Alaska - Denali Day

Today we left Fairbanks and headed to the Princess Lodge in Denali.

We rode on the nice buses again with the same young driver from Logan.

This is the Nenana River.

These are pictures that Fred took while I stood in line for the ladies room for the entire break.

So these are the things that were of interest at the little tourist stop there for Fred.

He could tell you about it. I can't. 

It's pretty well known that it's freezin cold in Alaska in the winter and this river freezes over.
In Nenana they have an official Nenana Ice Classic which is basically a lottery to bet on when will the ice break that winter. People from all over come and place a bet for $2.00 - the winner gets all the money. If there are multiple winners, they split the pot. Here is the website if you want to check it out. The driver encouraged us to place a bet while we were there. You don't have to be present to win.
http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com 

Here we are at the lodge. It was a huge complex. It really was gorgeous and I wish we could have stayed here longer. The weather was pretty miserable for the time we were here, but I really loved it here. We walked across the street for a Subway sandwich. 

We had a little bit of time to wander around before our bus tour into Denali National Park.

We were in Lodge 'G' - our room is right at that letter 'G' on the end.

All of these pictures were taken from outside the door of our room.

These were our chariots for the tour into Denali National Park. They look kind of rough, but there were actually pretty comfortable. 

It was a 5 hour tour which I did not want to go on. It sounded miserable, but it was really enjoyable. We first stopped at a visitor's center for a movie which was really good and then it was a slow meandering drive looking for wild life and the guide was very knowledgeable and interesting. It wasn't boring at all. We stopped after a bit and walked along a trail.

We walked to this cabin which was built back when they were building the roadway for Denali National park. 

Basically in Alaska the fall colors are yellow. The landscape was somewhat dreary.

We didn't see any wildlife up close while we were in the National Park, but on the way back to the Lodge right along the road we saw this Momma Moose and her two babies.