Summer Vacation 2010: Anchorage to Denali

We flew from San Francisco at 7 PM, and arrived at 11 PM in Anchorage.  For those of you keeping track, we left our apartment at 6:00 AM on August 4th.  We left Tokyo at 5:40 PM on August 4th.  We arrived in San Francisco at 11:08 AM on August 4th.  We left at 7:40 PM on August 4th.  We arrived at 11 PM in Alaska on August 4th.  We were traveling for nearly 40 hours, then arrived in Alaska and found it still light outside on the same day we left.

We were surprised at how bright it was outside.  You hear about the "midnight sun" and all, but we never understood it viscerally until we were there.  While packing, we made sure to have our eyemasks for the planes, and headlamps for lighting the tent.  We were considering buying a lantern too, as we don't have one of those in with the camping gear at the moment.  As it was bright enough to read a book at midnight in the tent, we were rather fortunate to have brought our eyemasks and never needed the headlamps.

11:30 PM, outside the airport

We spent our first day in Anchorage, shopping.  New hiking boots for me, wind- and water-proof jackets for both of us, fuel for our camp stove, and food to cook in said camp stove while in Denali.  They only sell food at the entrance of the park, and there was no way we'd be making the 4-hour round trip there for food daily.  We definitely spent longer than necessary in the grocery store, appreciating the quantity, diversity, and English-language-ness of the food.

Alaska Railroad

The next morning we headed over to the railroad depot and took the train to Denali National Park.  We upgraded to GoldStar Service, their version of First Class.  With GoldStar seats, you get better windows, free drinks, a better dining car, and a covered platform to stand out on to see the views.  Totally worth it if you're taking the train.

Viewing Area

We traveled through Elmendorf Air Force Base, through the surprisingly large wreckage of a recent crash, followed by lots of fairly average scenery.

Train and Trees

We also went through Wasila, which seemed like one giant strip mall.  We went out on the viewing area a few times, and were quite glad we'd purchased our new jackets.

It was windy.  And cold.

Lunch was very enjoyable in the dining car.  Lee had some Buffalo chili and the rest of my pasta and chicken dish.

Cute Dining Car

Then the mountains started to come into view.

Off in the distance...

...mountains...

...awesome mountains.

The scenery from the train was amazing for the last couple of hours of the seven hour train ride.  I highly recommend it - it's definitely worth the experience, once. 

The Train!

Check out the rest of the great images of the scenery from the train over at Flickr.  Next up, Denali National Park.