DENALI
I have placed all our luggage with the appropriate tags outside our room before 6:30 am. Our JOIN ME TONIGHT bags will meet us in Denali and our JOIN ME ON BOARD bag will meet us onboard the ship. Wow! For our land/cruise I've picked
D1l- 13 day triple Denali. Cost $$4289 pp verandah suite on Zaandam, $886.14 pp for
packages (Arctic Circle 2 days/1 night and the Kenai Fjords sampler which is a 6 hour daybook cruise of Resurrection Bay & Kenai Fjords out of Seward before boarding our cruise ship), and $266.53 pp for taxes/port fees. Grand total $10883.34 We are to be picked up at 8:10 am for our trip
Riverboat Discovery before we leave
Fairbanks and head to
Denali. The hotel restaurant only offers the buffet until 9:00 am. What is it with these buffets! Some of us do have small appetites! My normal breakfast consist of toast or bagel or muffin or donut, sometimes oatmeal, and coffee. Only on Sundays do we have a huge breakfast of eggs, hash browns, bacon or sausage, toast, and coffee. Fortunately the hotel's gift shop is open. Probably to accommodate all these people who are obviously going on the same tour as we. They not only sell some very nice souvenirs/Alaska items but tea, coffee, muffins, bagels.
Breakfast here it is. I get a muffin for me, a bagel for Richard and coffee for us both. Bill is only $7 Soon we are herded onto the coaches waiting to take us first to
Riverboat Discovery and then on to
Denali. The seats are comfortable and I am sitting by a window so I can take pictures.
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| People in the hotel lobby |
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| Our coach |
We are here at
Steamboat Landing/Riverboat Discovery. Our tour will last around 3 hours. We're given 2 tickets-yellow for boarding the
Riverboat Discovery III and red for
lunch. We will have a cruise on the Chena River on this authentic sternwheeler. We see a bush pilot doing a take off and a landing, we stop by the late 4 time Iditarod Champion Susan Butcher's dog kennels where we watch a dog sledding demonstration, just going down the river, having a snack of crackers and canned salmon spread. I buy a can of this spread for $12.99 It is very tasty. A herd of reindeer, then a stop by the Chena Village's fishing camp where we learn about salmon drying. Upon leaving the boat we are taken on a tour of an authentic Chena Athabascan village by native girls. This is so interesting. I am really having a good time. Then if you want you can buy a book and have it signed by the co-author David Monson who is the late Susan Butcher's husband. The book is called Granite and tells the story of how she picked this runt and he went on to lead her to 4 Iditarod championships. I buy the book for $19.95 and have it signed to my grandson. I think he will enjoy reading this book. He's only 7 but a very advanced reader. Soon it's time for
lunch. We present our tickets and are seated at a table in the
Discovery Dining Hall. The menu is family style, all you can eat. There is beer and wine for purchase. The food was so good. I especially loved the salad and had 2 helpings of it. We had miner's stew-chunks of tender beef, potatoes, carrots in a rich gravy. Rolls, apple cranberry salad, and roasted veggies. Dessert was a German chocolate brownie. Iced tea to drink. We have time to shop, use the restrooms. I buy some postcards. Then it's back on the coach in my same seat and off to
Denali which will take several hours. These coaches are very large and I believe there is an onboard toilet but since I didn't need to use it I'm not 100% sure.
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| Chena River |
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Our boat is very big
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| Boarding |
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| Take off |
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| Landing |
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Hi
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| David Monson |
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| Getting ready to go |
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| Playing in the water |
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Nice looking dogs
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Homes along the river
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Chena River
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| Reindeer |
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| Fishing wheel |
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| Salmon drying |
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| Map of village |
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| Book signing inside |
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| German chocolate brownie |
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Iced tea
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| Menu |
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| Tender chunks of beef, potatoes, and carrots in a rich gravy/broth |
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My plate of roasted veggies, salad and a roll to go with my miner's stew
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The scenery is ok on our way to
Denali. Nothing I would rave about though. Our journey takes around 3 1/2 hours. We have arrived and it's 4:15 pm. There's a
HAL information desk inside the main building where we are handed another packet for our stay here. We have 3 nights at the
MCKINLEY CHALET RESORT. Process is very smooth. Our room #636 is in the Canyon Lodge. It's nice with 2 double/maybe queen size beds, 2 chairs and a small table, TV, dresser. Bathroom has hairdryer, tub shower combo with dispenser shampoo/conditioner/bath gel. I start to call a few of our former hotels to try to find Richard's missing clothing. I finally locate the missing items at the Breeze Inn, Seward. That will work out perfectly. Arrangements made for Richard to pick them up on 8/16 when we are in Seward to board our cruise ship. It's nice to have the cell phone, not only to keep in touch with family but for things like this. There are shuttles that go around this large property taking guests from place to place. We grab a shuttle and go to our room which is nice and has a view of sorts. This property consists of the main lodge, the canyon lodge, cottonwoods, and 26 other smaller buildings which I think have rooms for guests also.
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| Almost there |
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| Main lodge-McKinley Chalet Resort |
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| View out our room |
We have to hurry as I've prebooked a
Denali/McKinley flight with landing for tonight. We are at the main lodge where
Fly Denali picks us up at 5:15 pm for our flight. Our flight isn't until 6:15 pm but we have to go to the office for a pre flight safety lecture and to sign "release of liability" form. We also are fitted for our ice/glacier boots. Then it's time to go. In my excitement that the weather is great and we are doing this I forget to take my video camera. We had to remove our photography gear from our bags and only take what you can hold. I realize this as the plane is taking off!! I could kick myself but I do have my camera. Our pilot tells us that the weather has not been ok for him to land his plane in the Don Sheldon Amphitheater/Ruth Glacier area for the past 5 days but we are lucky today. The weather is just perfect. The scenery is stunning-beyond words to describe it. You just have to see it yourself. A very nice landing-a few little bumps. We are all eager to get out and just soak in all this beauty. Unfortunately we can't see all of Denali/Mt. McKinley as part is covered with clouds. We are able to see the summit. There's Moose's Tooth. Over to the left high up we see a small building. It's so quiet-only we are here. No other planes. One couple has brought a bottle of red wine and 2 glasses to toast each other. Neat! Why didn't I think of that. I do make a snow angel. It's a strange sensation walking in our ice boots. You do sink a bit. This is worth every penny, nickel, dime..........A once in a lifetime experience. I am so in love with Alaska! Cost was $1064 for the 2 of us but this price also includes Richard's ATV tour on the morning of 8/14. Back at the office I buy a Fly Denali T shirt, special price $5. I do tip the pilot and our driver.
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| Wickersham Wall 4000' of rock and ice |
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| Denali |
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| Landing |
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What we see from our landing site
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| Denali with clouds rolling in |
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| Making a snow angel |
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| Throwing a snowball at Richard |
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| The couple behind me are drinking wine |
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| Time to go after 30 minutes on the glacier |
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| It was aa amazing experience |
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| Glacier ice boots |
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Fly Denali office
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Back at the hotel we change and walk across the street over to
PROSPECTOR'S PIZZA. We order a cheese/pepperoni/mushroom pizza. There are so many choices. Richard has EZJack IPA and I have a ginger ale. This place is packed and gets good reviews on TA. The pizza is delicious. What a day we've had. This Alaska trip just keeps on getting better and better.
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| Cheese, pepperoni, mushroom pizza |
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| Beer on tap pulls |
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| Our resort is across the street from Prospector's Pizza-an easy walk |
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| Main lodge entrance |
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| No one around |
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| Nice sitting area |
A nice walk in the evening air, shuttle to our room and thinking about tomorrow. We have the
Tundra Wilderness Tour at 9:00 am. We are lucky enough that we are going on the first HAL scheduled tour into Denali National Park.
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