Doing Denali by Train and Bus

The Alaskan Railroad provides passenger and cargo service between Fairbanks and Seward with short spurs to other towns and villages along this corridor.

Jane gets some train jewelry

The railroad has a modern, well-maintained fleet of cars and passenger service to places like Denali, N.P., making passenger train travel one of the most used means of transportation along this corridor.

Breakfast in the dining car

Our itinerary called for travel to Denali, our next and sixth Alaskan national park, via the Alaskan Railroad.

Mmmmmmmm!

We arrived at the Fairbanks depot by our hotel shuttle and checked in. We had upgraded to a domed vista car and were given a pin to wear that identified us as travelers in that car.

On a curve

The train departed exactly on time at 0815 and shortly after departure, we elected to have breakfast in the dining car which was delicious.

Some beautiful views from the train

After our meal we returned to our seats and had a panoramic view of the Alaskan wilderness. Several historical landmarks were called out along with many moose sightings, and we got to see many small towns that depend on the railroad for their survival. We arrived in Denali, N.P. and got off the train looking for a bus that would take us to the Kantishna Wilderness Lodge some 90 miles into the park.

We found a bus marked Kantishna Roadhouse (KRH), but were told that our bus would be arriving in approximately one hour. The bus left leaving one lady behind with the KRH sign who took Jane’s voucher and luggage tags.

At the Denali Park depot

This caused Jane some consternation, and to make matters worse, we were unable to locate our luggage. We had received really vague instructions as to how the luggage would be handled, and the only markings on our pieces were some blue tags that said Denali. Jane was beginning to panic, so Capt. Larry went looking for our luggage. He found several bins of luggage near the main depot office, but all of them were marked with red Anchorage tags. He then followed a tow truck operator that seemed have picked up a bin from our train, but the driver delivered the bin to all of the others that appeared to be headed for Anchorage. He went back to report to Jane that he didn’t have a clue as to the whereabouts of our luggage. Suddenly the train whistled and started to head south to Anchorage, without any of the luggage that seemed to be marked for that stop and perhaps with ours still onboard. The voucher instructions were clear that there was just one bus to KRH a day and you had to catch it or pay to be flown in. Jane was fretting when KRH sign lady suddenly pulled our luggage from a nearby parked van. To Capt. Larry that indicated that everything was under control, but Jane was still worrying about where the bus was. Nothing to do but wait. Around 1330, about 1½ hours after our arrival to Denali, our bus appeared and Jane was happy again!

We boarded the bus, got settled in, and when everyone seemed ready to go, our bus driver introduced herself as Evie Shields from Golden, CO, daughter of Jim and Mary Greenwell, also of Golden, and said that that was the way the Athabascans, native people of this area, introduced themselves. She said that she adopted this introduction because it showed respect for your elders and she liked that principle.

Willow ptmarigan with chicks hidden

We could tell right away that she was going to be a hoot.

Caribou in the snow

We headed into the park and a very long drive to KRH. As we traveled through the park, Evie related a lot of information about the park’s geology, native peoples in the area, and park history and development. She was a fountain of information and told us she had to study for almost an entire year to become qualified to be a bus driver. She lived in the area in Nenana, about 70 miles north of the park, and it was obvious that she enjoyed her job.

A ground squirrel

We followed the park road to a ranger checkpoint which signaled the end of the paved road. Capt. Larry asked the ranger about where he could obtain the park stamps. We would have two opportunities to collect the stamps at stopping points along the way.

And more bears

About 20 miles further in, the road became a single lane gravel road which also signaled the beginning of the mountain passes. We had to buckle our seatbelts because of the several hundred foot sheer drop offs at the sides of these passes. This made us glad we weren’t driving. We spotted some wildlife with the most notable being a willow ptarmigan with about 10 baby chicks right along the roadside. The chicks scurried for cover as we approached and mama started clucking to keep them out of harm’s way. We watched them for several minutes before moving on. Further up the road we saw some more bears and our first ground squirrel. Ground squirrels, picas, snowshoe hares, shrews, mice and other small mammals are important food sources to mammals further up the food chain that people like to see such as lynx, bear, badgers, marmots, foxes, etc.

Get your stamp here!

We stopped at two visitor’s centers where a checkpoint ranger had told us we could collect two of the park’s 6 stamps. At the second stop, the Eierson Visitor’s Center, we had an opportunity to view Mt. McKinley.

McKinley peaks, north right, south left

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good viewing day due to the clouds surrounding the mountain and the smoke and haze from nearby forest fires. We look for the peak (actually two peaks- a North Peak at just under, and a South Peak at just over 20,000 peak) but were having trouble locating it until a fellow visitor pointed it out. We were looking way too low and when we got the right elevation we could see the sun reflecting off the snow of the North Peak (we think). We watched for 15 minutes as the clouds revealed and then hid the peaks behind their blanket. We took several photos which are hard to decipher, but we did capture images that showed the peaks.

KRH

Moving on we spotted some caribou in some last remaining snow near the tops of some lower mountains. We learned that biting flies invade the noses of the caribou and lay their eggs in their nares. The larvae hatch and irritate the nasal passages, driving the caribou crazy. They find relief in these snow patches where they stick their noses in the snow for its cooling effect. We saw some more spectacular scenery on the way to the lodge and Evie was lecturing her heart out. She ended by talking about Alaska’s state flag and singing the state’s anthem as we arrived at our lodge, the Kantishna Road House. The lodge is located at the end of the park’s lone road and 91 miles into the park. It took us about 7 hours to make it in. We debarked the bus into a hoard of swarming mosquitoes and checked in. We had dinner and hit the hay early.

The next morning we had a variety of activities to choose from. We elected to ride the shuttle out to a glacier lake named Wonder Lake and hike the 3.2 miles back to the lodge.

At Wonder Lake

Wonder Lake used to be called I Wonder Lake, so named by two explorers who went through the area several times before they found it and journaled “I wonder how we missed this.” On the way to the lake we spotted a bull moose eating in a creek near the lodge.

Bull moose in creek

We left the bus at Wonder Lake and started our trek back. Just before we departed, the guide told us we probably didn’t have to worry about any bear encounters, because they stay away from the roads to avoid human contact. Capt. Larry told Jane that he thought that advice was a lot of B.S. and the bears pretty much went wherever they wanted to.

Learning about mushing

He confirmed this with all of the bear scat and footprints along the road and said if that was true then why do they have to put the lodge garbage in bear-proof bins! We made it back to the lodge and had lunch. Capt. Larry decided that he was going to work on the blog and Jane wanted to go see the sled dog demonstration.

Get along little doggie!

She learned about the races and what it took to qualify, enter ($5000 for the Iditarod), prepare for the races and the race rules.

Panning for gold

The she saw a full team hitched to an ATV for a practice run. What was most interesting was how the dogs are now being bred for different characteristics.

I'm rich!

For instance, huskies don’t like to get their feet wet so they are being cross-bred with labs that have no problem with the water. Dog sledding is a big business in Alaska and last year a lead dog sold for $40,000.

Rum money

After the dog sled demonstration she went panning for gold and was lucky enough to find a gold flake. The lodge laminated it as a keepsake, but Capt. Larry thought it should be cashed in to buy some rum.  We had a delicious dinner and turned in early, because we had to catch an early bus the next morning and a 6 hour ride to catch the train back to Anchorage.

Mountain flowers