We put our bags outside the room today at 9:30a and were on the bus by 11:30a for the short ride to the Denali Train Depot:
Today we're taking our last train trip of the tour to the town of Talkeetna approximately 150 miles to the south.
While waiting for the train, Joy asked us to behave like baby ducks and follow her to our car. Amidst the quacking, one of our group was actually dressed for the part:
The train arrived in due course:
Though we didn't see any moose today (or any other wildlife for that matter -- well, except for that on the train), the Wilderness Express train ride was still an adventure; we're still having the best time:
Something about the legend on the emergency handle struck me funny. I'm thinking those words are good advice under any number of circumstances:
We were on the same car as yesterday:
.. but today, instead of an excellent breakfast, we had an excellent lunch.
Our Tour Director on the ride today, Katie, was full of personality (as was Jennifer yesterday) and completely adorable (Chaz' evaluation).
Gael said I had enough pictures of Katie so I continued my mostly-failed effort at taking good pictures through plexiglas:
From several vantage points along the route we could see Mt. McKinley and I was able to get one excellent shot (if I say so myself)!
We arrived in Talkeetna about 5pm and learned that we could change our flight around Mt. McKinley to this afternoon rather than waiting until 7:00 in the morning. The weather was beautiful today and we couldn't be sure it wouldn't be more cloudy tomorrow. The K2 Aviation Tour van picked us up in front of the hotel and whisked us to the airfield. We were lucky enough to draw another Piper Navajo Chieftain and, along with another small group (a Mom and her three sons) were taken aloft by our pilot Ed:
Ed flew us the "yellow" McKinley Flyer route up and around Mt. McKinley, over and through the Khalitna and Ruth glaciers and more:
This is a highly recommended flight and an excellent value. We flew for about an hour getting as high as 10,000 feet (about halfway up Mt. McKinley which is called "Denali" by the natives. Both names are correct). It was just as well that we did this one rather than the McKinley Summit tour since clouds obscured most of the top of the mountain. In fact, the photo I took from the train was better than the ones I took from the plane:
This is Mt. McKinley/Denali from the air
It's still hard to shoot through plexiglas even at 10,000 feet.
On the way back to Talkeetna Ed let young Steven (the youngest of the three Ross brothers) fly us back. What a thrill for all of us!
Back on the ground here is Ed (second from the right) with the Ross family:
I shoulda talked Ed into letting me take this from the other side of the plane so everyone wouldn't be squinting
And here, again, are our two pilots:
The Talkeetna Lodge is lovely with a main building:
.. and several other expansion lodges and a nice gazebo-like structure with a fireplace (not needed today):
We ran into new friends Tim and Cathy Beyer in the lobby:
We had a lovely dinner at our hotel and turned in early. We don't have to be on the bus until 11:30a tomorrow!
I took this one from our room near sunset; that's 12:30a..
