Alaska Bound Summer 2016 Craig and Arlene: Day 13 Train to Denali Day 14 Fairbanks

Up and out early this morning to take the train to Denali. It's 4 hours each way by train and only takes about 2.5 hours to drive so the train meanders and roams and goes very slowly. This train, if we chose to ride it to the other end would end up in Anchorage and then Seward. We wanted to go down to Denali Park to check it out for our later arrival by rv so we chose a train trip along the rivers and by ways.

The original train tracks were laid between 1904 and 1915 and like most everything of this kind in Alaska, it was a result of the gold rush although there was lots of silver and coal mining going on at the same time. At the time it was a critical link for the communities along the way and even today, some who live off the grid and have no roads to their homes depend on the railroad to pick them up and take them to town for supplies and medical care.

It was a great day with 8 hours on the train and 4 hours in Denali. Truthfully we were so turned around when we got to Denali that we didn't get to see and do much except go to the visitor center (which was great) and take a shuttle into "town" where the hotels and tours are located but we did secure a spot for our rv for next week when we get there to stay for a week or so and we got the lay of the land so we should hit the ground running when we come back. We actually saw lots of moose and caribou as the train was rolling along but none of our pictures turned out well enough to post them.

Back in Fairbanks, the next day we did a whole lot of nothing. Laundry, cleaning and reorganizing the rv, grocery shopping. It was nice to have an unscheduled day to take care of essentials.

We did visit the city of Northpole. Those of you who know my mother (Mary "Bluebelle" Brown, 88 years old next week), know that she has some short term memory deficits. She is loveable and sweet as can be but ever since we told her we were doing this long trip to Alaska, she has been saying that we have to go see Santa at the Northpole. She did a lot of traveling with her Eastern Star friends and although she can't remember a lot, the Northpole stuck in her head and she has told us at least 100 times that we need to go there. So to fulfill her wish, we did go to the Northpole which was only about 20 minutes away from our rv park.

It was a hoot! Honestly it is a glorified gift shop with a few reindeer in the parking lot and the whole town (very small) has a Christmas theme to it. We got a little off track because we were headed down Candy Cane Lane, thinking that had to be the right way until we noticed that we were passing Mistletoe Lane and Santa Street. It turned out that it was centered just off the highway where we had seen the giant Santa. Ho ho - Merry Christmas in July everyone!!!

The Alaska Railroad. We rode from Fairbanks to Denali Park.

Clouds and trees reflected in a large glacier pond.

Mountans and rivers. It looks like snow in the mountains but it's actually clouds.

Craig takes a picture of me taking a picture!

Evidence of flooding. We are told that usually these sandbars in the middle of the river are actually the beach. All that water between the sandbars and the shore is flooded land.