2017 - June 5th & 6th - Alaska - Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

Our days in Fairbanks have come to and end and we start off this beautiful Monday morning by motor coach to go The Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. The coach heads out on Alaska Highway 3, also called the George Parks Highway, which is the only road to Denali. We are looking forward to seeing Mt. Denali and the Denali National Park. Our driver, this time a much informed young lady, tells us to be on the lookout for wildlife as we cruise down the highway. She tells us that only about 15% of the people visiting Alaska get views of Mt. Denali due to the cloud cover that persists in the area. Whenever someone on the coach would see wildlife, we were encouraged to yell it out so all could observe. One of our sightings was a Bull Moose grazing ... I snapped the picture and then zoomed in for these views: Along the ride, we were fortunate to see both Golden Eagles and Bald Eagles. We were told that in this area the Golden Eagle is pretty common but to many they look like Hawks. But if you look at the Golden Eagle, you see that it is much larger than a Hawk. It was fun to see them once in awhile soaring above. A couple of different times we passed Bald Eagles majestically perched high up in one of the spruce trees. We saw a large eagle nest with one as well, but not fast enough with the camera. This Bald Eagle I captured and then zoomed in to see it better here. As I sorted through the pictures taken, I came across one that Fred had on his phone. When I looked at it closer and blew it up, there is a Black Bear. We missed seeing it in person but he unknowingly captured it photographically! I read in some of the literature that for every bear you don't see in Alaska there is a bear that has never seen a human either. Guess this picture just proves that saying! We passed beautiful scenery along the route as we were ever on the wildlife lookout.

Our driver pointed out many different things as she drove. Although we didn't stop, Skinny Dick's is one of those unique sightings sitting out all by itself. Halfway between Nenana and Fairbanks is the ultimate Alaskan roadhouse - Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn. Skinny is a legend! An Anchorage newspaper once carried the story of Skinny being pulled over by a State Trooper who suspected he was driving while intoxicated. The Trooper asked Skinny to jump up and down on one foot. Skinny replied, "Hell, I can't even do that when I'm sober." The club is the home of The Whale Fat Follies --"The Alaskan Show that the Department Of Tourism Does NOT want you to see." The club was founded in 1980 because there was no place else where you could order some of the world's finest champagnes and a damn fine plate of Spam®. The Whale Fat Follies has now been seen by over 500,000 misguided Alaskans and visitors, which just goes to show how little there is to do in our pathetic little town! So as our driver told us, the name speaks for itself. Just read it fully and let your mind go down that dirty path that we all know is there! The whole name is pretty rhetorically to say the least! Our stopping point before Denali was at the Tatlanika Campground close to Healy Alaska. It is a lovely campground which the proprietors look forward to the motor coaches stopping by to use the facilities and the guests to visit their gift shop. The Tatlanika Campground Park's unique gift shop where they have over 50 mounts including a world class polar bear. Alaskan made crafts are abundant. Free coffee and cookies are offered to everyone and there are refreshments and ice cream for sale. Just for all of our relatives and friends from Michigan ... the Michigan favorite Wolverine! This is an old fish wheel displayed at Tatlanika Campground Park. One of those perfect shaped trees from the long daylight hours. Due to the permafrost and the effect on the trees roots and growth, this tree is much older than it looks. We really enjoyed the stop then it was back on the coach to see more beautiful scenery as we head-in the final miles to the Denali Princess Lodge. We had views of the winding Nenana River between Fairbanks and Denali. And we began to get views of Mt. Denali with the low clouds surrounding the glacier covered mountain. We arrive at our new home-away-from-home, The Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. This place is HUGE! It is it's own village and it even says so! The main lodge building has guest check-in, general store, gift shop, espresso bar and lovely resting area. The front entrance with the drive for motor coaches and cars is impressive, but the back of the lodge facing the village shops and guest room buildings is beautiful. There is a large carved wooden bear on the highway in front welcoming all to the Princess Village.

Inside the main lodge is a beautiful stone fireplace and much more.

The village has winding streets, guest rooms, bars, restaurants, the Trading Post Gift Shop plus four other specialty gift stores, Sugarloaf (sweets and stuff), Christmas Shop, the Lynx Creek Pizza and Pub plus much more! We had great pizza and calzone at the Lynx! We purchased a carved wooden picture of hummingbirds and flowers for our living room that we found here at The Trading Post. It is just a marvelous place!!!

The room accommodations were first class ... The Lodge offers a dinner theater production at it's Music Of Denali Theater. So we decided to kick-back and laugh by joining in on this evening-long jaunt to a family-style roadhouse to see a side-splitting musical comedy about the first men to reach the summit of Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley) which juts 20,310 feet high . The evening begins with a family style dinner featuring Alaskan salmon, smokehouse BBQ, hearty mashed potatoes and house-baked apple crisps for dessert. They tell you to come hungry because this delicious spread is all-you-can-eat! While feasting on this savory meal we then enjoy wonderful performances by a talented group of musicians and singers who hit all the right notes with lively songs and heartfelt sounds. The show is the entertaining story of these early explorers, including Alaskan native Walter Harper, the first man to reach the main summit. The show takes in the indomitable pioneering spirit of this determined group who bravely made their way through the Alaskan wilderness to reach new heights, which, according to one of the men, explorer Robert Tatum, was like ”looking out the windows of heaven.” It all centers around enjoying the rollicking ride while experiencing the thrill of discovering gold and the unforeseen dangers faced when climbing this mammoth peak. We really did relish the spirited music full of funny, lighthearted lyrics and the gifted ensemble that bring this original musical and a slice of Alaskan history to life.

Tuesday was our day for touring Denali National Park and Reserve as part of our package. The motor coach arrived to take us into the park to see just a small part of it's 6-million acres. On February 26, 1917, 11 years from its conception, the bill creating Mount McKinley National Park was signed in legislation by the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. A portion of Denali, excluding the summit, was included the original park boundary. On Thanksgiving Day in 1921, the Mount McKinley Park Hotel opened. In July 1923, President Warren Harding stopped at the hotel, on a tour of the length of the Alaska Railroad, during which he drove a golden spike signaling its completion at Nenana. After being abandoned for many years, the hotel was destroyed in 1950 by a fire. In 1947, the park boundaries expanded to include the area of the hotel and railroad. The name of Mount McKinley National Park was subject to local criticism from the beginning of the park. The word "Denali" means "the high one" in the native Athabaskan language and refers to the mountain itself. The mountain was named after newly elected US president William McKinley in 1897 by local prospector William A. Dickey. The United States government formally adopted the name Mount McKinley after President Wilson signed the bill creating Mount McKinley National Park into effect in 1917. In 1980, Mount McKinley National Park was combined with Denali National Monument, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act named the combined unit the Denali National Park and Preserve. At that time the Alaska state Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain to "Denali." However, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names did not recognize the change and continued to denote the official name as Mount McKinley. This situation lasted until August 30, 2015, when President Barack Obama directed Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to rename the mountain to Denali, using statutory authority to act on requests when the Board of Geographic Names does not do so in a "reasonable" time period.

Tour buses are the primary mode of transportation in the park. By riding the tour bus, Denali's wilderness ecosystem is protected. The Denali Park Road is open to private vehicles for 14.8 miles to the Savage River Bridge. Vehicular travel in summer to destinations farther into the park requires shuttle and tour bus services, all protecting this great wilderness. By taking the bus tour, we are taken to Mile 19 of the Park Road (private cars can’t go past Mile 14). We enjoyed looking at all of the open spaces of Denali. We were fortunate that there was not cloud cover and we could easily see Mt. Denali (or Mt. McKinley in old-school terms). In the pictures, it is the large white mountain that sometimes in the pictures resembles clouds. Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level. We walked a short distance to Savage Cabin, the original ranger’s cabin, providing a living history into how the cabin was once used and how it continues to be used today. Here we listened to a history of the cabin and the rangers who still travel from cabin to cabin by dog sled. These cabins are roughly 20 miles apart from each other. Denali is the only National Park patrolled in winter by dog sled. The doors and window shutters have nails protruding to ward off bear and other predators who may try and enter the cabins for food. And the ever present dog houses outside of the cabin act as that alarm system to make aware of any wildlife and intruders by the barking dogs. The dogs must always be in the natural outdoor environment so that they do not overheat by being inside a cabin and thus maintain a steady internal temperature. We stopped in an open area to get views of Denali and take some pictures with her as our background. We saw these very pretty little pinkish flowers throughout the park and found out that they are Alaskan Fireweed Plants.

After this lovely five hour excursion, we returned to our lodge. Mary Anne and I decided to visit the Denali National Park and Reserve Visitor Center, so we grabbed the shuttle and went off to explore. As we got off of the shuttle and rounded the corner to go to the Visitor Center, we came to a cow moose who decided on a little grazing snack right across from us. The Visitor Center was packed with many displays including stuffed animals of all of the inhabitants and the Denali area. The stories and displays were great. A short walk from the Visitor Center was one of the dog kennels for the working sled dogs of Denali National Park. We went down to see the kennels and the dogs. The barns containing name plates for all of the past dogs who had worked in the park, their harnesses, some sleds and other equipment, were open for us to see.

We were able to watch a working dog sled demonstration. These dogs, to us, don't seem as lean as the racing dogs that we saw from Susan Butcher's kennels. The weight factor seemed to be the difference between racing and working dogs. We returned to the Denali Princess Lodge and hooked-up with Pam and Fred for pizza and calzone at the Lynx Creek Pizza & Pub in the Princess Village. A great ending to a great day! Wednesday morning we are off to Talkeetna and our next stay at the Princess McKinley Wilderness Lodge. We board our motor coach to be taken to the train station where we will board our train for this leg of our journey. On our way to the train station, we saw Mamma Moose and her twin babies that we were told had been born just a couple of weeks ago. We all snapped as many pictures as we could! All of the captioned pictures for the Denali stay can be seen by clicking this album link. See you tomorrow in our post from Talkeetna and The McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge!