we did our plane flight.) Beautiful
views on this segment as well. A moose was sited. There had been an aviation
accident that had part of the tracks shut down while it was under FAA
investigation so we had to get off the train and be bussed the rest of the way
to Anchorage about an hour out. It was all handled very efficiently and only
added about 30 minutes to the length of the trip.
We got checked into the Historic Anchorage Hotel which was very nice. It would have been a short walk from the train station, but it was raining pretty good so we grabbed a cab. We then set out to find a light snack and some ice cream. Found the lady with the reindeer hot dog stand by the Federal Building and caught her just as she was closing up. For $6.00 each we got a dog, chips and a soda. It seems I can’t get enough of reindeer since I first tried it last year in Stockholm. YUM! Then, walked around a bit and found an ice cream place open. The next morning we met the Alaskan Leopard Comedy bus to Whittier.
bus to Whittier
the first iceberg we saw in Turnagain Arm
waiting to enter Whittier Tunnel 2.5 miles long
Coral Princess in port
There were just 6 of us in the van and it was good cheap transportation
to get to Whittier. Comedy is dismal at best, but great views out the window.
It was cool and rainy and so we didn’t spend much time out viewing the sites
where we stopped. We got to the cruise terminal early and knew we would have to
wait a bit to check in and board. However, what we weren’t prepared for was NOT
being able to drop off our luggage. We were first to check in around 11:00a but
couldn’t board as we had to stay with our luggage until the union luggage guys
started at 1:00! Not an issue if you used a bus or train to get there as they
check the luggage for you directly to the ship. Considering this drawback, I
think Alaskan Leopard is a good means of transportation leaving the ship at the
end of a cruise, but not beneficial for arriving there unless you want to sit
for hours and watch everyone else get on the ship while you sit with your
luggage.
I'll post the Prince William Sound Glacier Cruise & boarding the Coral Princess in the next post.
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