A Trip Down The Alaska Railroad Line | Denali To Anchorage

We work up early to bright daylight as we head out on a damp cold morning in a 40ish degree weather.  We took buses on a short 10 minute trip, from the hotel, to ride to the train.  The train would be taking us on a seven hour guided adventure.  As we rode to the station, we kiss Denali goodby and could tell as we rode out that there was so much unexplored and uncovered.

We finally boarded the trains and took stairs to the top of a double decker train car.  The engines were marked Alaska Railroad.  The cars were nice and the seats were comfortable.  One the first floor there was a dining car featuring a full breakfast and lunch menu.  Keep in mind the food in Alaska is usually shipped in and iced, so never expect the ripest flavors for fruits and vegetables, however, this food was delicious.

The top cars feature a tour guide and drink waitress.  The cars feature a full bar with plenty of options and decent prices, considering you are hovering above the ground in the middle of no-where beautiful Alaska with no cares in the world.

The sights and views were amazing and never seemed to end.  The tour guide was great and very knowledgeable about the region.  Along the way, we saw the tallest house in Alaska, which was built on stilts to be able to see Mount McKinley over the natural Alaskan treeline.  We saw two bears and one small moose on the trip.

After a couple of great meals, some snacks, drinks, and great views of the Alaskan frontier, we finally arrived at our destination in Anchorage Alaska.

A Plesant Short Stop In Nenana Alaska

Our party work up early to head into Denali, Alaska, by Bus.  The trip was a little over two hours and included a short stop over in Nenana, Alaska to learn about the Nenana Ice Classic the town and view the Tanana river.

Note: Most of the Alaska trips bus coaches have bathrooms/restrooms in them so no need to worry about needing to get off.

The trip was a breathtaking trek through softly winding roads through lush green forest and high snow-caped mountains.  For those who are new to the region, Alaska is a very mountainous landscape and does not include many flat regions.

The trees and forest were so green for being such a white snow covered region for much of the year in this area.  Alaska forest soak of the snow melt-off and plentiful sun filled summers.

Permafrost (ground is permanently frozen year around) covers most of the ground in this region, making it hard to farm without greenhouses.

The bus driver informed us that the University of Alaska Fairbanks has been researching growing in Alaska to figure out which crops grow the best in the region. We finally stopped off at our halfway point in Nenana Alaska to take some pictures, use the toilets, and explore the local cultures, which were quite interesting.

The town includes a small free public museum where you can buy a ticket to the Nenana Ice Classic (sorry, no online purchases available from what we could see.) For background on the Nenana Ice Classic, In Nenana, the Tanana river freezes over during the winter months.  In the spring, a large tripod is placed in the middle of the frozen river and a string is attached to the tripod and a timer onshore.  Towns people check in occasionally and an armed guard is placed in a nearby watchtower 24/7 to make sure no-one tampers with the setup.

Last year the Ice Classic competition paid out over $300,000 in prize money, which went to many winners who guessed the same time.  Good luck to those winners who entered this year (and future years reading this blog.

We stopped here for almost 30 minutes before continuing on to Danial.  Overall the stop included sled dog petting, snacks and drinks, restrooms, scenic views of the Nenana river, an example tripod, the free museum, and friendly people.  We boarded the buses again to go to our next stop, Denali Alaska, which we will talk about in our next post.