Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24

Our cruise ended in Whittier, where we disembarked from the Sapphire Princess and boarded a train to take us to Denali National Park and Preserve. The train was very nice; Princess Cruises has its own dedicated rail cars, with scenic viewing domes on the upper level and a dining room and additional seating areas below, plus viewing platforms at the backs of the cars. However, it was a long and tiring ride (close to 10 hours), reminding us of how big Alaska is.

A knowledgable tour guide kept us entertained throughout the day with stories about the history of the region and descriptions of the towns we passed and the unique rhythm of life in the "bush": areas of Alaska with no access to roads. The Alaska Railway is still providing "flag stop" service; in addition to running on a schedule, the trains will stop and pick up anyone, locals or tourists, who flag them down. Hikers who want to go wilderness camping for a week can take the train to their starting point, hike and camp for a while, then return to the rail line and flag down a train when their vacation is finished. Some year-round residents in the bush choose to not bother with electricity or indoor plumbing in their homes, and instead just catch the train into town (maybe three or more hours away) every few weeks (or months) to buy supplies, do laundry, and take a hot shower.

We got to the lodge at Denali National Park on Saturday evening in time to have dinner and relax a bit (and get online to check mail for the first time since Seattle). On Sunday, we took a naturalist's tour via bus into Denali Park. As on the ship, we were rewarded by lots of wildlife sightings, and also made a couple of stops to listen to talks by park guides about the history of the area.

This national park is home to Denali (also called Mt. McKinley), the largest mountain in North America. It's so large, it's famous for making its own weather; in other words, it's often hidden behind clouds, and on average is visible only 1 day out of 3. Many visitors never see it! But our good weather luck held, and we not only saw the mountain while we were in the park, we also saw it from the train and from McKinley Lodge on Monday. However, like the wildlife, the mountain was difficult to catch in photographs; also as with the wildlife, the memory remains vivid in our minds.

Mike on the back viewing platform	Me and the view from the train	Ghost forest; flooded by tsunamis following the 1964 earthquake, salt water preserved the dead trees
One of many bridges along the route	Relaxing on the train	One of many, many rivers we crossed
In Denali National Park, with our tour bus	There are five caribou grazing in this meadow (one pale brown back is just visible); I couldn't catch them with their heads up!