Day 13, 7/3/2002, Sunrise 3:47am - Sunset 12:14am (still CRAZY); cloudy skies
An Alaska Railroad Ride
We boarded a bus to take us an hour back down the road we came in on to the train depot in Talkeetna. Talkeetna is where the Denali National Park Rangers who manage climbing in the Alaska Range are based. This is where most of the expeditions to the 20,320 ft. 'top of the continent' begin with a flight to the 7000 ft. level on the Kahiltna Glacier. On the train we were seated at a table on the upper level of the Princess' exclusive 'Ultra Dome' car. These cars are custom built for Princess to run on the Alaska Railroad. The run north-northeast takes us through what is, without a doubt the most spectacular country I've ever been this close to. It's cloudy and rains often but that only serves to deepen the fantastic colors all around. We are being transported (to borrow a phrase from a Texas tourism ad) to a whole other country. Along the way we hear that until 20 years ago when the George Parks Highway was completed this was the only mechanized transportation for folks along much of the Anchorage-Fairbanks corridor. Whistle stops are still a part of this railroad as the instructions for flagging down the train on their website attest. We paralleled the highway often, crossed the 918 ft. long, 296 ft. high Hurricane Gulch Bridge and crossed a major Alaskan watershed divide in Broad Pass. Broad Pass has been a major north-south route since way before trains or roads. We were told the small cabins we saw in this area are outfitted by the State of Alaska as survival shelters for winter travelers!
Eventually we reached what we were to learn was the yin-yang of Denali National Park. Tonight the yin: it's raining, the area around The Denali Princess Lodge is tacky, touristy and this property is small and embraces an air of hustle & bustle more reminiscent of what we have come to expect of the lower 48 than here in Alaska!
Created on ... July 17, 2002