With the sound of the river in the distance and the cool freshness of the early morning here at McKinley Chalet Resort, I begin the next day of our Alaskan adventure. Klep has another thirty minutes before the alarm will wake him at 4:30. We meet in the lobby at six for our tundra tour into the depths of Denali National Park.
Yesterday transported us from small city through small towns past remote wilderness dwellings to this pristine place where little has changed since the park was established nearly forty years ago. The Alaskan Railway experience was a comfortable and interesting ones as we made friends with many of those who are sharing this adventure.
As the train began its northern journey, we walked down the curving staircase from our domed touring car to the dining room below where we enjoyed breakfast with a couple from West Virginia, Carol and Stan. The flapjacks were good, the conversation lively, and the scenery beautiful as we quickly left Anchorage. As breakfast ended, we slowly rolled through the recent crash site of a C17 near Elmendorf AFB where we all observed a moment of silence in honor of those Airmen who lost their lives. It was not a pretty sight to see, but it was a reminder that there are those who serve each day who may lose their lives.
Mile after mile of beautiful birch trees with their gleaming white trunks lined our way. We passed over rushing rivers and approached the Penich Arm which is part of the Cook Inlet on which Anchorage sits. This Inlet has the second highest tide in the Western Hemisphere next to Fundy Bay over on the east Coast of New Brunswick.
We saw our first ghost forest, a creation of the earthquake of 1964 when the salt waters were pushed up into the fresh, destroying the trees by salivating the earth under them. We also saw our first glacier fed river, one of many during the day, which were opaque in contrast to the spring fed which were clear.
Wasilla (all I saw spelled backwards) we got our last view of an organized town for the day,
Alaska has over 3 million lakes that are over 20 acres in size and on one of those lakes, was a beautiful pair of trumpeter swans who mate for life swimming serenely across the water. Had the weather not been heavily overcast and rainy we would have seen a reflection of beautiful blue sky, but hey! You can’t have everything!
Blue rivers, sandy rivers drifted by. We came to areas where their were no roads except the railroad. People come out by train, using freight cars to haul their supplies. Beaver dams and mountains entered our views as we neared the settlement of Hurricane, named for the heavy winds the area experiences. Somewhere near Honolulu (halfway point between Anchorage and Fairbanks) , we spotted a bald eagle nest.. We paused for a few minutes while we waited for the south bound train to pass. At this point if either train has extra supplies the other needs, they do a switch off.
Near Colorado, the high tundra, the low vegetation on high areas, began and we reached the highest point on the Alaska railroad. We also began spotting kettle ponds which are formed when glaciers melt. We passed the watershed divide and all the rivers started running North toward the Bering Sea.
At mile marker 319 we passed through the settlement of Cantwell which was built to support the construction of the railroad. Around four o’clock, we pulled into Denali where we said goodbye to our guide for the day, got on our Holland America bus and rode to Cabin X in the Mt. McKinley Chalet Resort which sits in a heavily wooded area very near to the park.
We finished our day with housekeeping chores {organizing clothes for next day, finding meds, getting water for tundra trip, etc.} and having a leisurely light dinner of McKinley Salad (really good) and chowder for dinner. The light sound of raindrops on our roof lulled us to an early sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment