Live (well, not so) and Life from a combo land and sea Alaskan tour

[Copper10-8]

Hi, last month (August), Maria and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a 3-day Alaskan land tour, followed by a 7-day Alaskan cruise (Whittier, AK to Vancouver, BC) on HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam. This is our story, better late than never!

 

Day 1 - 08/03/2023; Getting to Alaska

 

So, Thursday’s reveille was early! 0400 for Maria and 0500 for moi! Our yellow cab pickup to LAX was scheduled for 0600 hours. Stiv, our cat knew exactly what was happening and didn’t like it a bit. He had one of his “thunder runs” sprinting from the family room up the steps, down the hallway, and into our bedroom where he jumped on the bed, letting out a howl/growl all the way. He then sulked away in my office until it was our time to leave when Maria put him on top of our bed under his “blankie”. Maria’s mum Carmen is once again cat sitting!

 

Our cabbie was on time, and we wound up having the same Afghani driver as our last hop to the airport, back in May. He’s the guy that proposed to let us off at Arrivals downstairs, as opposed to Departures in order to avoid the morning rush which there always is at LAX. Good idea! Alaska Airlines is located at Terminal 6, we took an elevator up one level to check-in which is at a kiosk. We then saw an agent who checked I.D.’s and took our bags. TSA was a breeze with their pre-check, so we moseyed up to Gate 64A.

 

Boarding started promptly at 0720 hours, and we took our seats, 2A and 2C in one of Mr. Boeing new generation 737-890’s. After taxiing from the south complex to the north complex and stopping at the threshold of Runway 24 Left, the captain gunned his two CFM International 56-7B engines, and we left the surly bounds. A right turn over Santa Monica Bay and feet dry over Santa Barbara. Our route would take us over northbound over central California, northern California into Oregon, over Portland and into Washington state, where we would start our initial descent into Seattle’s Sea-Tac International Airport, our first stop. The two hour and five-minute flight to cover the 954 miles was uneventful in smooth air with the fasten seatbelt sign off all the way until the initial descent.

 

Alaska does not have, or no longer has, entertainment monitors in the seatback in front of you or hanging from the overhead. Instead, they offer their complimentary Wi-Fi option which has plenty, or “plentong”, as our Indonesian friends say, of movies and TV shows to choose from, so bring an iPad or a laptop along and you’re good to go. There was a meal service provided by the flight attendants which was served hot and was good.

 

Once on the ground at Sea-Tac which was very busy today, we took the tram to Terminal N and waited for our next flight to Fairbanks, AK, a distance of 1,528 miles, once again in a Boeing 737-900ER (ER for extended range). We got our seats on that bad boy, 3A and 3C, and once the boarding door was shut, and a power cart connected, start up of the No. 2 engine was at the gate because the aircraft’s APU was having a bad day.

 

To be con't

[Copper10-8]

Day 1 - 08/03/2023; Getting to Alaska (con't)

 

 

Prior to take-off from Sea-Tac enroute Fairbanks, the captain came on the P/A but the only thing we could hear was “Blue Angels” in town and “maneuver”. The lead flight attendant repeated the announcement and stated that since the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s famous aerial flight demonstration team were in town for Seattle’s annual Seafair celebration. They were practicing that show out of the King County International Airport terminal, their temporary base at the north end of Boeing Field, which put them somewhere inside our normal take-off pattern. So, as a result, the captain would have to perform some kind of “odd maneuver” right after take-off in order to avoid them there blue boys in their six F/A-18 Super Hornets flying weally, weally close to each other! That, my friends, is what they call an attention getter or in this case an “odd maneuver”. This turned out to be a banking climb to the left after wheels up which gave us seated on the left side of the aircraft, a nice view of terra firma.

 

Once crossing 10,000 feet, we continued the climb to 34,000 feet and crossed into Canadian airspace, eh. This route would take us northbound over the British Columbia airspace, leaving big Vancouver Island on our port side, before entering back into U.S./Alaskan airspace.

 

This turned out to be a three hour and 15-minute flight, once again in smooth air over some outstanding Alaskan scenery. There was once again a meal service. I had some combo Polenta dish over pasta which was once again quite good. Being the uncouth, bottom-dwelling non-foody individual that I am, I had no clue what “polenta” was/is, but now I do, oh joy!

 

I watched Woody Harelson’s movie “Champions” on my laptop which turned out to be a funny story. Maria watched a British TV show. We went wheels-down at Fairbanks International Airport and taxied past an entire collection of nineteen fifties and sixties propellor birds, some of which are still flying as cargo aircraft.

 

Fairbanks (FAI) is more or less in the center of Alaska, and the airport there serves as a gateway to much of the interior. There are good paved roads running south to Anchorage (360 miles), and southeast to the rest of North America (2,000ish miles to Vancouver or Calgary), but surface transportation throughout the state is limited, with vast expanses accessible only by air. While there’s no shortage of passenger and cargo operators ferrying tourists and freight, there’s a large number of residents whose link between home and the rest of the world is aviation.

 

On the way out today, we saw one of those old cargo boys, a DC-6A, taking off retracting his/her landing gear while still over the runway huffing and puffing away, a cool sight and sound one doesn’t see too often anymore. Brought back memories of my semi-regular trips to Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport by bus with a little Kodak camera in hand as a youth.

 

OK, so once collecting our luggage off the belt, we strolled down to a HAL agent at a suitably marked tour desk, who gave us a welcome envelop that contained, among other stuff, luggage tags for the Westmark Fairmont, our hotel for one night, directed us to affix them tags to our valises, drop those three bags off with the blue shirted guys in the corner and, and take a seat with some other HAL passengers, and wait to be picked up.

 

There were also Princess and Norwegian Cruise Line reps walking around to collect their pax. The wait was less then fifteen minutes when we were directed to board a coach outside, driven by Dolores, hailing from Alabama via Alaska. That drive for 29 of us took all of 12-13 minutes before arriving at the Westmark.

 

There was no checking in at the hotel’s front desk because our, and everyone else’s, room keys were already in that same envelop, which was a good thing, because we were arriving at our temporary abode, with about 100 other HAL and Princess passengers which caused a little bit of a wait for the elevators. Our room was on the fourth floor with a separate kitchen area with small fridge and microwave, a seating area with desk (free internet) and TV and a sleeping area with another TV and, yes, a king-size bed. We’ve done this combo land tour/cruise once before some 15-20 years ago and stayed in the same hotel.

 

At around seven PM, we went down to the hotel’s Northern Latitudes restaurant for dinner. The place was pretty full, but not overcrowded. Maria chose the salmon and moi the fish & chips, both were good while service was prompt. After dinner, we strolled the neighborhood of the hotel to get some light exercise after having been seated for most of the day. The weather was great in Fairbanks, and it stayed light out until 11 PM.

 

Tomorrow (Friday) is our 3-hour trip by bus from Fairbanks to Denali National Park

 

See you then!

[POA1]

Thanks for writing this, John! For those of us following along (or at least me,) what's the cruise tour code?

 

I'm guessing it's R?L, but I don't know what the number would be. (Or, I could be way off the mark.)

[erewhon]

@Copper10-8  John,  enjoying your reports, thank you.

[kazu]

Thank you for your reports @Copper10-8 🙂 

[albingirl]

Will be following, and always enjoy your reports.  Bon Voyage!

[Denise T]

Thank you for your reports. We sailed Niew Amsterdam from Whittier to Vancouver at the end of May and had a wonderful time. Looking forward to your reports. 

[Copper10-8]

10 hours ago, POA1 said:

Thanks for writing this, John! For those of us following along (or at least me,) what's the cruise tour code?

 

I'm guessing it's R?L, but I don't know what the number would be. (Or, I could be way off the mark.)

 

 

Hey Brian, the tour designator for the land portion was D01 or DOI or combination of those, but definitely not DUI 😉 

[nutensteve]

This is great John. We just got back from our land sea trip on Sunday. We did the three night Denali experience but the route was the same as yours.

[Copper10-8]

Day 2 - 08/04/2023; Fairbanks to Denali National Park

 

When you do the land tour, among other things already mentioned, they give you two different colored Holland America Line luggage tags to affix to your baggages; one is blue and green and says, “Join me tonight” and the other blue and orange and says, “Join me onboard”. So, if you have a piece of luggage that does not contain anything you need during your land tour, you can tag it with the “Join my onboard” one and you won’t see that piece again until you board the ship in Whittier, AK. We were not that organized, so we had the join me tonite tags in addition to a CHL (McKinley Chalet) on all three. The instructions provided told us to place that luggage, tagged and ready to go outside out hotel room door at the ungodly hour of 0630, so another early morning reveille! We would get used to that pretty soon! There was a big box truck parked four floors below us where all that Denali luggage would soon find a temporary home and be off before we were.

 

Breakfast for us was once again at the Northern Latitudes which was a buffet-style affair. It wasn’t crowded at all in there because HAL, Princess and the Westmark, bless their hearts, stagger their departures to Denali, Anchorage and Fairbanks Airport. The buffet included reindeer sausage, sorry Rudolf! along with scrambled eggs, home fried potatoes, bacon strips, “regular” sausage links, biscuits, assorted cold cereal, toast, yoghurt, Danish, etc. etc. The food was good and hot except for the scrambled eggs which were of the powdered variety and not that good.

 

Our bus, DOL-01, departure time was scheduled for 0915 hours, and we were told to arrive in the lobby 15 min early, so we did and joined pax for the three HAL coaches soon off for Denali. Our bus driver, Gene, was also our tour guide for this three-hour jaunt down the Alaska Interstate A-4 and was full of information.

 

The George Parks Highway (numbered Interstate A-4 and signed Alaska Route 3), usually called simply the Parks Highway, runs 323 miles from Fairbanks to the Glenn Highway 35 miles north of Anchorage in the Alaska Interior. The highway, originally known as the Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway, was completed in 1971, and given its current name in 1975. The highway, which mostly parallels the Alaska Railroad, is one of the most important roads in Alaska. It is the main route between Anchorage and Fairbanks (Alaska's two largest metropolitan areas), the principal access to Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, and the main highway in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.

 

The ride was, at time, on the bumpy side due to the perma-frost (permanently frozen soil) underneath the asphalt, but you get used to it. There was one stop about an hour and a half in at the Tatanlika Trading Company, near Clear, AK, which did an absolute killing in selling freshly popped bags of popcorn, sodas, water, candy, chips, etc. and of course had the obligatory gift shop where the female folk went to work big time, while the well-trained, domesticated husbands like myself, held on to their spouse’s purses and tried very hard not to lose the will to live.

 

Luckily for most of us stronger sex guys, the owner of this undeniable tourist trap, had his Alaskan short field performance bush plane, a Maule M5 235c, N5647S, and great big, oversized tundra tires parked outside for all to take a look at and snap some pics.

 

Back on the bus, our arrival time at the McKinley Chalet Resort at Denali National Park, also owned and operated by Holland America Line, was at 12:15 PM, right on the money! Denali National Park is home to North America’s tallest peak, Mount Denali aka Mount McKinley. The park itself consists of six million acres of wildland, bisected by one 92-mile-long road.

 

The McKinley Chalet Resort, open from May through September each year (in the wintertime, Jack Nicholson roams the hallways with a big Rambo knife, yelling “Here’s Johnny”) is situated on a mere 42 acres of land. In and around the main lobby are two full-service restaurants () and several retail outposts. The separated lodging areas are located throughout the resort, connected by a looped route and serviced by complimentary courtesy shuttles.

 

Once again, no front desk check-in necessary because, upon that arrival, a rep hopped on the bus with welcome packages in hand which contained our room keys. This time, our room was in the “I” for Ida building on the second floor. Be aware, no elevators here. The room is smallish with a separate living area, a single bed and a full-size bed, nice and cozy! Also, there is no air conditioning inside – a single portable fan was provided - and it was once again really nice warm weather in the eighties, so both windows were opened.

 

Unlike the Westmark Fairbanks, no small fridges inside the room, which necessitated a trek, ice bucket in hand, to the ice machine at Building “B”. Life is good and we are here to adapt, improvise and overcome!

 

At 2:00 PM, a dog kennel nearby which raises and trains Alaskan Huskies as sled dogs brought over two 3-month-old puppies, Raven and Chickadee and placed them inside a small pen in the field in front of our building. They do this 3-4 times a week where the residents here can pick them up, pet them, and socialize with them as part of their training. Maria and I each got to do just that and be the recipient of lots of puppy kisses in the face, a fun experience!

 

To be con't

Edited September 29, 2023 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

Day 2 - 08/04/2023; Fairbanks to Denali National Park (con't)

 

Right after this, at 2:45 PM, we picked up one of the Chalet’s shuttle buses which took us to the nearby Denali National Park visitor center where we picked up a different shuttle bus to take us to the U.S. National Park Service Park Ranger’s K-9 kennel headquarters where they currently house 39 Alaskan Huskies who are trained, or still in training, as sled dogs. Denali is the only national park facility that houses park ranger sled dog teams and they have been doing it since 1922! something I was not aware off.

 

We were able to tour the kennel on foot and see some of the dogs on top of, inside, or in front of their houses, as well as speak to one of the park rangers/K-9 handlers. So, in the wintertime, they use these dogs to patrol this huge park, as well as perform search and rescue, and medevac for/of i.e., lost hikers, all while operating as sled teams.

 

At 4:00 PM, the park rangers gave a demo of how the dogs operate by hooking them up to a trolley on wheels ridden/led by a ranger standing on the trolley who guided his team of eight dogs around a short track, stopping in front of the spectators stand. Just like my old police K-9 handler days, the same dogs that were sleeping by their houses while off the clock were all energy and raring to go when going to work. After the demo there was time for questions and answers from/by the audience. A very cool event to attend!

 

Back at the Chalet, we had a Cosmopolitan which took us to our 8:15 PM dinner reservation at the Canyon Steakhouse. Maria had a green salad and rock fish, while I had French onion soup and a chicken dish, and we shared a baked Alaska of course!

 

For tomorrow (Saturday) we have a complimentary Tundra Wilderness tour (believe everyone here part of a land/tour package gets that one) that goes into Denali National Park however, we discovered in our welcome package that they had issued us a 0450 hours departure time! Say what? Up to the tour desk we marched to find out that Tundra Wilderness tour #1 at 4:50 AM is the primo/numero uno tour because “the animals are awake and out”. Sorry for the animals, but we requested and received a more civilized 0910 hours departure time for the Denali animal tour!

 

See ya manana (Saturday) for that one!

[MrBill923]

Here are two short Videos of the sled dogs in action. It was fun to watch and see how the dogs are cared for. Hope you can see these. 

 

[MrBill923]

Moderator: I cannot see responses to my post #12. I have received notices that kplady and Copper 10-8 have responded. Can you help?

Thanks

 

[Copper10-8]

31 minutes ago, MrBill923 said:

Moderator: I cannot see responses to my post #12. I have received notices that kplady and Copper 10-8 have responded. Can you help?

Thanks

 

 

The responses to your post/videos, so far, are three (3) Likes and one (1) Thank You

[MrBill923]

Oh. Thanks. I was just curious why I can't see them. I just got yours. So strange. 

[POA1]

8 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

 

Hey Brian, the tour designator for the land portion was D01 or DOI or combination of those, but definitely not DUI 😉 

Thanks. It's D0L (Dee Zero El) For reasons unclear to me, HAL does not capitalize the L and the C. The lowercase l is indistinguishable from a number 1 using the font on the HAL site. (In the grand scheme of things, that's probably the least of the problems with the websites.)

[Copper10-8]

50 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Thanks. It's D0L (Dee Zero El) For reasons unclear to me, HAL does not capitalize the L and the C. The lowercase l is indistinguishable from a number 1 using the font on the HAL site. (In the grand scheme of things, that's probably the least of the problems with the websites.)

 

So, Delta Zero Lima 😉 I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, so it was all very confusing to me! Now, the average five-year old would have no probs deciphering it like you just did, except faster! 😛 The bus from Fairbanks to Denali used a similar code; Delta Zero Lima Zero One

[Ineke]

23 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

Day 1 - 08/03/2023; Getting to Alaska (con't)

 

 

Prior to take-off from Sea-Tac enroute Fairbanks, the captain came on the P/A but the only thing we could hear was “Blue Angels” in town and “maneuver”. The lead flight attendant repeated the announcement and stated that since the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s famous aerial flight demonstration team were in town for Seattle’s annual Seafair celebration. They were practicing that show out of the King County International Airport terminal, their temporary base at the north end of Boeing Field, which put them somewhere inside our normal take-off pattern. So, as a result, the captain would have to perform some kind of “odd maneuver” right after take-off in order to avoid them there blue boys in their six F/A-18 Super Hornets flying weally, weally close to each other! That, my friends, is what they call an attention getter or in this case an “odd maneuver”. This turned out to be a banking climb to the left after wheels up which gave us seated on the left side of the aircraft, a nice view of terra firma.

 

Once crossing 10,000 feet, we continued the climb to 34,000 feet and crossed into Canadian airspace, eh. This route would take us northbound over the British Columbia airspace, leaving big Vancouver Island on our port side, before entering back into U.S./Alaskan airspace.

 

This turned out to be a three hour and 15-minute flight, once again in smooth air over some outstanding Alaskan scenery. There was once again a meal service. I had some combo Polenta dish over pasta which was once again quite good. Being the uncouth, bottom-dwelling non-foody individual that I am, I had no clue what “polenta” was/is, but now I do, oh joy!

 

I watched Woody Harelson’s movie “Champions” on my laptop which turned out to be a funny story. Maria watched a British TV show. We went wheels-down at Fairbanks International Airport and taxied past an entire collection of nineteen fifties and sixties propellor birds, some of which are still flying as cargo aircraft.

 

Fairbanks (FAI) is more or less in the center of Alaska, and the airport there serves as a gateway to much of the interior. There are good paved roads running south to Anchorage (360 miles), and southeast to the rest of North America (2,000ish miles to Vancouver or Calgary), but surface transportation throughout the state is limited, with vast expanses accessible only by air. While there’s no shortage of passenger and cargo operators ferrying tourists and freight, there’s a large number of residents whose link between home and the rest of the world is aviation.

 

On the way out today, we saw one of those old cargo boys, a DC-6A, taking off retracting his/her landing gear while still over the runway huffing and puffing away, a cool sight and sound one doesn’t see too often anymore. Brought back memories of my semi-regular trips to Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport by bus with a little Kodak camera in hand as a youth.

 

OK, so once collecting our luggage off the belt, we strolled down to a HAL agent at a suitably marked tour desk, who gave us a welcome envelop that contained, among other stuff, luggage tags for the Westmark Fairmont, our hotel for one night, directed us to affix them tags to our valises, drop those three bags off with the blue shirted guys in the corner and, and take a seat with some other HAL passengers, and wait to be picked up.

 

There were also Princess and Norwegian Cruise Line reps walking around to collect their pax. The wait was less then fifteen minutes when we were directed to board a coach outside, driven by Dolores, hailing from Alabama via Alaska. That drive for 29 of us took all of 12-13 minutes before arriving at the Westmark.

 

There was no checking in at the hotel’s front desk because our, and everyone else’s, room keys were already in that same envelop, which was a good thing, because we were arriving at our temporary abode, with about 100 other HAL and Princess passengers which caused a little bit of a wait for the elevators. Our room was on the fourth floor with a separate kitchen area with small fridge and microwave, a seating area with desk (free internet) and TV and a sleeping area with another TV and, yes, a king-size bed. We’ve done this combo land tour/cruise once before some 15-20 years ago and stayed in the same hotel.

 

At around seven PM, we went down to the hotel’s Northern Latitudes restaurant for dinner. The place was pretty full, but not overcrowded. Maria chose the salmon and moi the fish & chips, both were good while service was prompt. After dinner, we strolled the neighborhood of the hotel to get some light exercise after having been seated for most of the day. The weather was great in Fairbanks, and it stayed light out until 11 PM.

 

Tomorrow (Friday) is our 3-hour trip by bus from Fairbanks to Denali National Park

 

See you then!

 Hi Copper, 

re Polenta. Bring out the Dutch vocab, it’s ‘griesmeel’ but more solid.

[Copper10-8]

3 minutes ago, Ineke said:

 Hi Copper, 

re Polenta. Bring out the Dutch vocab, it’s ‘griesmeel’ but more solid.

 

Goeie avond Ineke

 

I liked it - the Polenta - on the aircraft, just never heard of it before! I don't remember "griesmeel" at all while growing up in Holland! Did they make pudding out of it?

[Ineke]

Yes, they did, and served with berry sauce.

[Alphen]

Great following along John, also followed the report on the medium we are not supposed to mention 😉, but this one is a bit easier to read, all concentrated. Seeing a lot of familiar places and reliving our own land/sea cruise from last year! Thanks for publishing this!

[Alphen]

1 hour ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

Goeie avond Ineke

 

I liked it - the Polenta - on the aircraft, just never heard of it before! I don't remember "griesmeel" at all while growing up in Holland! Did they make pudding out of it?

It is made of of corn, so "mais griesmeel"!

[POA1]

8 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

So, Delta Zero Lima 😉 I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, so it was all very confusing to me! Now, the average five-year old would have no probs deciphering it like you just did, except faster! 😛 The bus from Fairbanks to Denali used a similar code; Delta Zero Lima Zero One

Actually, you are in the majority

Everyone reads it as Delta Zero One. I only knew it was an L because my father booked a land & sea tour before HAL made the website "better." 🤔

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing.  Great pictures!

[Copper10-8]

Day 3 - 08/05/2023; Denali National Park

 

Saturday morning for us started with a 0600 (Maria) and 0700 (moi) alarm clock to get ready for breakfast at the Canyon Steakhouse with a 0800 reservation. Reservations were recommended by our waiter last night and it was good advice since the place was hopping! We were whisked to our table for two right away were Maria ordered eggs, toast, yoghurt with berries, and I had oatmeal with yoghurt.

 

We then got ready for our 0910 hours Tundra Wilderness tour which would take us into Denali National Park and Preserve proper. We met our driver/guide Chris who took roll while 51 of us boarded his Blue Bird bus. We would be with Chris for a total of almost five and a half hours. Waiting on our, and everyone else’s seat, was a snack pack containing a bag of cheese curls, a bag of trail mix, a jerky stick, a bag of brownie brittle and a nutrition bar.

 

The word "Denali" means "the high one" in the native Athabaskan language and refers to Mount McKinley itself. The mountain was named after U.S. President William McKinley in 1897 by local prospector William A. Dickey, even though McKinley had absolutely no connection with the region. The name, however, is only used by those outside of the State of Alaska.

 

How did the National Park get its name? Sheep! Charles Alexander Sheldon took an interest in the Dall sheep native to the region and became concerned that human encroachment might threaten the species. After his 1907-1908 visit, he petitioned the people of Alaska as well as Congress to create a preserve for the sheep.). The park was established as Mount McKinley National Park on 26 February 1917. However, only a portion of Mount McKinley (not even including the summit) was within the original park boundary. The park was designated an international biosphere reserve in 1976. A separate Denali National Monument was proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978.

 

Mount McKinley National Park and Denali National Monument were incorporated and established into Denali National Park and Preserve by the Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act of 2 December 1980. At that time, the Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain back to "Denali," even though the U.S. Board of Geographic Names maintains "McKinley". Alaskans tend to use "Denali" and rely on context to distinguish between the park and the mountain. The size of the national park is over 6 million acres!

 

Chris was soon off (the bus came with seat belts because it’s federal law that they shall be worn on all federal property!) chugging down the George Parks Highway aka Alaska State Highway 3, until turning down Park Road and past the Denali Visitor Center where we disembarked yesterday. Today, we kept on going until the road changed from paved to a hardened dirt road with permafrost underneath. The only traffic you really see on that road are tour buses like ours, park service transit buses dropping off, as well as picking up, hikers at the various trails, and park services vehicles. Oh yeah, on the way back, we saw one person on a bicycle peddling away. Gotta admire that guy!

We made a quick stop at the end of the bridge crossing the Savage River where there is a park ranger checkpoint that keeps track of all vehicles traveling on from that point. A female ranger named Tina came onboard and, after welcoming us, gave a short speech about the park and their number one rule “Leave no Trace.”

 

Our first wildlife spotting was a huge bull moose about 75-100 yards away doing his own thing up an embankment. Further down our trek, we were able to see caribou, dahl sheep, arctic ground squirrels (almost hit one, but he got away), and willow ptarmigan. Unfortunately, no grizzly bear and no bald eagles today.

 

The appropriately named Park Road that services the park is 91-miles long and runs from the George Parks Highway to the mining camp of Kantishna. It runs east to west, north of and roughly parallel to the Alaska Range. Only a small fraction of the road is paved because permafrost and the freeze-thaw cycle create an enormous cost for maintaining the road. Only the first 15 miles of the road are available to private vehicles, and beyond this point visitors must access the interior of the park through concessionary buses of the type we found ourselves on.

 

We did get a great look today at Mount Denali (Mount McKinley until 2016) which is most definitely not a given on this tour since the mountain and its peak is often covered in clouds. Just an awesome sight!

 

About half-way down Park Road, there was a restroom stop which had an overlook down a valley. Our trek then continued westbound past places in the park with names like Sanctuary, Igloo, Sable Pass, Polychrome Pass until we got to a place called Toklat, where we made a U-turn and retraced our route. A stop at the same restroom stop and we once again reached the park ranger checkpoint. The entire trip in the park lasted about three and a half hours! Definitely worth it in our opinion, especially if you’ve never been to Denali! This was our second trip here but on the first one, we never saw then Mount McKinley, unlike this one.

 

To be con't