Sunday September 1 Seward to Anchorage to Denali National Park : Today we leave our ship and head by motor coach to Denali. Because our departure time is 7:15, we got up at 5 AM to shower and eat breakfast on the Lido deck one last time.
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A view of the port at Seward, AK in the early morning hours.
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We headed down to the Mainstage Theater to await the call to our motorcoach. It is drizzly and cold as we leave the ship and get on our motorcoach for the all-day trip to Denali National Park. Our driver, James, is very entertaining and provides commentary on the various sights.
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On the motor coach with 45 of our closest friends...Not! In fact we know none of them and will grow very weary of these people before all is said and done.
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We first head up Seward Highway to Anchorage across the Kenai peninsula. We started through the Chumash forest which is a primary forest with old growth spruce trees. It is incredibly dense and dark. And nothing but spruce packed like sardines. After a bit, it opens up to some stunning mountain vistas, glacier fed rivers and lakes. We are told that we may see wild life in this area but alas, we see none.
Along the side of the road we see a red, tall grassy plant. It is called fireweed and James tells us it transforms through about five shades of red / pink throughout the summer. But local legend says 6 weeks after it turns the brightest crimson, the first snow will fall. This year that was mid-July, so first snow, called termination dust, will be the first week of September. Could be exciting since we will be here through the 12th!
We stop at Turn Again Pass at a rest stop to stretch our legs and have a small snack and water. After we load back on the coach and continue on, we saw an area where there are very sparse dead trees and a few crumbled heaps of what used to be houses. James told us this was the location of a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in the early part of the twentieth century. The quake went on for a number of minutes, the ground liquified and swallowed the forest and the town. Yikes!
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A little further on we came to Cook’s Inlet, named by Captain Cook when he was seeking the northern passage. Our guide explained that Cook was convinced you entered the passage from this area. His men explored the many inlet arms, found dead ends and “turned again” so many times they were sick of exploring the area and it became known as Turn Again.
The inlet was spectacular. It has the green gray color of glacier water. It is home to beluga, gray and humpback whales in the water as well as many different species of fish. On land - moose, bear and wolves. The difference in water level between high tide and low tide is 39 ft - the highest in the world. The water rises or lowers at 1 inch a minute and can leave sea creatures, including whales, stranded.
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We arrive (and pass through) Anchorage. It looks like a medium sized town in ”the lower 48” which is the term most Alaskans use for the rest of the U.S. It has Walmart, Home Depot, Target, an outlet mall, and a Regal 16 cinema. The difference is it is more expensive. James said that a Big Mac meal will run you $16.00. Ouch! But everything has to come in by boat and then over land to Anchorage.
The next scenic area is the Matanuska-Susitana valley or Matsu for the locals. It is very open with sweeping landscapes and more deciduous trees which are changing colors to various shades of gold. The fireweed is also present which gives the ground a red color and there are still some dark greens of the spruce and hemlock. All-in-all a very stirring sight.
Next is the town of Wasilla. A small town whose claim to fame is that was the hometown of Sarah Palin. The other claim to fame of Wasilla is that their Walmart sells more duct tape than anywhere else in the world. We also ate lunch here.
Lunch was an interesting experience. There were 15 Holland America buses, 8 from our ship and 7 coming from Denali headed for their cruise on our ship. The establishment was an event space and they had set up multiple food lines with sandwich fixings, potato and macaroni salad and cookies. The food was good. The two problems were seating and bathroom facilities. We tried eating on the deck outside but it soon started raining and we had to move back indoors. We finally found a table whose occupants were willing (grudgingly) to share with us.
And then there was the lack of bathroom facilities. There was 1 ladies room with 4 stalls and the line was a pretty constant 25-30 women long. James later told us typically only the 8 buses are there at a time. It still would have been a crowd in the ladies room at 55 people per bus.
We got back on the road again, took a shortcut and picked up the Parks Highway north of Wasilla. James told us there are 9 highways in Alaska. Not all of them are paved and otherwise you are on local roads. There are no Interstates.
This part of the journey was through some heavily wooded areas. This was not as enjoyable as it is like traveling through a tunnel of trees with very few views. At this point the trip was starting to get a bit tedious. We had been on the bus for about 4 hours. And we had about 4 hours to go. Kill me now.
The next town was Talkeetna which we found out was the jumping off point for any attempt to summit Mt Denali (Mt McKinley). The coach starts climbing as we leave town to gain elevation up to Broad Summit. This is a very scenic area with wide open meadows backdropped by the amazing mountains of the Alaska Range. This was an area where weather can hit with little notice. James points out fully stocked cabins such that if you are stranded there are places to stay out of the storm. This is also a popular area for bush pilots to cut through to avoid the higher altitude required to go over the mountains. But the wind currents can be uncertain so there are emergency landing strips as well as lakes for the float planes.
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Broad pass has discontinuous permafrost about a foot under the surface. As a result there are no large trees and very few trees in general. There are widely spaced small Sitka spruce that are estimated at 300 years old. The ground is covered in low red vegetation. It is very pretty. Broad Pass also marks the divide where rivers on one side flow to the Bering sea and on the other side south to Cook’s Bay. We pass Panorama Peak (5800 ft.) and start heading down from the pass.
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We make a short stop at a rest area and a Holland America representative comes aboard the bus to pass out room keys and a welcome packet. Very organized! She also tells us what to expect for the next few days.
We pass the entrance to Denali Park, cross the Nenana river and arrive in the town of Denali. According to James the left half of Denali is owned by the parent company of Holland America / Princess and the right hand side is independently owned and has better food. Prospectors Pizza was highly recommended. He also suggested passing up the box lunch from the resort and grabbing a Subway sandwich for the next day when we were on the Tundra Wilderness Tour.
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Here is the lower portion of the McKinley Wilderness Lodge where we were dropped off at our rooms. It is a beautiful lodge with the main building and restaurant up at road level and the rooms in small buildings or two separate lodge areas down below. There is also a common area in the lower area that has Karstens Restaurant with coffee shop, a few gift stores and a large central area with fire pits and casual seating.
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We head over to Prospecter’s Pizza and it was terrific New York style pizza. Barry and I stopped by the Mount Denali peak for a photo op. After dinner we headed back to the lodge to turn in. In all, the bus ride took 8.5 hours - a very long day.
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Monday September 2 Denali Wilderness Tour: Our tour didn’t start until 1 PM so we could sleep in, enjoy breakfast, hang out for a while and then eat lunch and get our sandwiches for the tour.
We headed to Karstens for the buffet breakfast, a relatively reasonably priced buffet for $19. per person. The wood work in Karstens is beautiful from the paneling to the wood accents. The service was friendly and the food was good. We hung out for a while there and used the public WiFi after breakfast.
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Kevin found a moose head sculpture in one of the gift shops he wanted and we discussed how we might get that home.
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We headed up the hill to the main lodge to look around. Then we went across the road, ate lunch and picked up our Subway sandwiches. While Barry did that, I popped into a fabric store and found some very pretty fabrics in the colors of Alaska - pale blues, grays, greens and silver. It reminded me of the hues and shades of the mountains and the glacial rivers.
We walked back to the lodge and caught our bus for the Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali. Words cannot describe the beauty of Denali so I will let the photos Barry took do the talking. We did see many caribou, 2 grizzly bears, several birds, and a magpie. We did not see any moose.
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Our first animal was a caribou up on a hilltop.
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Then we saw another caribou, grazing and much closer!
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Denali was beautiful in its fall colors. There were the dark greens of the evergreens, golds of the aspen, birch and cottonwoods and the reds of the low ground cover.
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More caribou. This guy was in a group of two. Isn't he majestic?
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One of the breathtaking things about Denali National Park is the sweeping vistas bracketed by the imposing mountains.
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Here we are at the highest point on the drive through Denali
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Surprisingly someone spotted a grizzly bear in the river bed below. It is that little black dot at the center next to the river bank.
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Here is the grizzly bear magnified and cropped close.
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Lovely mountains in the distance. Seeing Mount Denali (or Mt McKinley) became a quest for everyone in the bus but for most of the day the clouds did not allow it. So we satisfited ourselves with all of the other mountains in the area.
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Here is a lovely Gray Jay - a very common bird in Alaska.
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We were driving along on our way back to the park entrance when we rounded a curve and saw this grizzly climbing up the hillside beside the bus.
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The beautiful red ground cover. Our guide said it was lichen moss.
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This sign has been bear-proofed with spikey nails all around. The guide told us the bears would chew on and destroy the signs.
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And finally, as we passed by the last chance to view Mt Denali from inside the park, the sky opened up and we saw the peak. Mt Denali is the tallest peak in North America at 20,315 ft.
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Our tour was over and we were exhausted. When we arrived back at the lodge (9 hours after the tour started) we bought the moose head and paid to have shipped to Kevin's address in Chicago, had something to eat and fell into bed.
Tuesday September 3 McKinley Express Train from Denali to Anchorage: Today is the last day of our cruise tour and it wraps up with a train trip on the McKinley Express Train back to Anchorage. Kevin also flies home tonight so there is a little added stress of getting back in time to grab his luggage from the hotel room and getting him to the airport for the flight.
We have been told you can't take your luggage on the train because there is no storage. So you have to leave it outside your room and Holland America takes it ahead and has it waiting in your room in Anchorage. And that works for most of the guests, but with those flying out after we arrive in the evening that is a little touch and go. Although we asked about it numerous times, we were always told to ship it on ahead and get it at the hotel. What we found, when we got on the train, was that there was limited storage available and Kevin could have brought his bag as several others had done.
The train leaves at 9 A.M. and arrives in Anchorage about 5 P.M.. It partially retraces the path of the Parks highway but then deviates into the Indian River Valley. The perspective from the train is very different than the bus. The rail bed is elevated above the road level and you are in the train’s upper level so you are up above many of the smaller trees and scrub near the tracks. So you do get to see more but there is still a significant amount of boreal forest which is all that can be seen from the windows. The train is also more comfortable as the seats are softer and more spread out with a wider aisle. The top of the train is all glass providing clear view up and all around.
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Aboard the McKinley Express. This group of people were the same ones we traveled from Seward by bus and went with on the Tunndra Wilderness Tour.
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At the front of each train car is a bar and bartender. He serves both alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks. There is also a guide in each car who provides narration, answers questions, points out animals and helps call folks for dining car seating. On the lower deck is the dining car for our carriage. They have limited seating - eight tables of four each. They serve both breakfast as well as lunch. Unfortunately, with a full car and them starting in the back of our car and working their way to the front to call people for lunch, the front folks don’t get to eat lunch until almost 2 P.M.
The ride is very scenic and there are areas where the train runs right along the edge of various lakes and rivers making the view very open with opportunity to see birds and possibly other wildlife.
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There are also a number of trestle bridges we pass over but the most spectacular is the Hurricane Gulch bridge, a steel trestle bridge built in 1921. The views of the river are terrific and the bridge is quite beautiful. Here is Barry with Hurricane Gulch behind him.
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Later we pass by a homestead from the 1960’s when Mary and Clyde Lovel and their 4 young children moved here to be off the grid and try subsistence living. Clyde died a few years back but Mary still lives here and when she is in residence, she typically wanders out and waves at the train. She is now 86 years old.
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We continue to pass through forest and at one point we start seeing the forest bed and the area along the tracks covered with large swaths of dead ferns. They are the fiddlehead fern and they undergo a massive die-off every year to regrow again the next year. That much dead vegetation is startling to see. The fiddlehead is edible and many folks like to make tea from the new shoots in the spring.
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We stop at a siding to let a sister train pass. It is loaded with folks headed for Denali National Park. They also stop engine to engine to exchange people, mail and supplies.
We arrive in Anchorage about half an hour later than expected and transfer to a bus for the drive to the hotel. A Holland America representative comes on the bus to provide room keys and we head for the hotel. When we arrive there are several hundred people (every one on the train) trying to get to their rooms and only 3 elevators. Unfortunately our room was on the 9th floor - Barry and Kevin decided to use the stairs. I waited on the elevator. I was very impressed with the efficiency of the hotel staff in dealing with this situation. They methodically loaded the elevators and I almost beat Barry and Kevin up. And, even more important for Kevin, the bags had already arrived! So we walked Kevin down to catch an Uber to the airport and we went to dinner.
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Sunset view from our hotel in Anchorage, AK.
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Tomorrow we get our rental car and launch out on our own for a week to see a different view of Alaska. We are very excited and it is hard to sleep. During the night we get a text from Kevin that he has arrived home and he sends us a picture of the northern lights from the window of his airplane.