Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Alaska Trip: Day Three, McKinley Explorer & Arctic Circle flight

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Saturday
6:30 am

Bags out. Of course, this means whatever is left in the room is hauled with you all day!
Fortunately this morning the Hilton has arranged a private buffet upstairs for our group.
Sure beats yesterday's craziness in the lobby, & gave us a nice parting view of Anchorage.

8:15 finds us on the way to the Anchorage Depot to board 
the McKinley Explorer train that will connect us to Denali National Park.


We should see a lot of beautiful scenery from the observation car.


Beautiful meadows

Pristine streams

Spectacular mountains 

Nests on the tallest perch

Winding rivers below...

...towering railroad trestles.

Bringing us to our next excursion, out of Denali - a flight above the Arctic Circle!


We'll be taking this little Piper Navajo.




We are official visitors above the Arctic Circle!


We got a wonderful tour of the entire town.
They have a brand new medical center, a two year college annex for skilled trades & are 
building a new soccer field next to the basketball courts for the young people.





First time I've ever seen a three-story log cabin.

Our lovely hosts were Mary & Richard.


The northernmost point of the Yukon River.



Greg managed to score half of a bear claw necklace, split with another passenger.


This was around 11 pm - the sun never seems to set here...


Fort Knox open pit gold mine.

And is if the journey weren't a big enough blessing, God gave us this on the way to the hotel!


Our first moose!
Time to grab a quick sleep as we are off to Denali National Park in the morning.

5 comments:

  1. Wow - amazing photos, especially the views from the plane!

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  2. The scenery is some of your photographs is just breath-taking!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, takes me back. So much of the views are familiar for me! Beautiful

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