Alaska Excursions: Scenic Rail from Denali to Whittier

This was the day the weather broke! After mostly cloudy skies with rain on-and-off, it was incredibly exciting to have a full day of sunshine. Not only that, but the storms of the previous few days left all the tall mountains topped with fresh snow, which made our clear views that much more spectacular. Over and over from this day through the rest of the trip, everyone we talked to kept saying what wonderful weather we were having, and I think we appreciated it more after the rainy days we started with. :-)

The train ride was definitely another highlight of the trip, and it was the nicest way I can imagine to travel back down to the port. The train cars were two stories, with restrooms and dining areas on the bottom and seats arranged in groupings of 4 across tables on the top. Also, the windows wrapped all around from armrest level to the top, giving us a panoramic view the whole time.

Each of the 7 cars on the train had a guide (ours was Rose, who was enthusiastic but a bit odd at times and dull at others, but still provided some good info) and a bartender. We were lucky to be seated in the back of our car, so there was a nice, long bench we could sit on and a shelf to put our stuff on. The couple who was sharing one of our tables was also really kind and easy to be around.

We spent most of our time gazing out the windows and enjoying the sunshine. Not too long into the journey, we spotted Denali--the whole, magnificent mountain--covered with blazing white snow. As it turned out, we'd see glimpses of the peak at various points all along the way. After days of hoping to see it, we finally did, and it was pretty fun to share that excitement with the rest of our train car--people clapping, and shouting, and frantically taking pictures. Here it is:

Of course, the pictures don't do it justice, and from this distance, you certainly can't tell just how big it is. For some perspective, here's a sign we saw at one of the lodges:

We did venture down to the dining car for both breakfast and lunch, which were very nice.

Mark and I split the bagel sandwich for breakfast.

My cubano sandwich (I shared with Mark).

Mark's fish tacos (he shared with me).

Several of us also explored the length of the train and spent some time at various points out on the deck area to see views without windows (unfortunately, this was also the smoking area, so between that and the wind, we didn't hang out here too long at one time).

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves here; apologies for the ones with reflections and glare from the windows. Also, I've included pics from my camera as well as from Mark's phone, so they aren't strictly in chronological order.

Alaska Excursions: Denali Natural History Tour

This excursion came as part of the land tour, and it was our only chance to really experience the Denali National Park. As you can see in the pics below, we continued to have very cloudy weather with some light rain. While we were at the Mt. McKinley lodge, we learned that the mountain (which is also called Denali, the name Alaskans prefer) is only fully visible 30% of the time. So far, we'd only seen the base of the mountain, even when the sky cleared up in other places, because it is tall enough to create its own weather system. Despite our hopes, we did not see the peak during our tour of the park, either.

As we drove toward the visitor center, we spotted another moose, this one with two calves!

After a brief stop for restrooms and some quick souvenir purchases at the Welcome Center, we were off.

I had been expecting to pretty much to stay on the bus, so I was pleasantly surprised that there were a few planned stops along the way. Our first stop was at this rustic cabin:

Later, a park ranger hopped on to give us some info about Denali:

After that, we heard some stories from this charming Native Alaskan (I don't remember her tribe, unfortunately...). She told us about a time a bear came and rattled her little station here on the mountain as well as some history of her family, describing how things in the area have changed from her grandfather's time to the present.

Here are some more pics of the beautiful scenery:

While we really enjoyed this tour, if Mark and I ever find ourselves back in Denali, I think we'd like to spend more time there, doing some exploring of our own on foot to see it from a different perspective.