This trip has gone to the dogs!
The afternoon excursion was a chance to go dog sledding. To our surprise there wasn’t any snow when we got to the kennels. There was snow everywhere else. I wondered how we were going to go dog sledding without snow. When we arrived the first thing I saw were the puppies, those wonderful wiggling bundles of fur. They weren’t tiny either. Before I knew it I had 25 lbs of happy, squirming puppy in my arms. I found myself laughing as I tried to keep my face away from the enthusiastic doggy kisses.
Our Sled Awaits
As we played with the dogs a huge monster of a vehicle was pulled into view. It had a sturdy metal frame, rubber tires and 3 bench seats that had been rescued from some old junk cars. It even had a roof and a front windshield of scratched Plexiglas. I was convinced it would be too heavy for these poor dogs to pull. But the mushers were busy hitching a pack of excited dogs to the front.
It must roll easier than it looks
Some really happy dogs
We loaded into this wheeled thing adding all of our human weigh but when the musher yelled mush, these dogs put their shoulders into the harness and we were off. This was really fun and the dogs were having fun too. The course was pretty short but if the dogs had their way we’d have gone around again. Stopping was harder than getting us started. https://aroundustyroads.com/2013/06/30/puppies-and-mush/
All About the Iditarod
After our puppy fix and the dog sled experience, we entered a shelter where a veteran musher told us about the art of dog sledding. He told us stories of running the Iditarod and relying on his dogs to get him safely to each checkpoint. He considers his dog team partners not master and animal. It was a very interesting presentation. I really enjoyed this excursion and would definitely recommend it to any and all animal lovers. So much fun playing with these dogs!
Come on! Let’s go!
A pair of caribou raced across a frozen river as we passed by. At one stop some mushers came on to talk to us about dog sledding. About that time someone spotted a coupled of grizzly bears fresh out of hibernation. They were just tiny dots in the distance. After the first excitement of the train ride wore off it began to get a bit long. Lots of people used the time to nap. The 9 1/2 hour trip seemed endless. Probably because it stretched to 11 hours before we pulled into the station in Denali.
Off the train and onto a bus
Exploring the Land
in spacious rail cars, smiling and having a great time. On our itinerary we were arriving in 
Our 9 1/2 hour trip actually turned into 11 hours. I did get a few photos and crawled over our seatmates a few times for bathroom breaks, a visit to the dining car and just to stretch my legs. The scenery was magnificent but it was hard to enjoy it when there was no room to turn around for a look. We had dome windows but it didn’t take too long to dampen any enthusiasm for looking out. This was very disappointing. Nothing like the experience we were told to expect. I found out after the fact that there is a commercial passenger train that goes to Denali but we weren’t on it. This train is owned and operated by 
I keep referring to the Garden Party. The lunch was actually at 
The Land of the Midnight Sun
There was a Naturalist on board for the cruise through College Fjord. We’d just entered the mouth of the Fjord when they announced that we could see mountain goats on the mountain sides. Although I looked like crazy I couldn’t see anything that I could say for sure were animals of any kind. We kept watch for marine mammals like whales and porpoises but only one unidentified animal showed it’s head. 