One of the highlights of our land tour, without a doubt, was the train ride from Denali to Talkeetna, where the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge was located. The ride was only about four and a half hours long (or at least it was supposed to be) but the trip was much better than riding the coach buses. The passenger cars were double-deckers with seating on the upper level, with a dining area and restrooms on the lower level. Better than any other train I have ridden in.
The passenger section of our railcar.
One of the first things we passed was the rock dome that we hiked past two days prior, along with a bridge we crossed (I have both of those pictures on my Day 4 blog post). At that point we started climbing into the mountains, until we reached the highest point on the Alaskan Railroad. Along the route, Melissa managed to get her 400th bird species, a hawk owl flying with a meal clutched in its talons (and before you ask, no I do not know how many birds I have, but probably near that number).
Going higher into the mountains.
And higher into the mountains…
Just about there…
And we reached the highest point along the Alaskan Railroad.
At about 11am, we had lunch in the dining area. It was a very nice meal – I had reindeer chili (yes, reindeer really is a staple up here) and Melissa had some salmon chowder. While we were in the dining area, we crossed a rather impressive railroad bridge. One of those that you really shouldn’t look down from if you have vertigo. And the train stopped. On the bridge. One of our party had to retire to the bathroom, as she did not handle bridges very well. I looked directly down once and decided to not do that again. But it did have a nice view of a meandering river. After we left the bridge, but we were still in the dining area, we happened to pass by a pair of moose, who appeared to both be male and just growing this year’s antlers. One of them kept splashing around – seemed like he was pretty happy that winter was over. We also saw some trumpeter swans swimming on some small ponds.
Meandering river that we crossed over on a particularly high bridge.
Two moose (likely bulls) enjoying springtime feeding opportunities.
Trumpeter swans on a pond.
After lunch, we went back up to the main passenger area and caught a lot of scenery. We observed all sorts of waterways, from small streams, to large rivers with ice flows still holding on in the warming weather. We also came across a homestead – “Sherman City Hall”. The couple that lives there had been out in the bush since the 1960’s. They still lived out there the majority of the year, and came out to wave at the trains every time they passed, including when our train did.
River with mountain range behind it.
“Sherman City Hall”
Creek with alders and birches just starting to green up.
River surrounded by black cottonwoods.
A stream surrounded by alder, spruce, and black cottonwood.
River with ice flows still on it (no, that is not a sand bar).
We crossed one more large river, then arrived into Talkeetna, the town that was the inspiration for the TV show, “Northern Exposure”. Our resort, the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge was about an hour away and we had to take a bus to get there. We arrived, and discovered that we had a nice view of Denali from the hotel grounds. Unfortunately, the view of the mountain was even worse than before – all covered with clouds.
Final river crossing
We got to our room, did some unpacking, then got ready for our only excursion out of this resort – an easy hike around Byers Lake in Denali State Park. Our group for this outing was actually a bit larger than our last hike – I believe we actually had nine people, not including the hike leader. Our first stop was actually an overlook that looked over the Talkeetna River and towards Denali. The view of the mountain had not gotten any better in the half an hour since we had last looked at it, but the rest of the view was amazing. We got to the lake, which was still half frozen, but gorgeous, with the broken ice creating “ice chimes” that sounded like crystal windchimes. We didn’t see a whole lot in the way of wildlife, but did observe two common loons and a few American widgeons. Our halfway point was a cabin that was built by a couple that decided to live out in the area. Their main source of income was trapping year-round and they also managed to raise a family out there as well. The cabin was built in the 1950’s and was abandoned during the 1960’s. Amazingly, a lot of their furniture was still in there, and partially intact.
Talkeetna River with sand bars.
Denali hiding again.
Panoramic shot of the Talkeetna and Denali.
Byers Lake in Denali State Park
Common loon on Byers Lake.
Trappers cabin
Trees growing off of the roof of the trappers cabin (gives you an idea of how shallow the roots are).
American widgeons on Byers Lake.
When we arrived back at the resort, we decided that we should have some dinner before we made the fairly long trek back to our room. We found that there was a wait to get into the one restaurant, but found two of the couples we had been traveling with on the land tour also waiting outside. The one couple, who were from Perth, Australia, had already eaten, but were giving dining advice to the other couple, who were from Des Moines, Iowa. Shortly after we arrived, their pager went off and they invited us to eat with them, since we still had a 45-minute wait to look forward to. It was really nice getting to know Becky and Bob a bit better (you learn that you can’t really be shy on these tours), and it was a good end to our time in Talkeetna. The next day we would be heading to our last stop on the land tour – Cooper Landing on the Kenai Peninsula.