The Great White North

Posted on February 14, 2018February 14, 2018 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

North to Denali

The farther north we went the easier it was to see that spring hadn’t really sprung yet. The scenery was spectacular but it was snow and ice. As the Denali Express rumbled over a trestle bridge we could look down into the steep chasm below. This was pretty rugged country.

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

We all tumbled off the train and were immediately loaded onto a bus for the short trip to the Denali Princess Wilderness lodge. The accommodations weren’t bad. And even if the weather was cold we had the warm Alaskan welcome to shake off the chill.

We didn’t have long to linger in the room because dinner was being served along with a stage show. The waitstaff were also the performers and they were amazing. After the show it was time to head to bed. The sun was just setting this far north but we had an early morning tour. We were going into the National Park. Hopefully we’d finally see some animals. Our park adventure was a half day tour. Turns out the best tour would have been the all day trip but once again we relied on our travel agent when selecting the excursion.

Into Denali National Park

Our Tour Bus Awaits

In the morning after a huge breakfast at one of the resort restaurants (which were not included in the package) we climbed aboard another bus for our trip into Denali National Park. We began to see a little more animal life. There were a couple of moose and some caribou but no bears. We really wanted to see bears. When the all day tour returned they said they has bears surround their bus. Clearly we should have taken the longer trip.

In Search of Next Year’s Christmas Card

Posted on December 28, 2014December 28, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Yes, you read that right. Christmas is barely past and I’ve turned my thoughts to next year already. Truth be known I started thinking about next year’s card as soon as I cracked open the boxes of decorations. You see the images I use for my Christmas Cards are always taken in the previous season. If I waited, I’d never get the new cards made and in the mail on time.

So far this year I just haven’t gotten a picture that gives me a “WOW” factor.

I heard that the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, MA was including photos with Santa’s Reindeer as part of their Zoo Lights celebration and that caught my attention.

I debated with myself if it was worth a trip because I’d have to drive through Boston at night to get there. The price of admission wasn’t too much, only $7.00 and tickets could be ordered on line.

I debated all December but didn’t break down until yesterday. I made a last minute decision, printed a ticket and headed out.

It was unseasonably warm and I thought that being a Saturday maybe, just maybe, the traffic wouldn’t be too bad. Wrong. 🙁 Traffic through Boston does not take the weekend off.

Once there I was told the parking lot was filled to capacity but to cruise around and maybe I’d get lucky. At least the parking was free and eventually I did find a space. I noted the location by the wolf at the end of aisle.

Santa’s Castle was gorgeous but it was roped off and apparently closed. Santa must be resting up from his long ride.

I couldn’t get over the people trying to see the animals in the dark. Silly people. After asking a few people I finally got directed to the Reindeer Encounter. A $5.00 donation was requested for the opportunity to take your picture with your own camera with the Reindeer. A bench was in front of the reindeer (caribou) enclosure and two handlers stood in the enclosure with the animal.

I waited in the long line. The way it snaked around did not let me get a good look at the lighting until it was my turn. I made some quick guesswork on camera settings, paid my $5.00 and stepped into the lights. The handlers got the animal to raise his head and I snapped away.

After my moment I retreated to another bench to check the result. The ones with the faster shutter speed were too dark

and the ones when I switched to aperture priority were properly exposed but the shutter speed was too slow and I got camera shake.

With nothing usable I put the camera on the tripod and got back on line to try again. The line had grown and was now huge, snaking around the enclosure. As I debated if I really wanted to stand in line that long there was a break in the brush around the enclosure. The reindeer was lying down now and looked like it was about to go to sleep.

I pushed into the little break and shot off a series of quick photos. I didn’t get what I wanted but maybe I’ll have better luck next year. The search for next year’s card photo continues…

Reindeer Games

Posted on December 18, 2013December 18, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Race you!

I’ll count , you go hide.

One more Lodge

Posted on July 2, 2013July 2, 2013 by Dusty Roads

After our exciting evening of dog sledding (I really did have a great time and would do this again) we all climbed back on board the bus to retrace our steps. We dropped off our young guides back at the trappers exhibit and returned to the lodge just in time to stop by the Base Camp Bar and Grill for a late dinner.

Then it was back to the room to pack up our bags again. This time they needed to be left out by 7 am . It was too cold to leave them out overnight. The staff would pick them up and they would be delivered to our room at our next stop, McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. We’d be spending 1 night there before heading back to Anchorage.

We could have squeezed in an early morning tour, quite a few people did, but we just relaxed with a leisurely breakfast and some souvenir shopping.

The bus rolled up right at 11 am. As before the driver checked off our names and gave us a packet with a room key and map of the grounds. Then we were on the road again.

At least the weather was better than when we were cruising. The sun was out and we settled back to enjoy the scenery. This bus driver was talking with another driver that had pulled out ahead of us and was now was maybe 5 miles in front.

In Cantwell, Alaska you can stop and see this strange construction, a now abandoned 4 story igloo shaped hotel. We just drove by. The driver said it had been abandoned because it was an environmental hazard…asbestos or something.

We watched the mountains pass and the landscape change to tundra again.

We passed a herd of caribou then the radio crackled to life.

There was a grizzly bear chasing a moose along side the highway. The driver gave us a mile marker and everyone sat up and started watching. Unfortunately the mile marker came and went and we never saw any sign of the bear or the moose. Everyone settled back down.

A bit farther along the passengers in the front of the bus got very excited. By pressing my face tight to the window I could just make out why. There was a moose running along the side of the road with the traffic! I couldn’t get a picture from that angle but I got ready just in case and it paid off.

Just as my window approached the moose, he decided to leave the road and bolted up the bank. Wonder of wonders, I caught his scramble even though the window glass!

Not long after the moose sighting we pulled into the new lodge.

It was lunch time so we dropped our carry-on’s in the room and made a bee line for the restaurant. Apparently several buses had come in at the same time so we had quite a long wait but finally we were seated right by the kitchen.

An order of chicken fingers made everything right again. 🙂 When my tummy’s not happy, I’m not happy.

Now fed, we had the whole afternoon to explore. There was a show in the movie theatre we wanted to see about the Aurora Borealis but we’d missed the mid-day showing and the next wasn’t until the evening. There was another about Alaska so we went to that instead. It was a series of photographs in slideshow format set to music. It was beautiful and worth spending the time to see. It even included some shots of the northern lights so maybe we could skip the other movie.

Are we there yet?

Posted on June 25, 2013June 25, 2013 by Dusty Roads

By late afternoon we were well past the snow line and the title says it all…Are we there yet?

People were getting restless. We had tickets to the dinner show so we didn’t want to eat in the dining car again but Lynn said we were still several hours out. In fact we were running so late that they were going to hold the start of the show for us. She said we were stopping a lot to get animals off the tracks. Interesting because you’d think someone would see the animals running away from the train.

At another stop a couple of people got on to do a presentation about the Iditarod and dog sledding. I think they were pitching one of the tours that featured the dogs and mushing.

While they were doing their presentation more shouts went up. This time the shouts were “bears”. And sure enough there were 3 of them. (Photo compliments of the internet)

Goldie Locks and the 3 bears sprang immediately to mind too. They were quite far away on a still frozen river but they were identified as “grizzlies”. Probably a family group of a mother and 2 older cubs. They were too large to be this year’s cubs and mature males are solitary except during mating season.

The “mushers’ gave up trying to pitch their tour saying that they couldn’t compete with grizzly bears but they must have done a good job because we booked a tour and so did the couple we were sitting with, Robert and Julia.

We crossed a huge trestle bridge. Robert came back from the platform and said he’s gotten a shot as the train approached it. I took mine through the window and got the shadow and look at that gorge! I was a lot warmer than Robert when all was said and done. 🙂

Around dinnertime we ordered a snack of a cinnamon roll. It came warm, all gooey, melty goodness. 🙂 That should hold me until we get to the lodge!

Shortly after that we had another bit of excitement. Again the action was way off in a valley along another river. This time the excitement was caribou. Looks like just one here.

But look what you see when I really enlarge this picture! There’s a 2nd one heading into the brush.

We spotted 2 first and than a bit farther on another 2. At least this was making the ride more interesting.

Here it is enlarged. I’m showing both pictures so you get an idea of how tiny and far away they were from the train.

Finally we spotted some buildings. We thought sure they must be the lodge but we were told no but soon.

When we finally pulled into the depot we still had to load onto buses for the last leg of the journey. We were handed a packet with our room keys and a map so we didn’t have to go through check in. That saved some time as we hot-footed it to our room to drop off our carry-ons and turn around to get to the dinner theater.

No time for pictures, as the white rabbit once said “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date.” But we did get waylaid for just that…a picture.

Once in the dinner theater the usher asked if we were from the train that had been held up by the landslide! So now it was a landslide not animals. I think they need to get their stories straight. 🙂 In any case, dinner was served family style and they started serving almost as soon as we were seated.

I don’t know about Sandy but boy, I was ready for a good meal!