Places I have been: Alaska (Part 2)-Land Tour

The land portion of our trip started with us boarding a coach bus at the cruise dock in Seward, Alaska. We had an 8 hour drive ahead of us so we started early. The first portion of our drive took us onto one of the main highways in Alaska that is featured on the TV show Alaska State Troopers. I had never watched it but when I came home from the trip I watched some episodes and could recognize the places we had been! During the drive, we drove through Anchorage and our driver told us about the city. We also drove through Wasilla and stopped for lunch there. We also stopped at an overlook of Mount McKinley (Denali). The long drive really did not feel so long because we were seeing sights along the way and stopping. Getting there really was half the fun. We were in the middle of nowhere. I lost cell service for a while. It was amazing seeing how untouched everything was. The scenery was beautiful. After we had arrived at our hotel we walked along the little strip of shops and restaurant places surrounding the hotels. We ate dinner and explored some more. There was even a Subway there. Subs were around $10-$12. It was crazy how much more expensive it was! It is this expensive because they must ship in all of their supplies and they can not grow fruits and vegetables well in Alaska.

The next day we took a bus tour of Denali National Park. We drove into the park on a bus and toured the entire park. We stopped along the way looking at wildlife like moose, dall sheep,bears and of course Mount McKinley!

Dall Sheep

Moose

Mount McKinley (Denali)

I was on the edge of my seat for most of the bus tour as we twisted around tight corners on the edges of cliff faces while other buses were driving in the opposite direction. It was scary. But we made it out safely.

The next day was our last day. We boarded the McKinley Explorer train at 12pm. This train has an open glass ceiling and a dining car on the bottom layer. It was really cool to experience. Technical difficulties forced us to get off the train before reaching Anchorage. Due to the rapid increase in temperature over the previous days, ice break up had begun and was starting to flood parts of the tracks. The permafrost was also melting and bending the tracks. We were going very slow the entire time we were on the train. At one point we had the option to get off at the next stop and take a bus ride the rest of the way to Anchorage. We decided to do this as we did not know what time we would eventually get to Anchorage.

The train was fun while we were on it and I am sure it would have continued to be fun. We were served drinks and we ate a nice dinner in the dining car while aboard. Once the problems started many other customers were getting antsy and started arguing with the tour directors about missing their flights ect.... Who books a flight home the same day you are taking a 8 hour train ride. Anything could happen! Why leave a 2 hour window to get to the airport and not longer! That was aggravating listening to the fights and complaining of others and I felt bad for the tour guides. I'm glad the cruise line had it all figured out to help us out while on our land tour.

Once in Anchorage we found our hotel. The next day we walked around Anchorage. We went to a movie about the big earthquake that happened and browsed in some stores before we had to head to the airport to catch our flight home.

What a wonderful trip it was! It really opened my eyes to all there is to see in the world and how diverse the USA really is.


                                        Check out the video clips I took of our trip to Alaska: