We had a rough start.  The weather in Virginia was stormy and many planes were delayed or cancelled.  Ours was delayed sufficiently to miss the Anchorage connection in Denver.  We had enough warning when we were placed in a parking place on the tarmac at Dulles to call United and make sure that we were booked on the right flight the next day.  So, we ended up spending the first night of our vacation in Denver, Colorado (a first visit for both of us).

Since our flight out wasn't until the evening, we decided to take a taxi into the city of Denver and see what was there.  The first stop (of course) was to look at the train station, Union Station.  The station was originally built in 1881, destroyed by fire in 1894 and then rebuilt.  While we had never actually visited Denver, we had been through this station on a couple of other trips.

We discovered the first (and only) casualty of the trip when I went to read a sign and my glasses were no longer in my shirt.  We eventually managed to contact the cab company and offered a reward if the driver could be found, but he apparently didn't see the message.  So, we went further into town to get some reading glasses (you know I have to be able to read and see what I'm eating). 

After that, we took a scenic walk to Denver's Downtown Aquarium.  They had a bunch of good water creatures and a nice reptile petting zoo outside.  Cynthia petted the turtles, snakes and lizards, but left the snapping turtle alone (see the aquarium pictures). 

After that we went back to airport land and caught the Anchorage plane.  The flight was uneventful and our first views of Alaska were intriguing with the mountains peaking through the clouds.  The hotel we were booked into was across the street from the cemetary in the back end of town and undergoing renovation.  But, they still had our room, it was clean and we were able to get good beer (Alaskan Brewing Company Pale Ale) and some dinner.  We couldn't really count this as a animal spotting day, since we didn't reach the hotel until well after 9pm local time.

We basically explored downtown Anchorage on foot.

We started out and I joked about seeing Alaska license plates in Virginia, so I needed to spot a Virginian one locally.  Naturally, within about 2 minutes, I spotted one in the parking lot as we crossed it.  So that ended that game.

We started with the train station as our first destination.  They had a cool old, small engine on display out front.  It was just the right size for our back yard.

The Caption Cook memorial near Elderberry Park overlooking Cook Inlet in the Knick Arm was our next stop (not to be confused with Caption Hook).  We saw some neat airial maneuvers by air force jets while there.

We visited the visitor's center and then found a grocery store (mouthwash and nuts) by wandering far into residential areas.  Many of the homes were made from log and other wood variations and there was a LOT of color (purple predominant).  It was not a ticky-tacky place and showed a lot of the unique Alaskan character we saw during the rest of our trip.

When we came back from the grocery store, we discovered that there was no running water in the hotel room.  The front desk said "Didn't you get the memo? The notice was posted at the checkin desk.".  No, we did not get the memo when we checked in and there wasn't any note that we saw at the desk (I checked on the way out). 

We went back out to visit the museum nearby and saw many interesting things about Alaskan history and people.  There was a bit of sea otter pelt to touch.  It's not surprising that they were almost trapped to extinction.  The fur is the softest thing I ever touched.  (The water was back when we came back from the museum.)

We finished the day with dinner at the hotel, pretty good, and enjoyed more good Alaskan beer.

Finally, the train travel begins.  We went Gold Star style, with the best viewing car.  Terry spent most of the time in the open-to-air (cold and windy) viewing area at the back of the train.  I mostly stayed warm in the seat with the nice big window/glass roof.

We started seeing animals and really seeing the mountains (beautiful! magnificent!).  The wild flowers were just starting to come out (purple!!!).  There were supposedly some bear sitings, but we missed them.  The train was going fairly quickly and you had to look fast and know where to look.  "On the 3 o'clock side" is just not quite enough of a description when you aren't used to knowing where/how to look.  But we did see a bunch of trumpeter swans (they are big and majestic) and a couple of young mooses.

When we got off the train, we had to find the shuttle to our hotel (cabin) for the night.  We spotted a van that said "Denali Riverside Lodge".  We were booked into the "Denali Lodge" and noticed that our luggage tickets had the other place on them.  We verified that they were two different places and were able to alert both the hotel and the driver (after some frantic calling and running around to find the right bus).

After making it to the lodge, we were given a cabin and decided we only needed one of the two keys they offered (real keys on key rings).  We went to our cabin to settle in and wait for our luggage and then Terry took a walk to explore.  When I heard someone rattling at the door, I opened it and saw a very surprised couple.  She said (while holding out the key), "They gave us room 32!".  I said, "Well, they gave us room 32" and they went back to the office.  I wonder what would have happened if they had come in and found nothing but our backpack?  Terry found our luggage outside the office and we were set to find some dinner.

The lodge ran regular shuttle vans into 'town'.  Ok, it was a town, a small one that was geared to dealing with the people waiting to go into the park or somewhere else.  We did find a pizza place with decent pizza and whimpy beer (geared to very bland tastes).

Now, the water in the area comes from melting glaciers and it is COLD, teeth numbing cold.  I went to wash up at 9:30 and found that we had no hot water.  Fortunately, the office was still open and the fixit guy fixed it (otherwise Terry would have had a very rude surprise when he showered in the morning).

The other side affect is that the toilet seats are extremely cold as well (the cold water radiates into the porcelain bowl which chills down the seat).  I worked on resisting the need to get up as frequently during the night until we made it to warmer hotels.

Today is the first "bus" day.  But we had some time to kill before it left and found a scrabble board in the "lounge room".  I'd forgotten how fun that can be.

The bus was an old style school bus with well padded seats (important for the 6 hour drive).  Our driver was Larry, a very knowledgable and friendly multi-year veteran of guide busing in the Denali Park.  At a couple of the rest stops, he provided hot/cold drinks and some truely excellent cookies (baked by the guide coordinator).

Now the animals viewing becomes serious.  The first thing spotted was a marmot and then everyone got excited about a hare and some ground squirrels (who posed very nicely).  Then we saw a bull moose, that really was exciting.  It only got better when we saw our first bear, a very blond grizzly. 

We also began to see Mount McKinley (originally referred to as "Denali" by the natives).  Supposedly only 1 in 5 are lucky enough to see the full top of Mt. McKinley.  That made us lucky, we got to see the full top and it was pretty impressive.  Overall, the scenary was just plain magnificent.  We had nice clear weather and that helped with all the viewing.

The goal on this bus tour/trip is to see the "Big Five" animals: bear, moose, elk, wolf and fox.  So, we had a target and we made it!  We saw several groups/herds of sheep (so numerous, they aren't included in the "Big Five") and elk, two blond grizzlies, a very sleepy wolf and Terry saw a red fox run across the road.  In addition to the "Big Five", we saw the ground squirrels, a bunch of snow shoe hairs, a pair of ptarmigan, a beautiful golden eagle and a cool horned owl with her chick.

At one stage a gang of four teenager-type carribou decided to make trouble and cross the road.  It gave us a very close-up look, they passed about 10 feet in front of the bus.

Did I mention that the mountains were magnificent?  We saw Mt. McKinley in the clear from both sides (I know I mentioned that it was a 6 hour trip).  We also saw it artfully framed by clouds and also with just the top cut off from the world by a band of clouds.

We finally arrived at the Backcounty Lodge, with very nice log cabins.  After settling our stuff in our room (no check-in process other than to give them our name so they could tell us our room number, no keys), we went looking for a beer.  The place had a small bar (about 10 foot square) and the bar tender, Decko, was Lithuanian and it was his first day on that side of the bar.  He was having some difficulty drawing our beer (his very first time at it).  He ended up letting Terry give him a lesson on how it was done and he was a fast learner.  I think everyone for the rest of the summer benefitted.  Someone else taught him how to open wine bottles.

We then had dinner, which was fairly nice.  There was a sort-of cruise ship feel to the dining room.  It was a continued bonding process with our bus crowd.  This was the first day open at the lodge and the president of the organisation gave us the orientation after the main course.  He was a very nice gentleman (his wife runs the day lodge during lunch) and apparently very much enjoys running the place.

We finally settled into our cabin after dinner.  It was very nice and cozy (no TV or phone) with heavy duty drapes.  We were approaching the summer equinox, the sun only set for about 20 minutes about 3am and it never really got dark.  So, the drapes were important.  As with the cabin the night before, the ice cold glacial melt water made the toilet seat quite cold.  We slept very well.

We opted for one of the "casual" walks for the morning.  We saw the historic cabin that Fannie Quigly once lived in.  She makes me feel like a real wimp.  No way could I have lived like she did.

On the walk, we also saw lots of cool flora (the fauna all was hiding), a fair amount of animal scat (that's what you call "poop" when an animal does it in the woods) and a nice bear print in the path.

We walked to the most "local" airfield and watch some small prop planes take off.  In Alaska one in 60 people have a pilot's license and one in 70 have a plane.  There are a lot of shared backyard air fields and you can see sections where lots of houses have small planes in their back yards.

Lunch at the day lodge was good (sandwiches and lots of salad type stuff).  They have the people who are staying at the lodge eat on one side and the day-trippers eat on the other.  So there was more bonding with "our" bus of people.

We took another "casual" walk to look at some lakes in a different part of the park.  We saw a variety of swimming birds and lots of neat flora stuff again.  The lakes were pretty and calm enough to get some good reflection images.  We went to Reflection Pond, but it wasn't quite clear enough to get the famous Mt. McKinley reflection.  But we did get some decent views of the mountain.

There were hors-deuvres before dinner and dinner was nice.  We finished the day playing more Scrabble.  Terry and I are a fairly good match in the game, it was fun.  Even after we discovered that the set was missing some letters and had more than it's proper share of others.

Today was another trip out to the other lake and site seeing during the morning.  This time we hiked to the top of a big hill near the first lake and had a great view around.  We made another trip to Reflection Pond.  We saw some good plants and nice birds.  The carribou lichen was really cool stuff.  Mount McKinley was a bit covered up, but the lake was relatively quiet and we got some good cloud reflections.

I was lazy after lunch and just relaxed in the lounge, reading and enjoying how nicely cranberry juice mixes with Tequila.  Terry took one of the other casual walks and saw more good scenary and plants (but the animals stayed in hiding).

Dinner was an adventure.  Given that everything is shipped in via a 6 hour truck trip from outside the park, they only offer two main courses for dinner.  Fortunately, they posted the menu early enough so I knew to stoke up during the hors-deuvres session before dinner.  The choices were fresh river salmon and eggplant parmiasian, neither of which I'll eat.  I was expecting to fill up on salad, but the carrots and cucumbers were frozen and the lettuce limp.  I had a lot of bread and survived.  The salmon and eggplant parmiagian were both very good, according to the people who ate them.

Back on the bus today.  We got some great views of Mt. McKinley again, it must really like us.  The rest of the mountains and scenary was great as well.

We also had some good animal sightings.  There was a great view of a moose cow and two calves.  We saw a a mama grizzly with two cubs in the road.  They would have walked right next to our bus, but an impatient trucker honked at them (which they aren't supposed to do) and the bears ran up into the woods.

We got some good shots of close up sheep and lots of ptarmigans.  The ptarmigans still had some of their winter plumage, so they were very colorful.  When we got back to the horned owl's nest, we discovered that there are two chicks (and we got good pictures).  We saw two other grizzlies, one at a rest stop that let us get lots of good pictures.  And we saw more carribou.

We also spotted something dead, a handful of ground squirrels, a red fox and 39 snow shoe hairs while on the bus.  (Darn it, one more would have made it such a nice even number.)

Then it was back on the train to go to Talkeetna.  The scenary was beautiful and we got another spectacular view of Mt. McKinley in the clear.  The animal spotting was a bit sparse, but we saw another bear, 2 pair of swans and some mooses.  And a bunch of very impressive beaver dams and lodges.  Terry got some very nice reflection images of trains.  He spent the whole trip in the observing deck on the train, which did not have another car in the way this time.  So he had a nice, clear view to get scenary and choo choo pictures.  He obviously had a great time because his smile was huge every time I saw him (I made periodic trips to make sure he hadn't fallen off).

Today was our first stay at a really posh "lodge".  Talkeetna Lodge was beautiful!  It was built with some huge trees, lots of wood and great piles of real stone.  It positioned with a magnificant view of the mountain range with Mt. McKinley right in the middle.

We checked in and made ourselves comfortable in the outdoor part of the restauraunt/bar area, with the mountain range right in front of us.  We saw a whole lot of little airplanes taking off for tours around the mountains.  (They came in a bunch of colors.)  The food was good and the beer very tasty and cold.  It was peaceful and pleasant (and there were very cool bats flying about).

The room itself was very nice and the toilet seat was not cold (yeah!).  I actually watched the first TV since we hit Alaska (the start and end of "National Treasure").  That was about the only TV we saw (other than bar stuff) for the better part of 11 days in Alaska.

Today was one of the high-lights of the trip, a ride on the Hurricane Turn train.  This is the last flag-stop train in the United States and the last train running diesel RDCs as the engines for a train consist (as opposed to only as a control cab or car).

"Flag-Stop" means that the train will stop and pick up anyone who flags it down.  This one is used by the locals as regular way to get to and from their cabins and town.

We took a very quick tour about Talkeetna, to get some water and kill a bit of time, before boarding the train.  Talkeetna is a very nice small town, geared to tourists.

The train consist was made up of two RDCs back to back.  Each engine had two motors, so there were four motors all together to run it.  During the first 5ish minutes of the trip, something very noisely fell off the bottom of the train.  When we stopped to check, it turned out we lost one of the drive shafts.  We were down to three functioning motors after the drive shaft fell off.  About 1/2 an hour later (after we'd dealt with a bunch of smoke from somewhere), one of the other motors seized up and failed.  Fortunately, the remaining two motors (one per engine) kept working and we made it to the end and back.  The driver told us that there wasn't anybody left who knew how to repair the RDCs, so the two we were on might not be running much longer.

Terry was able to ride up front with the train driver the whole trip.  He was in absolute heaven!  It gave him the chance to watch everything the driver did to run the train and get some very nice pictures.  He had the hugest smile on his face every time he looked back at me.

The train stopped several times on the way out to drop people off.  When we first started, a gentleman sat down opposite me and I initially thought he was going to be part of some tourist show.  He was dressed in a cowboyish hat and Driz-Abone coat (Stryne (short for 'Australian') for "Dry as a Bone").  Then he started talking with a woman who came up and who was apparently one of his "neighbors".  She showed off pictures of a black bear her son had shot (7 1/2" tail to tip) and discussed the merits of canning versus smoking bear and moose meat.  I definitely don't have what it takes to live out there.

Because the schedule was relatively loose, the driver was able to stop for animal sitings.  He even backed up a couple of times to let us get better pictures.  Sometimes, smaller is definitely better.  We spotted more bears, bald eagles and trumpeter swans (and one headless porcupine).

The "end" of the trip was a stop on the bridge over Hurricane Gulch, which was 916 long and 296 feet above Hurricane Creek.  We got out of the train and walked along the bridge and had really great views of the gulch.  It was a lot of fun!

On the way back into town we stopped to pick up a lot of people, their dogs and stuff.  There almost seemed to be more dogs than people!

A bunch of trains were also spotted and caught on camera.

After the train ride, we went back and relaxed in the hotel.  After dinner, we bought a cribbage board from the gift shop and enjoyed playing in the lounge with a great view of the mountains.  It was very relaxing.

Since our train back into Anchorage wasn't until the afternoon, we had some time to kill.  We started by taking a walk on a "nature trail" in the back of the lodge.  There were lots of pretty flowers, interesting ferns, animal scat and drunk-looking bumble bees.

We then took a speed boat river tour.  The boat was fun and we saw a more animals - 2 black bears (very nice close up views), a moose with 2 calves and a mated pair of bald eagles (our best photos of bald eagles).  At the half-way point in the tour, we docked the boat for a guided nature walk where the way the natives and trappers lived was demonstrated (with lots of animal hides)  (I definitely would not do well in that environment.)  The animal pelts were varying degrees of soft.  The best were the river and ocean otters.

The boat driver had fun doing a couple of very high speed boat spins.  (I thought it was fun, too.)

After the river tour, we did a more extensive walking tour about Talkeetna.  It has some very colorful places (including a purple pizza place).

We finally boarded the train to Anchorage and, guess what, Terry spent most of the trip in the observation area.  We had a fairly decent dinner on the train (the food was better than the standard Amtrak fair).  We saw a few more animals, including our first beaver (pushing a log).  The views were also very nice and many more trains were spotted and photographed.  (I think Terry got almost all the engines in the Alaskan train system on camera by the time we finished the trip.  He was even able to get N-scale versions for the two RDCs we were on with the correct engine numbers.)

There was an interesting train spotter (or at least enthusiast) near the tracks as we came in.  He was serenading the train with a violin.  Not that we could hear it, but we saw him.

The day finished up checking into our last Alaskan "home" for the trip, an Extended Stays place.  The place was nice enough.  The next morning we went and picked up a rental car for some more individualized exploration.

Today was a day of unstructured exploration.  But first we had to get some basic grocery shopping done for stuff to eat for breakfasts (we'd eat lunch and dinner out).  Then we had to get a package mailed out (the post office was well hidden, but we found it).  Finally, we were able to hit the road and made it our goal to get to Seward and see the aquarium there.

It was about a 4 hour drive and the scenary was very nice.  We basically drove between a mountain edge and the water.

We saw lots of sheep dots on the mountains, some bald eagles and a bull moose.  The tide was out and there were lots of mud flats with crevases (they looked cool).  The views of the mountains across the river were beautiful.  We even saw the tail ends of some glaciers in the mountains on our side of the river.  A few trains were also spotted and caught on 'film' along the way.

When we arrived in Seward, we saw a pair of river otters in the river next to the aquarium.  At least, we're pretty sure they were otters.  At first it looked like one small log, then two and they kept bobbing and weaving in a way that a log just wouldn't.  (A grade-schooler's analogy: It floated in the air the way a bowling ball doesn't.  Not relevant to the trip, but it came to mind as I was typing.)

The aquarium itself had some great fish and other creatures.  They had several animals that had been rescued and were being healed and rehabilitated.

There was a great room for very close up viewing of a bunch of aquatic type birds.  Close up enough that one of aquarium people had to warn some little children that their fingers looked just like nice, edible worms and shouldn't be waved in the birds faces.  The puffins (both varieties) were pretty cool!  And there was one duckish creature whose head looked like it designed by Salvadore Dali.

The seals were sort-of playful, but mostly looked bored.  They didn't have a tremendous amount of room.  The sea lion had a great face!  And he (she?) was big.

It was hard to catch on film, but there was a big window that let us watch the birds diving.  That was way cool!  They really looked like they were flying through the water.

On the way back from Seward, we went to visit the Exit Glacier.  Along the road to it, we saw a bunch of signs that only had a date and the name of the glacier on them.  Once we got to the glacier park, we saw the same signs on the path to the glacier.  Now we understood!  They were indicating where the edge of the glacier had been. Neat!

It was a minor hike (1/2 mile) to get to the glacier, but worth it.  The ice in the glacier is beautiful!  A very bright, light blue.  We took turns standing on it for the 'tourist' pictures.  The ice was cold, but the air was very mild, a strange combination.  As with everywhere, the scenary on the way into and out of the park was beautiful.

We eventually made it back to Anchorage and had a fairly decent dinner at a place called The Cattle Company.  Good steaks and beer, then a quiet evening in the hotel.

Today was serious glacier day.  We went back to the train station to catch a train to Whittier, where we would get on a boat.  Along the way, in addition to more good scenary, we spotted only a few animals (a bald eagle pair, a bunch of sheep and a pair of trumpeter swans).  Just before getting to Whittier, we had to pass through a very long tunnel that was shared by auto/truck traffic.  They allowed only one type of traffic at a time (which was good) and there were a lot of people waiting to go through by the time we arrived (they were held up for us).

The boat was not big, but not small.  It had a very nice enclosed space for sitting and eating and listening to the tour guide, and a cozy bar.  Outside viewing was available both on the top and in the front.  The weather was a bit grey, but that made it good for photography.  It was chilly and there was periodic rain.  This was why we had our wind/water outfits (both jackets and pants) and a couple of warmish jackets to wear under the rain gear.  They were all needed when we were up top.

The first 'creatures' spotted were some nutters out in kayaks!  Then we spotted our first river otter.  He/she seemed quite content to drift along on his/her back, with an occasional roll.  We saw a whole bunch of bald eagles on this trip.  We added to our bear total (a mama and cub), saw two pairs of mountain goats, a whole pod of 9 river otters, 1 swan and maybe a seal.  We saw several rookeries for some sort of sea bird.  They were loud and smelly.  It was a pretty good animal spotting trip on the boat.

Shortly after we left the dock, a fairly nice all-you-can eat buffet was served up.  It had a very nice prime rib (and some salmon), a good salad and good bread.  The desert was okay.  All told, it filled us up nicely.

But the real goal was visiting the glaciers.  We saw them in wide variety.  As we got closer to one of the big stars of the cruise, we started seeing lots of floating chunks of glacial ice.  Some were wind/water carved into very pretty shapes.

The first glacier was big and very blue!  We hung out for a while trying to catch it calving, and succeeded  It became a game to spot what looked like a likely candidate and watch it.  I was good at that.  When chunks cut loose from higher up, they made a huge noise when they hit the water.  The big trick was catching in on the camera.  It was way cool to watch!  The glacier was also very pretty to look at.

On the way from that glacier to the next, the crew picked up a couple of chunks of the cast off ice.  They let us touch and made some very nice margueritas with it.  After the first round of glacier drinks, they showed us a small container that had ice worms in them.  They were interesting creatures and showed that the crew had a twisted sense of humor.  (They would not say one way or another whether there might have been any in the ice in the drinks. Oh well.)

We then went to the next good glacier.  (The guide gave us the option to stay at this one or go to the next.  I should have shouted louder, not enough people responded, so we went to the next.)  While it was very pretty and blue, the next glacier was good, but not as active as the first.  Such is the luck of the draw.

We spotted that pod of sea otters on the way back to dock.  At the last rookery before we docked, we watched an eagle catch a bird in the air and fly off to eat his snack.  That was impressive.

Then it was back at the dock and back on the train.  We spotted the other set of cars/trucks waiting for us to get through the tunnel from the Whittier side.  I suspect that train spotters would be the only ones not annoyed to have to wait for the train.  (Terry would have been one of the folks chanting "Come on train..come on train...").  Now that we knew what to look for (the guide had educated us well), we spotted all sorts of glacial bits and pieces on the way back.

We eventually made it back to the hotel and had a quiet meal in.

Finally, unfortunately, our last real day in Alaska.  It would be another unstructured wandering south and north of Anchorage.  It was a very slow animal day, three moose groups and one sheep herd.

We started out going south again and stopping at various view points along the way, and an old train exhibit.  We took the time to stop at a bird watching area near a big swampy thing.  There were a variety of birds to see.  That is also where the first pair of moose was spotted.  As usual, the scenary was great and I got some pretty flower pictures (lots of purple).

We then went north of Anchorage and found a nice nature place to wander about a bit.  We spotted lots of scat and several sets of tracks, some birds (both water and land) and some very small fish.

After driving around all day, we finished up with dinner at brew-pub and pizzaria called The Moose's Tooth, right across the road from the hotel.  The pizza and beer were very good.  We both had 'create your own' pizzas.  Mine had lots of jalapenos on it and heavy on the sauce.  If we had known that, we would have eaten there both nights.  The place was very busy and popular (we did the standard trick of eating at the bar, so we didn't have to wait for a seat).  The staff was quite entertaining.  And the food production was interesting to watch.  The staff all wore great tie-die shirts, which they sold there and I got two.  The place was almost good enough to make another trip to Alaska for.  (When I originally wrote this page in August 2008, I did not know that we would be making Alaska our annual trip in 2009.  As of the posting of this site, finally, we have our entire trip to Alaska booked for June 2009.)

Our last day ended quietly and in good spirits.

This was a very uneventful day of travel.  We had an early start getting up at 5am Alaska time (4 hours earlier than east coast time) to catch a 7:15am flight.  We did get one more animal spotting in and didn't have a camera handy for a very close viewing of a Moose cow and calf going into someone's back yard next to the highway.  We eventually made it home at about 11:15pm east coast time, about 12 hours total travel time.  Socks, our cat, was very happy to see us home and we were happy to sleep in our own bed, with all our own pillows (I'm a pillow hog). 

It was a very good vacation.