Cruising 7/1/2015

2015 Boating Season

Cruising 7/5/15

Hello from Petersburg, Alaska.

What new adventure should we do now??

Denali National Park of course! We walked up to Viking Travel Agency and they helped us plan a trip. We flew from Petersburg to Anchorage and stayed one night then caught an Anchorage to Denali Bus connection at 7am. The bus trip took five hours and 237 miles, to the Denali Park Village. You can drive a car or RV but can only go 15 miles into the park. From there we caught the Kantishna Roadhouse Bus for a seven hour ride, 92 miles into the park.

In 1908 a visionary names Charles Sheldon dedicated himself to the conservation of the Denali region. The name Denali name comes from the Athabascan Natives, meaning “the high one”. It is the home to grizzlies, caribou, wolves, moose, Dall sheep, lynx, coyotes, rabbits, fox, birds, gold mines, and Denali (Mt. McKinley). Once thought to be extinct, wood bison are being re-introduced to the region. Wood Bison roamed parts of Alaska for 10,000 years before the arrival of humans.

Bus ride into Denali

Grizzly

Caribou

Moose with baby

In 1917 Denali became the first park created after the creation of the National Park Service in 1916. It is the third-largest national park in the United States. The park now has six million acres for wildlife preservation. Out of six million acres there is one road in and out. You can camp, bike ride the main road, fish the rivers, hike the trails with or without a park ranger guide, backpack into the preserve, take a flight seeing tour in an airplane over the park, or climb the mountains.

Our Cabin !!

Kantishna Roadhouse

Our Real Cabin

Panning for Gold

We stayed as far back as the bus could take us, two nights at the Kantishna Roadhouse, an old gold mining camp. Our cabin was perfect, the lodge and food was wonderful, and the people were great. And we can't forget the mosquitos! As long as there was a breeze we were good. We were taught how to gold pan in Moose Creek and then we walked up to Eureka Creek and panned some more. Russ found a little flake of gold but not quiet enough to pay for the trip! Each afternoon we would take a shuttle up to Wonder Lake to get wonderful views of the mountain. Only 5% of the people who travel to Denali get a clear view of the mountain, only 30% get a partial view. We got the whole thing and it was incredible to see it and travel through such a vast beautiful wilderness. Sunset is after midnight and sunrise is at 4:00am and frankly it doesn't get dark in between so we are doing some adjusting!!

Denali (Mt McKinley) at Wonder lake

Mt McKinley

Bus ride In and Out of Denali

Steep roads

Caribou

Caribou

Our seven hour bus ride back started at 6am. It was beautiful all the way back to the park entrance. We caught the Alaska Railroad Train back to Anchorage. We didn't know we would not get fed on the way up to Denali so we took the Alaska Goldstar train service on the way back. All-inclusive dining, glass dome ceilings, outdoor view platform, tour guide narration, 2 drinks each at private bar. Very nice and comfortable. The railroad started in 1914 traveling from Seward to Anchorage. The views are magnificent and we had a trip of a life time.

Photo on Brochure

We traveled back to Anchorage and spent two more days there. The population of Anchorage is about 350,000 people. There are lots of good restaurants and pubs in downtown Anchorage, we sampled a few. The Anchorage museum is an interesting place to spend a few hours and we really enjoyed it. We also took a shuttle to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and spent an afternoon talking to and learning from native Alaskans in an historic and interactive setting. The weather has been very mild and the people we have met are very friendly.

The Moose is on the right

Alaska Native Heritage Center

We flew from Anchorage to Juneau, the capitol of Alaska. We had been here before by boat but it was nice to get reaquainted with the area again. The next day we flew back to Petersburg to start planning our return trip... but thats another blog. See you then.

Russ and Toni on Traveler