Our “Mt. McKinley” lodge had a clear view of the mountains
surrounding The Big One, though she cloaked herself pretty thoroughly. The lodge is on one edge of the Denali
national park. We travel today to the
Denali lodge, which is on a different edge of the protected territory but
apparently has better access into the park.
Last night we thought we’d have breakfast late, after
strolling along a half-mile path running between the main lodge and the
restaurant we patronized then. But after
a really LOVELY night’s sleep – window wide open, enjoying the fresh air – we were
ready for breakfast first. We noticed as
we left that there were many suitcases out in the hall with the
orange-and-white striped tags to Denali, but we were not ready for that (nor
could we find anywhere that we were told to DO that!). We trotted off to the main lodge and got onto
the waitlist for breakfast. We passed a
pleasant 20 minutes in those chairs looking at the mountain range, and got a
couple photos of what WAS showing of The Big One. Good thing too, as the cloud bank thickened
and settled over the next few minutes.
Our number came up and we were seated at a table with an
equally lovely view. We ordered up a
prospector’s breakfast of eggs, meat, potatoes & toast. Finally a restaurant that knows how to make
breakfast potatoes – heaven! We were
sorely tempted to order up additional servings of those potatoes (crispy brown
outside, with a few peppers and onions scattered in … yum) … but we had an
attack of good sense and resisted.
It’s another lovely morning – in fact the forecast for tomorrow
is mid-70’s – so we found the short trail and followed it down to beautiful
overlooks of a river and its flanking bluffs.
At a point a few chickadees seemed to adopt us, hopping a few feet down
the trail until we caught up, then leading us a little further. Guess they recognized greenhorns when they
saw us!
Back at the room we finished packing up and muscled our
bulging carry-on bags to the lodge. The
lady behind the counter was nonplussed to see the bags, but the next tier up
manager came out promptly and confidently assured us that the bags would,
indeed, arrive at Denali. We are still
toting our shoulder bags, but that’s manageable. We’ve been able to get our phones attached to
the free wi-fi, but the laptop is resisting, so we’ll try again to post when we
get to the next lodge.
We’d passed the time in the pleasant “wi-fi” room which also
offered big round wooden card tables (complete with little drawer in the skirt!). Of course there was a wall of windows in case
the lady decided to be less coy, but no such luck. Got lots of reading & needlework
accomplished (for those following the needlework, I’ve stitched in the first
color of the waves under the ship). Then
off to find Bus D-10 and trek further northward.
The bus ride was several hours, with a gawk-and-stretch-your-legs stop maybe 2/3 of
the way through. Beautiful scenery, and
at several points we were close enough to some of the mountains to see how they
do rise directly from the meadows below.
A pleasant day, warm and scattered clouds, so nice to be outside. We did finally hit the advertised
construction, and had to wait for our “pilot car” to turn around after having
led the southbound procession through the work area. You know you’re in Alaska when the speed
limit in a construction zone is … 65 MPH.
Arriving at the lodge, we were happy to find our building
near to the dropoff point so we won’t have to wait for the on-site
shuttle. We’re overlooking a rushing
river, where later we saw folks running the rapids in a big inflatable raft,
the guide hollering “PULL! PULL!” Though
the craft went a full 180, he righted it quickly and they were on their way
again.
We had tickets to “Music of Denali” and a salmon dinner on
the grounds at 5:15. Around 5 we left
the room, only to find ourselves at the end of a REALLY long line. Eventually we all got inside, seated at long
tables with their ends to a stage. A
good biscuit and small crunchy salad were already out, and shortly the main
meal of fully-loaded mashed potatoes, succotash, BBQ brisket, and SALMON was
served. I’d been hoping for good
information on Native culture, but was I wrong … so tragically wrong. It was kitsch all the way, with the table
staff doubling as cast members, and an amplification that could have been cut
in half at least. We were tasked with
cheering for our assigned server once he sang, so we stayed that long and
fled. We could hear perfectly well
outside. Sigh…
The remainder of the evening we rambled around the central area
of the venue, checking out the various shops.
There also is a “mailing cabin” where we hope to lighten our load again
as we did at the McKinley lodge. So
those on sentry duty back in Glenview …watch for a couple of boxes to me/from
me, as well as the suitcase that will be FedEx’d to LINDA’s.
As we began to return to the room, we hung out by the river
overlook for a good little while. Not
only was the view very pleasant, but the rushing waters were very soothing to
our travelers’ souls. Though we have
hardly scratched the surface of this massive State, it seems almost OK that our
time here is getting short.
Meanwhile, back at the room we read and caught up on
correspondence. The materials in the
room had some fun facts – Alaska is larger than Texas, California and Montana combined
… and if Alaska were divided neatly in half to make TWO states, Texas would
then be the THIRD-LARGEST state. Have we
said “vast” before?
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