Denali National Park

Friday afternoon, we loaded back up on a motorcoach, with the rest of the herd, to return to Talkeetna again and then board the train again to head towards Denali National Park.  This was about a 5 hour train ride with beautiful scenery...much better than the first ride.  But we were ready to get off .  And when we got to the Denali train station, we got off the train and got back on a motorcoach again.  At least it was a short drive to the Lodge.

View from the train

Ummm...for me....a big disappointment.  The Lodge really needed upgrading, we heard our neighbors upstairs taking showers at all hours of the night and early morning.  Talking in the halls.  Uncomfortable bed.  Just not what I expected.  

One of the restaurants was reasonably priced with good

food and beautiful views. 

Train ride to Denali

But throughout, it was so crowded.  People everywhere.  And pushing to get on the friggin' buses and trains (where tables were assigned!).  We got sooooo tired of it.

The whole area around the Park is very commercialized.  And it lost a lot of its appeal, as far as we are concerned.  Anyway,...we had a tour scheduled for Saturday morning to take us into the Park...8 hours on a school bus.

No one is allowed to drive personal cars past, I think, about 16 miles.  The Park shuttles (school buses) are the only allowed transportation deep into the park.  The tour we chose went about 60 miles into the park.  It was packed and there were probably 10 other buses on the same one road. 

But we saw about 6 grizzly bears, moose, dahl sheep....no caribou.  It was beautiful inside the park.  But I really prefer Yellowstone where your time is your own and you can drive when and where you want.

Scenes from inside beautiful Denali National Park:

Dahl Sheep

At the end of a long day, we were glad to be off the bus, but alas, the next morning, we got on another motorcoach for the 4 hour drive to Fairbanks to another Princess Lodge where our extra suitcase  was waiting for us.