AK Day 3

Written by Lindsay Korst
gngoat@gngoat.org

Alaska by Rail 2025
Special Interest Tours - Trains Magazine

Saturday, September 6th
Day Three
Tour of Denali National Park

Breakfast was at the Alpenglow buffet, where we were first introduced to Alaska Reindeer Sausage! I preferred the regular pork sausage myself, but the Rudolf meat was a nice change.

Ironically, we didn't see a reindeer on the entire trip, except on my plate.

The big event today, was the bus trip into Denali National Park.  Before we left, we received a box lunch from the Lodge to snarf on the trip.  We were bussed over to the Denali train station and boarded an OFFICIAL Park Service bus so:

Ours was the 9:30am-3:30pm tour, out and back, in these refurbished (nicer seats than Alaska Airlines) old Blue Bird school bus.

Our tour guide and driver, Sarah, was quite opinionated and kept up a non-stop patter to the end-of-road and back.  Our first "encounter" with da wildlife was this:

Yes, I know it doesn't look like anything, but apparently that black blob was a MOOSE with someone standing MUCH too close.  This set off our driver into a litany of NPS-approved distances from critters: 50 yards for a moose, 100 yards for reindeer (they have a nasty kick), 5 yards for ground squirrel (because they're so cute), 50 yards for a bear, etc., etc.  She was so upset, she radioed HQ to report this infraction.

Setting off on today's trek, we had some of the nicest weather, particularly in the morning.  We hadn't gone far when IT appeared on the horizon:  Mount McKinley!!

McKinley has two summits: North and South.

Gotta get some selfies while the sun lasts.  That second image will probably be our 2025 Christmas Card.

Can't get enough of that two-peak mountain (20,310 feet - South Summit) and (19,470 feet - North Summit)

We were told the odds of seeing the peaks from the north side like this is about a 5% chance. Mass kick boonies!

I told Baolu, we can just turn back now, because we'll never see anything else to top that today.

Just some standard scenery along the way.  I love the fall colors.

We did see some more critters including these ptarmigans along the roadside.  Sarah managed not to squash any, AFAIK...

How about some virtual critters?  Baolu is laughing because the bus came with a video camera that supposedly zoomed in on a bear on the ridge beside her.  "They're making it up!", she said as a black blob appeared on the screen.

Same thing with some Dall Sheep far above us.  About as clear as the Bigfoot footage.

Sarah saved her best performance for last. As we were nearing the end of our tour, we came upon a huge traffic jam with cars blocking both lanes with no way to get by.

It was a moose. A very LARGE moose. With the biggest rack, (and I mean that in a wholesome way), you've ever seen. Bullwinkle was casually crossing the road trying to get through with people standing not 10 feet away.

Our driver piped up, "Oh that moose's ears are back, he's really stressed out, right now".  She was so ticked off, she called this encounter into Mister Ranger to CLOSE DOWN THE ROAD to shoulder parking!  Sure enough, two po-po came racing along, blue lights flashing, to deal with those pesky tourists!  Why, we CAN'T have them enjoying what they came here to see!  Clear out, the lot of you!

Dinner tonight was yet another tasty buffet in the private "Sugarloaf Room" (no windows) which didn't begin until 6:30pm.  By 7:30, I was sinking fast (can you tell I'm a morning person?).  Off to bed.