I bet you thought I was done posting about Alaska since my last post talked about the end of the cruise, didn’t you? Well I fooled you! The cruise may have been over but the vacation was not, yay! Wednesday 8/7 we disembarked the cruise ship and got on a bus to go to the McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge for a view of Mount McKinley.
Isn’t that a great picture of McKinley? I think so too…but we didn’t take it, LOL. Apparently, only a small percentage of visitors who go to see McKinley actually get to see it (because of all the clouds). The bus ride to McKinley was pretty long so there wasn’t a lot of time to plan activities. We walked around the property, took a short nature walk where the park ranger told us about all the native plants and animals and headed to find some dinner. After dinner, we were all so tired from travelling that we vegetated in our room until bedtime and went to sleep early.
Thursday 8/8 we got up early and took the bus (about an hour) to Talkeetna where we would be getting on the train. We found this little restaurant called the Roadhouse Café that supposedly had pretty good breakfast. It wasn’t just “pretty good”, it was probably the best breakfast food we had out of the whole trip! Every plate was hot and fresh with giant portions. We got all sorts of eggs, potatoes, bacon/sausage, blueberry pancakes, cinnamon rolls, etc. It was practically a feast! Click the pic to check out their website!
Thursday 8/8 we got up early and took the bus (about an hour) to Talkeetna where we would be getting on the train. We found this little restaurant called the Roadhouse Café that supposedly had pretty good breakfast. It wasn’t just “pretty good”, it was probably the best breakfast food we had out of the whole trip! Every plate was hot and fresh with giant portions. We got all sorts of eggs, potatoes, bacon/sausage, blueberry pancakes, cinnamon rolls, etc. It was practically a feast! Click the pic to check out their website!
After breakfast we wandered the shops some more and then headed to the rail depot to catch the train to Denali national park. I think this is the first time I’ve ever been on a real train. I have been on plenty of trains at zoos and other tourist attractions but I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a train that has a destination different from the origin (not a loop or an out and back ride). The train was a double decker with passengers up top and a restaurant and bathrooms on the first floor. It had really neat windows on the train so that everyone could see outside no matter where you sat. The train ride was around 4 hours and we were constantly watching for wildlife hoping to see a bear or a moose. We saw lots of beautiful scenery but, sadly, no animals.
After we arrived at the Denali Princess Wilderness lodge, we had all agreed that we wanted to take the train again when we left Denali instead of another bus so my parents headed to the tour desk to make some travel adjustments while we checked out the lodge. By the time we sorted out the travel adjustments and made some plans for the next days’ activities, we had missed the last shuttle of the day into Denali park so we ended up just checking out the local shops (we did a TON of shopping on this trip) and getting some dinner at a great little pizza place. After dinner it started to rain so back to the rooms we went…for some more hanging out and another early bedtime.
Friday 8/9 my siblings and I slept in while my parents went for a short hike (only 1 – 2 hours) and then we headed out for our final “excursion”… ATV’s! Only Ryan and Joe had ever driven ATV’s before and my mom had been on one once but she wasn’t driving. We were all pretty excited about them! I was pretty nervous at first (you know I’m a big chicken!) so we were going pretty slowly, lol. But after the first little bit I got a lot more comfortable and it was fun zipping along over bumps and dips and rocks. We checked out a huge glacial deposit (where the glacier drops rocks and sand that it picked up as it moved) which was really neat. We also finally saw some wildlife – a moose! I was going to put pics of the moose and ATV's but now i can't find them...hmmm...must be on someone else's camera, LOL.
We had to go straight to the train depot after ATV’s but it was kind of nice because we were tired from the afternoon’s excitement. We had another pleasant 4 hour train ride with dinner on the train but we still didn’t see any animals from the train. The train does move slow enough that you could see animals if they were there (and not hiding) but maybe it wasn’t the right time of day or year or they get scared by the noise of the train. That night, we stayed in our final destination: the Bear Lodge in Fairbanks. It was pretty late when we got to the lodge so we went straight to bed (well we watched some tv first, lol).
In case you missed it, here are the rest of the Alaskan vacation blog posts:
Part 1: Vancouver & Embarkation
Part 2: Ketchikan & Juneau
Part 3: Skagway & Scenic Cruising
Part 4: Denali National Park
Finale: Fairbanks & Going Home
Friday 8/9 my siblings and I slept in while my parents went for a short hike (only 1 – 2 hours) and then we headed out for our final “excursion”… ATV’s! Only Ryan and Joe had ever driven ATV’s before and my mom had been on one once but she wasn’t driving. We were all pretty excited about them! I was pretty nervous at first (you know I’m a big chicken!) so we were going pretty slowly, lol. But after the first little bit I got a lot more comfortable and it was fun zipping along over bumps and dips and rocks. We checked out a huge glacial deposit (where the glacier drops rocks and sand that it picked up as it moved) which was really neat. We also finally saw some wildlife – a moose! I was going to put pics of the moose and ATV's but now i can't find them...hmmm...must be on someone else's camera, LOL.
We had to go straight to the train depot after ATV’s but it was kind of nice because we were tired from the afternoon’s excitement. We had another pleasant 4 hour train ride with dinner on the train but we still didn’t see any animals from the train. The train does move slow enough that you could see animals if they were there (and not hiding) but maybe it wasn’t the right time of day or year or they get scared by the noise of the train. That night, we stayed in our final destination: the Bear Lodge in Fairbanks. It was pretty late when we got to the lodge so we went straight to bed (well we watched some tv first, lol).
In case you missed it, here are the rest of the Alaskan vacation blog posts:
Part 1: Vancouver & Embarkation
Part 2: Ketchikan & Juneau
Part 3: Skagway & Scenic Cruising
Part 4: Denali National Park
Finale: Fairbanks & Going Home
