Alaska Journal: 06/15/02: Denali to Fairbanks

Our guided trip into Denali National Park was leaving at 6:30am so we had to get up early. The tour we took traveled 17 miles into the park along a dirt and gravel road maintained by the Park Service. The Park Service limits the traffic in the park to reduce the impact on wildlife therefore private cars are not allowed past about 3 miles in. Only specially permitted tour busses are allowed past that point. Our bus was taking both HAL and Princess passengers and we soon learned that our tour would be delayed because they needed to switch buses due to need for handicap ready bus for one of the Princess passengers (nobody had told the bus driver till she had picked us up and arrived at the Princess stop). We ended up starting about 30 minutes late. The day started off cool but could get mild to warm in the middle of the day so we dressed in layers so we could adjust. As you can see, Denise ready for the Arctic blast in the early morning (and needed it).

Our bus driver / guide was named Nancy Olson and she was very good. She had a great attitude and talked extensively about the wildlife and history of the park. We saw caribou, ground squirrel, snowshoe hare, and Dall sheep. We also had a great view of Denali from several spots along the road.

We made stops at a 1940's era cabin where a storyteller talked of early park supervisor and a stop at the max distance into the park where we heard from a Native American who told of native death rites. At this farthest point into the park, we got our best view of Denali from the ground.

After our wonderful tour of the park, we returned to chalets and ate at the Nenana View restaurant. Breakfast had been a long time ago so we had pizza / salad buffet which was very good. Afterward, we walked around, visited the shops across from the chalets, and sat in a garden soaking up the warm sun in the cool breezes. We had been notified that the train was about an hour late so we had to wait an extra hour for the bus to the train station.

The next segment of the train ride would last about 4 hours and would take us to Fairbanks. On route we saw a few moose but the scenery changed from forest to more scrub and was much more marshy. The car manager Josh told a number of the same jokes as Ben (they had both gone to the same school in Vancouver together). The bartender Tamara used to model outer wear for Sears so Josh had her put on one of each of the clothing items they had for sale on the train (all at once!).

Once were arrived in Fairbanks, it was another bus ride to the hotel. We got to our hotel after 10:00 pm and were very tired from our long day. I took the following picture from our hotel room window shortly after 11:00 pm -- note it is still daylight. Our room was a 2 room suite (The Sourdough Suite) for some reason so we slept well in our king size bed.

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