Grand Princess here we come.....5/30/15

Today we are headed on a 5 1/2 hour train ride to the Grand Princess who is awaiting us in Whittier, AK. We awoke to another beautiful day and another beautiful view of Mt. McKinley. A few reflections so far....

• I will never take this trip again because it has been so wonderful weather wise I don't want to ruin any of the memories I have. Nothing could ever come close. 
• I would definitely start north and work south. Fairbanks was OK but nothing compared to the next two lodges. As you move south the scenery just gets better and better.
• I would definitely consider a connoisseur tour again because the convenience of not having to check into hotels, move luggage, pay for breakfast/dinner, and make dinner reservations was fantastic. Princess has done an exceptional job with the logistics of the land portion.

Here are a few photos of the lodge....

 This one is from our window at 12:30am.... you can see how light it still is.

 I hope you have enjoyed reading about our journey so far. More of Alaska awaits us aboard the cruise ship. Internet access may be a little more difficult so posts may be delayed.

McKinley full day - 5/29/15

Today is our final full day at a lodge as tomorrow we will take the train to meet the Grand Princess cruise ship in Whittier. For today Chris and I decided to take a tour called South Denali Experience. After our bus ride to Talkeetna yesterday we decided we didn't want to do that again. We met up with the Kleins for breakfast and then began the tour. This tour was a brief look into the wonders of the south side of the mountain and Denali State Park. First we went to the Alaskan Veterans Memorial. Here there were some great views of the mountain.

Our second stop on the tour was Byers Lake. What a peaceful place. It was quiet and beautiful.

Here the lake is full of baby salmon.

Our next stop on the tour was the house where the tour director lived. She performed a fire making demonstration as means of survival in the wilderness. Then she invited us inside for some Alaskan made tea and crackers and jam while she showed some videos of Denali and wildlife photos from their backyard camera.

After the tour we headed back to the lodge for some picture taking and lunch. We decided to eat in the 20320 Alaskan Grill restaurant. We just chilled for the afternoon sitting on the deck taking in the spectacular views as the mountain was very clear today.

At 4:30 I sat in on the mountain talk presentation.... I only caught the first 20 minutes and this is one thing I am sad I missed throughout our stay here. Twice a day they have a presentation from someone who has summitted Mt. McKinley. I find this extremely fascinating. The person today was a woman who was a park ranger. She showed photos and shared her experiences. I am told that currently there are 500 climbers on the mountain as we are in peak climbing season. Only 2 people have actually summitted however with the weather so clear and little wind today they felt there would be a lot more actually finishing today. You have not actually summitted until you are down from the mountain. 

At 5pm our next tour began....horseback riding. I was not too excited about this tour but it was something Chris was really looking forward to. I was worried about the bugs and came prepared with my bug head net. Once we arrived we were paired up with a horse. I rode Denali and Chris had Montana. We mounted the horse and off we went. I will say I did use bug spray but the bugs were not bad. I will be returning my head net to Cabela's when I get home. It is better to be prepared though. The trail was very rugged and you rode up to an overlook with spectacular views. At one point the guide said there was a moose on the other side of the brush and to pull tighter on our reins but we did not see it. The brush was very thick but we heard it.

We finished the day with dinner at the Mountain View restaurant again. Chris had crab legs and I had a delicious Alaskan seafood pasta. We finished with raspberry white chocolate cheesecake.

Mt McKinley - 5/28/15

Today we started off with Breakfast in the King Salmon restaurant again. We got a little extra time this morning because our luggage did not need to be out until 7:30am. We took one last look at Denali scenery and headed for the bus to Princess Mt McKinley Lodge. It was about a 2 1/2 hr bus ride because we made one stop because once again the mountain was out. They say only 30% of the people who visit here ever get to see the mountain.We have been so fortunate.

Once we reached the lodge we ate lunch at the Grizzly Bar admiring the mountain. The hotel is kind of spread out and all of the stuff happens at the main building. Our walk wasn't too bad. One thing to note is that there is nothing near this hotel... you are truly in the wilderness.
At 3pm we had to catch the shuttle to Talkeetna (the closest town) which was an hour away. We had a flight seeing airplane tour that took off from there.
Once we arrived we again had a safety briefing and up...up... and away we went. The pilot said this was an A+  day for seeing the mountain. There were some clouds but we just flew above them.

 The picture below is "base camp" at 7000 feet. You can see the tiny dots in the middle which is all the tents.

 Here we are with our pilot, Nick and the plane.

We arrived back at the lodge at 7:45pm after another hour ride back. We did however see a moose just off the road but not fast enough to get a picture. We met Pat and Bill for dinner and exchanged excursion stories as they went on a wagon ride at the lodge. Chris and I both had crab legs tonight which were delicious. Then we ordered the brownie dessert and laughed about how big it was and how little ice cream they gave us.

Then it was off to the laundry so we can have some clean clothes to carry us another week.....
The posts might be scattered the next few days....cell/internet service is not so great here.

Denali - part 2 5/27/15

After our tour into Denali park we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and book a helicopter tour with a glacier landing. I was a little nervous about going in a helicopter as I have never been but my mother in law said she did it and I knew then that I could handle it as she can barely handle Soarin' at  Disney. We were picked up around 4pm and brought about a mile down the road for our safety briefing and check in. We were given boots to put over our shoes to help grip when we were on the glacier and off we went....

 This was the most amazing experience. The peacefulness and quiet that is felt when you are out in the middle of this beautiful state is awe inspiring. I am so glad that we did this. It is truly the only way to see Alaska!

For those of you who know Chris you know he is an avid photographer so here are a few shots of him today...

We finished off our anniversary with a wonderful dinner with our friends, Pat and Bill at the King Salmon restaurant where Chris finally got his crab legs. They presented us with a little anniversary gift which was a cross stitch Pat had make of the word Alaska which included pictures and names of all the places we would visit. It was beautiful and I can't wait to make a wall hanging with it.

Denali - our 20th Anniversary 5/27/15 part 1

Today is our 20th anniversary and we spent the day in Denali National Park. The morning started off cool....46 degrees. We began with a french toast buffet breakfast. It was pretty good. Then Bill and I picked up our boxed lunches and headed to the lobby to meet the group. Our bus arrived at 7:10 am for our 8 hour tour which went 53 miles into Denali Park. The bus was fairly comfortable.

We headed off and after the first hour I was a little disappointed....we hadn't seen any wildlife except some weird "chicken looking bird". I wanted to see more.

The scenery was amazing! We also quickly saw Mt McKinley ...the highest mountain in North America. This is great since apparently it is very hard to see as it is mostly covered in clouds.

Then things got really fun! We saw moose, grizzly bear w/cubs, caribou, dahl sheep, golden eagle, and deer falcon. It was fantastic. Not only on the way going but coming back some of them were even closer. The grizzly w/cubs was by far my favorite. At one point she even laid back and let the cubs nurse. You couldn't ask for anything more. Here are a few pictures of the wildlife. My picture of the moose was too far for you to know it was a moose.