North to Alaska Day 2

Spring Chicken

Since this is OT, I will follow the new rules and post it here.

This was only the second day of our visit to Alaska. We are still in Healy where we meet up with our bus that will take us into Denali National Park. Not just "into" but WAY into Denali National Park: 92 miles in fact.

It's a big park, larger than the state of Massachusetts. We were only seeing a fraction of it. Even so, it is one beautiful place.

Unfortunately, the low clouds were mixed with light rain and smoke so we only got to see hazy mountains. We never did see Mt. McKinley which was only a few miles away.

I have a lot more photos and videos but these should give you some idea of what we saw and did.

It was fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XfFK8Wo1pA

Spring "Still Up In The Clouds" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

cookn biker

Leroy, I dun did dat trip afore!! :laugh:
When I was 22 I sold everything I had except my vw bug. Went with a friend who's sis and bil lived there. We stayed for 3.5 months. Took his Porshe up to Seattle and parked it in a garage, grabbed our bikes and packs hit the "fairy" and headed on up. Great memories!!
Thanks for the post updates.

Ripnem

Good stuff Leroy. Did ya find any nuggets?

Spring Chicken

Any gold I found was covered by hard rock. Besides, they said it's "Catch and Release" gold panning. So I chunked it all back.

Spring "Determined To Be Poor" Chicken

Spring Chicken

What an adventure that must have been.

I'm surprised by the number of young people who come to Alaska from all over the world to work during the tourist season. Some of them were fun to be around.

Spring "Young Heart Old Joints" Chicken

mad max beyond eggdome

great stuff leroy!!!!....did you ever get to see mt. mckinley??

Gator Bait

 
Wonderful video, Sir! Is that typical weather for this time of year?

How's the knee?

Gator

 

Spring Chicken

We saw it the next day from our train while headed to Anchorage. Not the same as seeing it from a few miles away.

Spring "Seeing Is Like... Seeing" Chicken

Spring Chicken

Thanks. The weather changes quickly there and ranges from hot to cool to cold to dry to wet, or so I'm told. But this time there were a number of forest fires in Denali that created a lot of smoke. They can't fight the fires so they just let 'em burn. It does tend to create a bit of a mess with the sky.

It also kept us from flying back from Kantishna. The flight was going to take us up close and personal with Mt. McKinley. Just too overcast so we rode back on the bus.

By he time we got back the the park entrance it was clearing up.

Spring "Mother Nature Hates Me" Chicken

Gunnar

Nice Leroy, another place to go that’s on my list. Post more at your leisure.

Photo Egg

As always, thanks for including us in your adventures.
Is the gold panning really catch and release???
darian

Spring Chicken

Yea Barry, it is a trip of a lifetime. We enjoyed every moment of it.

Fortunately, we were with a group from New Orleans that included Judy's sister and hubby along with some of their friends. The Tour Guide did it up right for us and we got first class treatment from the start: Upgraded mid-ship balcony cabins, private tour of the ship's galley by the Head Maitre d' himself, first class 'Gold' fare on Alaska Railroad with open bar and fine dining for the 8-hour ride from Denali to Anchorage, top-of-the-line lodges in Denali and Alyeska, excellent bus transportation in every city, exciting events ranging from whale watching, up-close glacier watching, scenic boat tours, helicopter rides and walkabouts on glaciers, scenic rides on buses and trains (including the famous Skagway Train), and many other exciting adventures.

Everyone we met in Alaska was exceptionally nice to us. Without exception, they all went out of their way to make sure we enjoyed our visit to their state. The same was true while we were in Yukon and Vancouver, Canada.

We certainly got our money's worth.

It is everything we hoped it would be an much more.

Spring "Non-Compensated Alaska Sales Rep" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

Spring Chicken

I thought we were panning for 'goldfish.' Didn't want no stinking goldfish on the bus ride back to civilization. LOL

I'm sure there's still some gold there but I sure didn't see any.

Spring "Ask Me About My 'Nugget' Collection" Chicken