8/3/2013 – Train ride to Denali

Sunday 8/4/2013

Today we got up very early to take an 8 hour train ride to Denali. We had hoped to take a flight trip to Mt. McKinley to land on a glacier. We boarded the McKinley explorer train for the 8 hour train ride. That sounds like an awfully long time on the train, but take a look at our train car –

This is Matthew our tour guide and the car Bartender

And here are Conrad and Cody enjoying the ride

We saw lots of mountains along the way

We also saw a moose.

We passed a house along the way, most of which was not visible, but the train car guide called it the Dr. Seuss house. It is owned by a judge. His neighbors complained about him adding floors on to see above the trees, so he just kept adding more. This is a picture of a picture that the train guide had of the house. Only the top couple of floors are visible from the train.

Our train needed to pass a southbound train so we stopped and our conductor got out an changed the switch so that we could go off to a “drop” off to the side so that the other train could pass. All along the trip we have seen a beautiful flower called fire weed so when I saw the conductor standing along the tracks in the fireweed I took this picture

We did learn some fascinating facts on the the train. There are 10 men for every woman in Alaska. Why are there so many single women in Alaska? Well they have a saying for that here – the odds are good, but the goods are odd. 😉

As we passed a gorge there was a gnome away from home just sitting in the river so here he is

A few more pictures along the way

Finally we reached Denali and the weather was beautiful. We had scheduled a flight trip to land on a glacier on Mt. McKinley. Sadly the weather on the mountain was not conducive to landing so we were not able to take the trip.

Here are some pictures of the McKinley Chalet Resort

We had dinner at a great local pizza place called Prospector pizza grill. Great pizza and while waiting for your table you could sit outside at a table that overlooked the Alaska mountains. The sign when leaving said ” Thank You. keep your powder dry and have a nice day.” We can only assume that they meant gun powder.

Off to sleep. Touring Denali National Park in the morning.

#Alaska2013