Island Princess Review Part 3

[W5KAP]

The Train: wonderful! What a way to travel. We have traveled extensively by train in Europe but the scenery was far better here. We hadn’t gone 200 yards from the terminal when we saw our first two moose! Farther down the tracks, we scared up a nice bug black bear who bounded away from the train! All in all, we loved the three train segments!!

Mt McKinley Lodge: wonderful place. Wonderful weather. It was starting to warm up a bit and still no rain. Unfortunately Denali was hidden in the clouds when we got there so we had no idea how big it really was. The lodge is very nice and we enjoyed our stay there. Food is expensive but consistently price at all the lodges. Expect to pay $14.95 per person for your meals. They have a mountain spotting call line at the desk. If you give them you room number they will call you if the mountain comes out. We got the call around 9 PM. Only the summit was visible but WOW, what a mountain. The next morning dawned clear and cool. And Denali was out in all its splendor. For the next two and half days, the mountain was visible for stem to stern. My gosh what a sight. You need to be one of the lucky ones and see this. You will never forget it. We took the bus into Talkeetna but unless you are taking a tour form there, there isn’t really much to see. They do have some good food though!.

Denali Lodge: In our opinion the rooms and the campus were not as nice here but still fine by us. The true draw here is Denali National park. We took the Tundra Wilderness Tour (TWT) which cost more but was worth every penny. On the other tour you only go a few miles into the park. If we had taken that tour we would not have seen a single animal and, boy, did we see animals!! On the TWT you go 62 miles back into the park and it is astounding. In short order we saw a moose, several caribou and Ptarmigan. Then it got better. About 50 miles in we spotted the first of 12 (yes, 12) Grizzlies. They are easy to see as the bears in Denali are basically blondes. They really stand out against the green background. As we continued into the park we saw more and more bear. Sometimes 4 at a time. Oh, and did I mention Denali itself! What view from the far end of the road. A vision that will stick in my mind for a long, long time. We had the good fortune to see a red fox carrying a dead ground squirrel and then watched in amazement as it fed this to its cub!! Wow! This tour was amazing and worth whatever it cost!! Don’t scrimp here folks.

Bear Lodge Fairbanks: Very nice place. We were disappointed at first that we didn’t get the Riverside lodge but, honestly, the location is better at the Bear Lodge. There is a great Italian restaurant around the corner. The River boat tour was fun and informative. We go to see Susan Butcher’s kennel and a demonstration of her dogs. Then on to tour and old Athabascan village. It was enjoyable. The afternoon was taken up with a tour of the El Dorado Gold Mine. What fun!! I panned out $20 worth of gold flakes but the fun we had was worth far more.

Wrap Up: I know this was long but I know I would like to have read something like this before we went. This was probably the most expensive vacation we have ever taken but also, by far, the most memorable. There are not enough words to describe what we saw and experienced. I took 600 pictures and that was the lowest count in out group. Oh, and before I forget, a huge Attaboy to Foghorn Leghorn (Joe) for setting up the CC Meet and Greet. The co-conspirators who showed up were our good friends Mark and Trudy (LadyLeo84), Foghorn leghorn and his wife Pat, Michael from Detroit and our friends Marge and her hubby from SC. Thanks Joe for a job well done. It was an absolute pleasure to meet all of you. Our family had the most wonderful of vacations. One we all never forget. I wish you all a super cruise and I hope this helped in some way. If you have any question, I will be glad to answer them as I can. Your patience is appreciated

Cheers, W5KAP (Kenn)