After staying
up past midnight, the morning came early. Denali was still visible as we ate
breakfast and packed up for today’s train ride to the Grande Denali Lodge,
located just outside the national park.
While waiting
for our train, we met two friendly couples from Denmark. It seems like
everywhere we go, we run into people who used to live in California. Sure
enough, one of these couples had lived in Eagle Rock and Pasadena for a year
when they were doing a foreign exchange teaching fellowship. Karen had a great
time discussing Danish (and various Scandinavian) films and novels with one of
them.
The skies
continued to clear as our train headed north beside the Susitna River. With
Denali to the west of us, and still free of clouds, we got some great views
from different angles throughout the morning. This part of the railway took us
over the Susitna River Bridge, which was built in the 1920’s and is quite high
in the air.
We stopped
out in the middle of nowhere for a half hour while the southbound train from
Fairbanks exchanged crew members with our train. Shortly after that, we reached
the summit pass, which has the Alaskan Range to the west and the Talkeetna Range to the east. This is Alaska’s continental divide: on one side, all the rivers
flow south and eventually into the Cook Inlet; on the other side, the rivers
flow north on their way to the mighty Yukon River, and then into the Bering
Sea.
On the way
from the Denali Depot to our lodge, we spotted a mother moose and her two
calves grazing on tree branches along the road.
Tonight will
be an early-to-bed evening.
Next: Into Denali National Park
No comments:
Post a Comment