Tuesday, June 15, 2010 Train To Denali

Well folks we have encountered some very slow Internet Access here in Denali so photos will have to wait. Let me bring you up to date.

At 7:30A we boarded our ever efficient Princess motorcoach and were taken to the Fairbanks RR station where we boarded the train bound for Denali. The train itself is run by the Alaskan Railroad Company. The various cruise ship operations have private rail cars that are hooked up to the engine for the 4 hour journey. We rode in a two deck domed car. From the top deck we had beautiful views of the countryside. Down below is the dining care complete with white linens and fresh flowers. We had a lovely breakfast chugging down the track.

The discovery of gold in 1898 inspired the first dreams of building a railway in Alaska. Construction costs and challenging conditions the railway didn't become a viable undertaking until WWII when Alaska became a critical factor in America's role in the war. After the war the railway continued to grown. However things came to a catastrophic halt when, on Good Friday in 1964, 186/536 miles of the track were damaged in just 5 1/2 minutes during a devastating earthquake. Amazingly full service was restored in just 3 weeks. The building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline once again created another freight boom and the railway grew yet again. In 1985 the US Government wanted out of the railway business so the State of Alaska paid $22.3 million and now operates it a a private enterprise.

Our adventure began at mile post (MP) 470.3 in Fairbanks. We followed Goldstream Creek through Dome, Martin, Sulich, Cache Standard and Dunbar. The Goldstream Valley is a difficult stretch of track to maintain because of permafrost. Winter temperatures of -70 have been recorded in Dunbar. Summer temperatures in interior Alaska often reach 90-100 degrees. We however are experiencing 50 degree weather with cloudy cast skies and a significant amount of wind.

At MP 413 We crossed the Mears Memorial Bridge. This was the final link of the railway and was completed in 1923. At 702' this steel bridge in one of the longest single span railroad bridges in the US. President Harding traveled to Alaska to drive the golden spike on July 15, 1923.

The Nenana River flows out of Denali into the Indian village of Nenana. This serves as the headwaters of the Tanana River which flows into Fairbanks and continues on into the Yukon. The village is a major supply link for the interior Alaska villages.

At MP 392 we enter Clear which is now one of the world's three early warning ballistic missile sites (the others are in England and Greenland).

MP 358 is the town of Healy and the center of the Nenana River Coal Field. Coal has been mined there since 1916.

MP 347 we roll into Denali Park Station (elevation 1,732'). Denali, a Tanana Indian word, translates as "the High One" or "the Great One." At 6 million acres it is larger than the State of Massachusetts. The park is managed as three different units: a wilderness, a park and a preserve. The parks draws 500,000 visitors per year...more than the population of the entire state.

At the urging, almost insistance of one of our fellow passengers, we will be taking an 8 hour wilderness tour of the park. This gentleman has done it many times before and says it is an experience that cannot be missed. There are 300 bears in the park, the park has 6 million acres so each bear has roughly 22,000 acres to roam. Who knows if we will be fortuante to see one in the wild (we have seen our share of stuffed grizzly bears every place we go). The tour starts at 3:30 and returns us to the lodge at 11:30. That's not a problem because it will still be day light!

Stay tuned for photos.