Denali National Park

August 9 and 10, 2013

We arrived at our room at the McKinley Chalet at about 1:00 pm.  We planned to go hiking, but our luggage hadn't arrived yet and we had a couple of things we needed from it.  We took the shuttle to the Denali National Park visitors center to get hiking information.  After we had the trail maps and information we needed, we took the shuttle back to the village and our bag was there.  We decided to hike the Meadow Views trail.  It was a fairly easy 3 mile trail to hike and had some amazing views.  We rushed to finish the hike though because we had to be sure to catch the final shuttle of the day back to the village.  After getting back to the village we ate supper at Prospector's Pizza.  It had over 40 microbrewery beers and some really good pizza.  Mike and I have been trying local beers all along our journey through Canada and Alaska and have had some really good beers.

View from the trail

another view

one more view

view

View of McKinley Village Chalet from the trail.

The next morning we got up fairly early so that we would have time to hike a trail or two before time for our tour into Denali National Park.  We decided to hike on the Horsehoe Lake trail from the visitor's center.  It was an interesting hike, but not as pretty as the one yesterday.  After finishing this hike we still had time so decided to do another hike, until it started raining - hard.  We hurried back to the visitor's center because we didn't want to spend the day wet.

Mike acting silly while hiking

Mary at the shuttle stop by the visitor's center

View of the lake at the end of the trail

Mary on the trail.

A section of the trail.

View from the trail.

The trail around the visitor were well maintained and so well marked that you really didn't need a map to stay on track.  If we had stayed here another day, we would have taken the shuttle into the park and hiked by the Savage River.  After hiking, we ate a Subway sandwich for lunch and got snacks to supplement the meal that would be supplied on the Tundra Wilderness Tour.  Our tour left at 2:00 pm.  It was still cloudy and a little rainy when our tour started, however as the tour continued, it got clearer and clearer.  We had the perfect weather for viewing scenery and wildlife.  And did we ever see the wildlife.  We saw 2 moose, too many caribou to count, 8 grizzlies, 5 Dall sheep, a fox, and the alpha male wolf of the pack that lives in that section Denali.  We even saw a grizzly charge a male caribou and a mother grizzly with her two cubs not far off the road.  What a thrill!  And finally at the end of the tour the sky cleared enough for us to get a really good view of Denali Mountain (or Mt. McKinley or just "The Mountain").

View from tour bus

Savage River

Savage River

Mike and I at the Savage River rest stop

Mountain at rest stop

Another mountain view

More mountains

Grizzley #1

More views

Caribou

More beautiful mountains

One of the many glaciers we saw

Another beautiful view

More mountains

Inside the park with beautiful mountains in the background

Another grizzly

The white dot in the middle is the alpha wolf.

Our best view of  Denali Mountain.

We are very glad that today was the last real day of our trip.  We have the train ride tomorrow, but the main part of vacation is over.  This 8 hour tour into Denali National Park could not have been any better.  We saw the big 5 of the wildlife, had clear views of the scenery, and at the end received the wonderful view of the mountain to remember.  What a high.

Fairbanks, Alaska to Denali National Park

August 9, 2013

Mike and I were excited to start the journey to Denali.  This was the primary thing we wanted to see on our trip.  We left Fairbanks early aboard the McKinley Explorer Chena rail car.  We ate a late breakfast while on the train, which was an okay breakfast, but nothing special. By the time we were served they had run out of many things.  The train car was a domed car with the dining room on the bottom and the passenger seats above.  We had very good views of the trip.  The only bad part of the trip was the Hispanic group that was in the same car with us.  They were loud and rude and Mike and I were in the seats just in front of them.  They needed to learn to use their "indoor" voices as we say in school.

Random views from the train

More random views

Nenana River.  Gray from glacial silt

McKinley Explorer Train

Another view of the train

Nenana Canyon

Rafters on the Nenana River

Another view of the river

Bridge we will be crossing

McKinley Chalet village where we stayed for 2 nights

Overall this trip was very scenic and enjoyable.  Now we are ready to see the sights of Denali.

Fairbanks, Alaska

August 8, 2013

Today we journeyed from Tok, Alaska to Fairbanks, Alaska.  Fairbanks is a fairly large city with both an Air Force base and an Army base.  It grew to a large city during WWII because supplies for the lend lease program with Russia could be transported through there.

The primary road we traveled between Tok and Fairbanks was the Alaska Highway which was built quickly at the beginning of WWII. On the way to Fairbanks we stopped at Rika's Roadhouse.  In previous years, roadhouses were built along the roads so that travelers had somewhere to stop for the night and for food.  Rika's Roadhouse was one of the larger ones and is now a historical place to stop.  While there we were able to view the Alaskan Pipeline.

River next to Rika's Roadhouse

Rika's Roadhouse

Section of the Alaska Pipeline

We got to Fairbanks about noon and ate a Miner's stew for lunch at Steamboat Landing before cruising down the Chena River aboard the Riverboat Discovery.  While on the riverboat we saw a demonstration of a float plane landing and taking off, Susan Butcher and Dave Monsen's sled dog kennel, traditional fish cutting, and stopped at a traditional Athabaskan village.  At the village young Native people gave tours explaining about their lives now and in the past.  This was a village set up for educational purposes and was very interesting.

Mike with some of our tour group on the riverboat.

Float plane taking off

Old, abandoned riverboat

Sled dog demonstration

Athabaskan fish wheel

After the riverboat ride we were transported to our hotel - The Pike's Landing.  This is by far the best hotel we have stayed in since leaving Vancouver.  We even had a view of the Chena River from our balcony.  

View of river from our balcony.

Overall, we enjoyed our short time in Fairbanks.  However, I would not plan a trip to Fairbanks.  There is not much there other than the cruise we did on the river.  So tomorrow, trip to Denali.

Dawson City, Yukon Territory to Tok, Alaska

August 7, 2013

At noon today we left Dawson City on a tour bus to travel to Tok, Alaska by way of the "Top of the World" highway.  This day's journey started when our big tour bus was driven on to the ferry to cross the Yukon River.  Our driver was a 26 year old, looked like 16 year old, female who was a very, very good driver and guide for this part of our trip. The highway is a dirt road because the permafrost breaks down making the pavement come apart.  A dirt road is easier to maintain at these latitudes and elevations than a paved road.  At some points in the mountains it is barely wide enough for two tour buses to pass. While on this road we saw our first caribou, 10 in all.  I also saw a couple of female moose by the road.  It was on this day that our fellow tour persons decided that Mike and I were the wildlife spotters.

View out of the bus window while on the ferry.

View from the Top of the World Highway

There are caribou in the picture, they are just really small.

US Customs - the furthest north US customs.  Two people
live here at a time.

Close up of the customs house

First view of Alaska on the highway

Picture of our tour group with tour director Amanda (left)
and driver April (right) in the center of the picture

This section of the road was very pretty.  We have been told that Holland America is not doing this particular tour next year, because of the many times during tour season that the road had to be closed.  It's a shame because this was one of our favorite traveling days.

Old miner's cabin

Small gold mining business

Large gold mining business

 Two different gold mining businesses on the same stream.  The small business actually did more damage to the stream because the large business had a pool to catch the silt.  The stream below the small one was muddy for miles and the stream below the large one was hardly muddy even just below the mine.

Stream by the road.

Chicken, Alaska 

 Chicken, Alaska - Got its name because the residents wanted to name the town after the Alaskan state bird and they couldn't spell ptarmigan.  Everything in the town which is for sale has some type of chicken theme.

View from the bus while on the road.

This day was very interesting.  It was nice except when we stopped in Chicken where it was pouring rain.  Tok, Alaska where we spent the night is such a small town that I didn't even take any pictures of the place.  It is primarily a stopping place when people travel the road we were on today.