In a word, Denali is Overwhelming!
The whole thing... the car ride, the bus trip, the plane ride, the ATV and boat ride, and the scenery. was out of this world. It was all great but once you see Denali- "The Great One" you will never be the same. This photo is one of my favorites from our trip. This is my best friend, Cindy seeing Denali for the first time. I think the look in her eyes says it all.
Our trip started with 4 friends on a flight from Ohio to Anchorage. After a long flight, we spent our first night in Anchorage and after a morning hike, we hopped in the car and headed north.
We took a slight detour to visit the Eagle River Nature Center, one of my favorite photo stops. I took this picture which is now hanging on my living room wall.
Then we continued our drive up to a little town called, Talkeetna where we spent the night at a cute little bed and breakfast called the Talkeetna Denali View Lodge. It was a beautiful home with a great balcony with a view of Denali. We enjoyed a hot cup of coffee, watched the sunset and settled in for the evening.
The next morning we were supposed to take a helicopter ride to a glacier to go dog sledding. We were pretty bummed because it was canceled due to high winds. So we took the opportunity to do a little more exploring, act silly and have a few laughs. This is where we got our first glimpse of Denali stopping at several Denali view points and became part of the 30% club! The mountain was out so we saw it multiple times throughout the day. That was a blessing since so many (70%) of the people who visit the area never even get to see the mountain. Note: The area is worth seeing even if you don't see Denali.
The next day, we drove up to Healy and little did we know, we stayed on the same road (Stampede Road) where Chris McCandless was dropped of to start his "Into The Wild" adventure that eventually ended in his death. We later looked up his story online and realized that we visited there on the anniversary of his death. It is a pretty good movie if you ever get the chance to see it.
We found a really cool lodge called, Earthsong Lodge. It was literally in the middle of nowhere but they did have a great coffee shop and sled dog kennel. We got to take a tour and meet all of the dogs. The views in the area were amazing! We even got to see a few moose along the way.
The next day, we hopped aboard our ATV's and took a back country tour through the Alaskan wilderness (saw some moose), through some glacier rivers out to an all you can eat breakfast with EVERYTHING you could imagine. We were well fed! Our tour company, Black Diamond Resort Co. took great care of us and we had a wonderful time.
The next morning, we woke up early and headed to Denali National Park. From there, we picked up the tour bus for an amazing ride to Kantishna Roadhouse Lodge. This lodge is deep into Denali park and only 25 miles from Denali itself. There we spent two amazing nights going on hikes, panning for gold, relaxing, going to dog sledding demos and photography seminars. We had a blast and this all inclusive resort is expensive but well worth the price. The food was fantastic and the service was amazing as well.
The bus trip alone is well worth the price. Although it was a little bit harrowing through Polychrome Pass. I admit that I hid my eyes the whole way so I really don't have any photos from the most beautiful part of the trip. I just couldn't look as the bus drove along the edge of a cliff on a narrow, gravel road. Even the bus driver got quiet. We saw a lot of wildlife including several bears and a lot of caribou.
