Anchorage and Denali National Park

The drive from GlennAllen to Anchorage was a surprisingly nice and beautiful through some very scenic mountain passes. The weather was a bit wet and dangerously foggy as we approached summits, but once below the clouds, it opened up to a very nice view. We are traveling with our grandson Logan for a week, touring Alaska as part of his “RV Trip with the Grandparents”.

Logan’s first choice was to visit the Anchorage Museum, especially the science interactive area. It’s not just for kids, Denise and I had a great time figuring out the demonstrations. There is also a very good floor dedicated to Native American history in Alaska and on display was the original check of $7.2 million for the purchase of the Alaska Territory from Russia on loan from the Smithsonian.

Anchorage Museum-Native American History Floor
Anchorage Museum-Interactive Science

We were up bright and early the next morning (Tuesday) so we could be at the train station at 7:15am. Denise and Logan boarded the Alaska Railroad excursion car to Denali National Park. It’s an eight hour train ride through the interior of Alaska. While they were enjoying the scenery, I drove the RV to Denali and got there in time to pick them up. All they could say when I got there was “WOW! and the food was good also.”

Boarding Alaska Railroad for ride through Alaska interior.

They road the excursion car with a window ceiling.

On Wednesday, got up early again and hiked over to the Wilderness Access Center for an all day bus trip into Denali National Park.  It’s a 130 mile round trip on a dirt road and at times the road narrowed to the width of the bus with a 800 foot drop off with sharp curves on very steep inclines. We saw sheep, grizzly’s, caribou and it was clear enough for us to see Mount Denali (McKinley). We were told that only about 30% of the visitors are able to see the “Mountain” because of cloudy conditions. We have now joined the Denali 30% Club.

We saw a herd of Caribou.
We saw a grizzle with two cubs..She was making sure we didn’t get to close.
Snow capped Mt. Denali, southern rim on the left with the northern rim (pointed peak) on the right-We are now part of the 30% club.

Dream it, Plan it, Do it!


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