Monday, June 14 - The Sun Shines On Us - our train ride to Denali

It was a bright and early wake up call for us this morning - and bright it was! Blue skies and sunshine for our train ride. The hotel arranged transportation to get us to the train station where we boarded the 8:15 Alaska Railroad Gold Star Service car. We were in Car A, seats 1 A &B, which meant a front row seat for a spectacular 4 hour journey. After a delicious breakfast in the Gold Star dining car (reindeer sausage in our omelets!), we enjoyed the view from our prime seats - beautiful forests, colorful wildflowers, but the icing on the cake was a clear view of Mt. McKinley, only visible on clear days, which are few and far between. We arrived in Denali National Park at 12:15 and found the shuttle to our lodging - Denali Cabins. We checked in our cozy little cabin and then headed out to enjoy the rest of the day in the park. The first stop off the shuttle was the Visitor's Center, where we had a little lunch, saw the displays and then boarded another shuttle to the Dog Sled Demo area. There we were able to walk amongst the 20 dogs kept there and then view a demonstration of 5 of them pulling a sled, as they are trained to do. It is how the rangers travel through the park during the winter. It was very amusing - they randomly choose five dogs for the demo, and as the trainers walk among them, they start barking, as if to say "Pick me, pick me". We then headed back to the Visitors Center, where we saw an excellent movie "The Heartbeat of Denali" - which had amazing footage of the park. After that we decided to follow one of the well marked hiking trails. Part of the way around, we met some ladies who had just encountered a black bear - we decided to take the trail in a different direction than they did! After an invigorating walk, we took a shuttle to "The Gulch", the main shopping and eating area, where we had dinner at "The Salmon Bake" - Parmesan Crusted Halibut for Bruce and a Wild Salmon Quesadilla for me. Another shuttle back to the hotel - time for bed (although it's still broad daylight at 10:15!) Got to be ready for another fun day tomorrow!