Anchorage to Denali Summer Road Trip 2016

Although Anchorage is not that big of a city, they have a very visible homeless population, mostly Native American. On Tuesday before we left, we went downtown for a rainy walk around and to visit the museum. Two sights that have disturbed me was first, a homeless man outside the enclosed mall area that kept running over to a trash can to vomit. I can only assume that drugs and alcohol are involved. As we left the museum, we rounded a corner and right there on a busy street corner, a man had pulled down his dirty jeans and was taking a crap! I was horrified! My daughter and I visited Haight Ashbury in San Francisco a few years back where large numbers of street people dominate, but never saw anything so humiliating and degrading. As a Mom, all I could think of was this young man was somebody's son; what wicked turns in life bring someone to the corner of a busy street to degrade themselves to the level of an abandoned animal?

I am grateful for the opportunities in my life and the fact that I found a sober life.

The Denali Star is part of the Alaska Railroad system, our trip was planned from Anchorage to Denali where we would spend two nights, then on to Fairbanks. I remember fondly, the train travel with my Grandmother who took me from Indianapolis to Dallas/Ft Worth frequently to visit our Texas kin. It was with the same excitement I had as a kid, that I entered the train station in Anchorage. We snapped a few photos, stowed our bags, found our seats and settled in for the six hour trip to Denali.

The difference between train travel and air travel is huge! Seats are spacious, legroom is plentiful, there were very few passengers in our car which made moving from side to side to side easy when something interesting came into view, and I could go to the open spot between cars to hang my head out for a clear shot with my camera...try doing THAT on a 747!  The car directly behind us was a dome car which we could sit in whenever we wanted, great all around viewing of the breathtaking landscape we were rolling through! We saw 17 moose in the first hour we were outside of Anchorage!

Since we had to get up at oh-dark-thirty to catch the train, the motion of the train was putting both of us to sleep...I didn't want to miss anything though! Had lunch with a nice couple from Dublin Ohio in the dining car. Rolled through Wasilla Alaska, home of Dipstick Sarah Palin, and I looked, but you cannot see Russia from her backyard. Stopped briefly in Talkeetna, sorry we wouldn't be able to spend any time in this funky little outpost. But e have already fallen in love with Alaska and vowed we would return. 

The Alaska Railroad has a program for high school Juniors and Seniors that offer college credit and a job after high school. The kids selected, spend their Junior year learning to be a tour guide on the various routes, then if selected, they spend the summer of their Senior year as a tour guide. They are offered jobs with the railroad after that. The kids are great! Very personable and knowledgeable about the state. They keep a running commentary of interesting facts along the route; wildlife, botany, mining, industry and history along the way. It was a fascinating ride!

We were promptly picked up in Denali by the hotel - Denali Cabins, operated by Denali Backcountry Travel - and delivered to our cozy cabin in the woods. Mostly all f the people working in the service industry here - most young, some old - work the summer then travel somewhere else the way Rik the rest of the year. What a life! Had this kind of program been around when I was 20-something, I would have been gone! Our waiter at The Salmon Bake restaurant that eve ( located in the Gulch, the locals name for the strip of rustic buildings that house the few restaurants, sightseeing options, and gift shops in Denali) was from Greensboro NC. He will work four months in Alaska, then heads to Maui to work for the winter! Oh to be young and free again. The kid that served our ice cream was from Serbia, and our bus driver worked the summer in Alaska then went to Utah to do a few months and back home to Baltimore.

The cabins were out of water when we arrived, Alaska has been in a drought I guess, but by the time we returned from The Gulch, their pump had put enough water in the cistern that we could take a very sparse shower....backcountry experience. The alarm was set for oh-dark-thirty again for our 13 hour tour of the Denali backcountry the next day.