McKinley Explorer to Denali

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Today we boarded the McKinley Explorer train for an all day ride to Denali. We had a large domed carriage which enabled us to experience the spectacular scenery all around us. I spent quite a bit of time on the exterior deck taking lots of photos of course. Early in the trip we passed the Elmendorf Airforce base which had lots of signs saying “no photos’....so who’s going to stop all us tourist on the train taking photos as you travel past ? Didn’t see what was so secret there anyway....lots of F22’s and Hercules parked there but that’s about all we could see – secret indeed !

We enjoyed a lovely lunch in the downstairs dining area of our carriage and then took in the rest of the beautiful scenery on the way to Denali. We arrived at approx 3:30pm where we were promptly offloaded and taken by bus to Denali Wilderness Lodge where we would be staying tonight in a very nice log cabin room right beside the river.

It was time to get used to the constant daylight which is the Alaskan way of life at this time of the year. We had a tour booked for 6:00pm where we learnt about the days of old in Denali and panned for gold (yes we did find some little flakes of gold) after which I went and fed 2 very cute and tame reindeer. Another 50 minutes were spent on a very scenic jet boat ride along the Nenana River where we managed to catch sight of a little bit of wildlife, a glimpse of a beaver. I was so jealous of the groups that went on the jet boat before us ad they got to see a lynx swimming across the river in front of them. We had only just been told that lynx sightings were extremely rare and that there were people who lived here for 20 years and had never seen one. Can you believe it ? We went back to the hotel very tired but had some halibut fish and fries for dinner and then off to bed at 11:00pm (still daylight – thank goodness for the heavy drapes). I woke up at 3:00am in the morning and looked out the window only to see the sun shining and squirrels hopping around outside but I was too tired to bother grabbing my camera.

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