Our trip south from Denali to Talkeetna was quite interesting, and very beautiful. Here is a picture of us in the large domed Princess rail car: 
The trains were all very comfortable, and each car had it's own dining room where you could go buy some breakfast, lunch, or dinner, depending on what time of the day it happened to be. The view from all directions was breathtaking -- and we took plenty of pictures to prove it. Here are just a few of my favorites: 
About halfway through our trip, the train slowed to a crawl and continued at that pace for over an hour. It seemed that the warmer weather had caused the tracks to expand faster than they should, and portions of the track were becoming unstable. So, the train finally came to a complete stop for about an hour while a team came out onto the tracks to repair the damage. Here is a photo of the front of our train (on the left) and the yellow repair vehicles that helped us on our way. We got a wierd rainbow effect in the sky for this picture, Mike thinks it had something to do with the filter on his lens and the coating on the windows:
Before we arrived at the Mckinley Lodge in Talkeetna (4 hours late), the weather had been clear, as you can see by the pictures above. I was excited to stay at the Princess McKinley Lodge, because it sits at the foot of Mt. McKinley. As you can see from the picture below, the lodge has a huge window that looks out onto the mountain. 
Unfortunately, during our delay, the weather closed in, as did the mountain. So instead of seeing Mt. McKinley, this is what we saw! 
It rained for the short amount of time we had there, but we found things to do. Mike's dad and his wife went hiking in the rain, and Mike and I went to a ranger talk about climbing McKinley It was really interesting to hear about the process. The ranger said it costs about $20,000 for an individual to spend 3 weeks climbing the mountain. You have to pay for fees, plane or helicopter rides to and from base camp, guides, equipment, food for 28 days, and numerous miscellaneous expenses. Then you get to endure 21 days of hard hiking carrying heavy packs in temperatures hovering around 40 below, sleeping in ice trenches covered with a tarp,and incredible snow and wind storms. Plus, all this is done within an oxygen deprived environment. Oh, did I forget to mention you pack out your **waste**?? After all that...those that make it (about 40%) are only on the summit for about 10 minutes! I think I'll pass on the mountain climbing.
The trains were all very comfortable, and each car had it's own dining room where you could go buy some breakfast, lunch, or dinner, depending on what time of the day it happened to be. The view from all directions was breathtaking -- and we took plenty of pictures to prove it. Here are just a few of my favorites: About halfway through our trip, the train slowed to a crawl and continued at that pace for over an hour. It seemed that the warmer weather had caused the tracks to expand faster than they should, and portions of the track were becoming unstable. So, the train finally came to a complete stop for about an hour while a team came out onto the tracks to repair the damage. Here is a photo of the front of our train (on the left) and the yellow repair vehicles that helped us on our way. We got a wierd rainbow effect in the sky for this picture, Mike thinks it had something to do with the filter on his lens and the coating on the windows:Before we arrived at the Mckinley Lodge in Talkeetna (4 hours late), the weather had been clear, as you can see by the pictures above. I was excited to stay at the Princess McKinley Lodge, because it sits at the foot of Mt. McKinley. As you can see from the picture below, the lodge has a huge window that looks out onto the mountain. Unfortunately, during our delay, the weather closed in, as did the mountain. So instead of seeing Mt. McKinley, this is what we saw! It rained for the short amount of time we had there, but we found things to do. Mike's dad and his wife went hiking in the rain, and Mike and I went to a ranger talk about climbing McKinley It was really interesting to hear about the process. The ranger said it costs about $20,000 for an individual to spend 3 weeks climbing the mountain. You have to pay for fees, plane or helicopter rides to and from base camp, guides, equipment, food for 28 days, and numerous miscellaneous expenses. Then you get to endure 21 days of hard hiking carrying heavy packs in temperatures hovering around 40 below, sleeping in ice trenches covered with a tarp,and incredible snow and wind storms. Plus, all this is done within an oxygen deprived environment. Oh, did I forget to mention you pack out your **waste**?? After all that...those that make it (about 40%) are only on the summit for about 10 minutes! I think I'll pass on the mountain climbing.The next morning, we woke up to sunshine, and were excited to be going to Anchorage. Mike's brother Greg and his wife Debbie were meeting us for the next portion of our trip -- our cruise! We spent the night in Anchorage, and enjoyed a delicious dinner at Club Paris, a restaurant with REALLY good steaks! My friend had recommended it, so we were happy to give it a try. Here is a cute picture of Mike and his brother at dinner, and a pic of all of us outside the restaurant. If you are ever in Anchorage, you must go there! Don't know how it got it's name, there is certainly no French food! But, there are some REALLY yummy beer battered onion rings!
The next morning we boarded yet another train for the 2 hour trip to Whittier, a teeny tiny port town that Princess uses to dock its ships. 
On the way, we taught Greg something the rest of us had learned on our land tour -- how to give a moose wave. Looks like Greg's moose has lost a few antlers! 
As we pulled into Whittier, we got our first view of the ship, the Diamond Princess: 
On my next post, I'll take you on a tour of the ship!
The next morning we boarded yet another train for the 2 hour trip to Whittier, a teeny tiny port town that Princess uses to dock its ships. On the way, we taught Greg something the rest of us had learned on our land tour -- how to give a moose wave. Looks like Greg's moose has lost a few antlers! As we pulled into Whittier, we got our first view of the ship, the Diamond Princess: On my next post, I'll take you on a tour of the ship!
No comments:
Post a Comment