Denali!

Was up at 5:45 this morning to catch our 7am shuttle to the train station. The train pulled out at 8:15 and we had to be there an hour prior. It’s a good thing the hotel was only about 5 miles from the station. Bob found Cari’s first set of cards (Alaska Railroad) in the gift shop. I’m sure there will be plenty more.

Meeting other travelers is always an exciting part of vacation for me.  Despite being complete strangers there is that common bond of sharing similar experiences, swapping stories of what you both have planned and done. It didn’t take long to start talking to fellow passengers and hear their experiences. Just having a camera in your hand is an easy opening for conversation. Thirty minutes into shooting off the viewing deck of our car and we were friends for the day.

It was drizzling when we boarded and the during the beginning of the trip. The sky was gray and covered with low hanging clouds. Still the scenery was beautiful. The further north we got, though, the more blue sky peeked through. Imagine our delight when we actually spotted Mount McKinley! I’m hoping this was only the beginning of lucky happenings throughout our trip. Only 30% of travelers to the park get to actually see Mount McKinley. The mountain stands over 20,000 feet into the sky and most of the time is covered in clouds. I heard someone say it hadn’t made an appearance in the last 10-11 days. Wow!!! And not only did we see it, there was a beautiful blue sky as the backdrop!

We checked into the Princess Wilderness Lodge (Denali) and had a couple of hours to explore before going to dinner at the King Salmon restaurant. We picked up a deck of Mt. McKinley cards and a beautiful pair of handmade glass earrings for Cari and a sweatshirt for me that has a photo of the Mountain with a “30% club” stamp on it. After a browsing some of the other tourist trap shops it was time for our “6:21” reservation – how’s that for being precise? We both decided on the Salmon Salad for dinner. It had spinach, tomatoes, egg, red onion and goat cheese topped with King Salmon and a vinaigrette dressing – it was delicious! Our server suggested a local Shiraz to compliment our choice and we loved it! We were so sad to learn you can’t buy it anywhere else – it really is a local thing. Blueberry ice cream made with local blueberries was the perfect ending to a perfect dinner!

Denali Princess Lodge – A beautiful lodge with lots of amenities, but the rooms (at least ours) left a little to be desired. It was ok, just sparse. No closet space, no dressers, no drawers, nowhere to put anything. So we lived out of our suitcases for a couple of days. Oh and no wifi in the room. We had to go to the lodge for internet. Which isn’t a big deal except I wanted to upload some of my pictures to Facebook. Not gonna happen tonight.

 It’s 9:30pm and while the sun is going down it’s still light outside. Bob’s been out for probably 20 minutes already. I’m thankful he isn’t snoring yet. I’ve looked through my 200+ photos taken today. They’re whittled down to about 170 after the first cut. I’m actually very happy with the results considering the circumstances – shooting from a moving train among more than a dozen others trying, just like you, to get that perfect shot.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be just as beautiful and Mount McKinley will grace us with its appearance for another day. Tomorrow is our Wilderness Tundra bus tour. It should be a good time of year to see lots of different animals too … crossing my fingers.