May 20, 2013 Monday

We were up at 5:30.  Marcel slept for 10 hours, he's in the holiday mode now.  Luggage in the hall at 6:30.  We have coffee in the room with one huuuge cinnamon bun bought in the coffee shop.  Now ready for blogging the previous days events.  It is a beautiful bright sunny day.  7c outside compared to 0c yesterday. The bus to Denali leaves at 10:20.

Our first stop to take some pictures of the Alaska mountain range.  Our bus driver said he drove a tour bus to Denali 2 days ago in a blizzard.  Once he had to stop for 20 minutes because the visibility was so bad.  Not a cloud in the sky today.  We feel very blessed indeed.  

Our first glimpse of Mt McKinley.  Under the dot.  

Our next stop is Nenana.  Cultural centre.  A very small town.
On the river is a tripod.  In 1917 railroad workers erected a tripod on the Tanana river and took bets on when the ice would melt enough for the tripod to sink.  Each year bets have been made to guess the month and day.   The 2013 Jackpot was $318, 500.00

The Tanana River ice officially broke up on

May 20th at 2:41 pm Alaska Standard Time

The latest time on record the ice has ever gone out.

Congratulations to the winners!!!  

Just hours after we were there.

We travel with 3 busses full of people.  

Fish-wheel 
Early Alaskans used fish wheels to assure there would be enough salmon to last through the winter, feeding both the communities and their dog teams. With a rate of three to five revolutions per minute and such effective catches, some northwest states banned these giant fishing machines. With a permit, Alaskan subsistence fishers still run fish wheels, visiting them daily to take out the salmon to clean and dry them as a winter staple.

Next two pictures taken through the window while driving. 

Close to 2 pm, we arrived at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. 

We quickly dumped our bags in the room and went for a walk to explore the area.  
We never have to check in.  
Envelopes with the keys and the next destination luggage tags are given to us in advance. 
Such efficiency. 

We are in building H (for Hoogstad)

Wasn't difficult to find amazingly gorgeous scenery.  

Face carved out of this mountain. 

Our lodge for the next two night.  We'll try and suffer through it. 

This is the river Jennie, Peter, Immy and a few Rec Vee travelers went water rafting.  Good thing it's not this year, look at the thickness of the ice.  Apparently this is the longest winter they have ever had.   

Pizza for supper at Lynx Creek.

Tomorrow we are going into the park for a 5-6 hour natural history tour,
and a ATV ride for 2.5 hours in the late afternoon.
This is the first time I finished the days blog on the same day.