Our Tundra Wildlife tour of Denali started at the ungodly hour of 5:45am. Our guide Kate looked very earthy and pleasant and spoke like a 1st grade teacher with an interesting lilt in her voice. However, our vehicle for the tour was nothing to brag about. The style, “Early School Bus” with tight and hard seating, small foggy windows, and a very narrow isle, cramped with 60 eager sightseers and photographers. Probably the most inappropriate mode of transport to see and appreciate Denali’s majestic vistas. Not that I disagree with the park department’s policy of no private vehicles in the park, which is indeed an excellent way to keep Denali pristine. However, they should have given a little more thought as to the comfort and practicality of the transport that they are showing off this park to the visitors with. Enough of that, though! We managed to catch glimpses of the local wild life, which incidentally did not care to show itself till late morning; so much for our early departure…..

Our guide, the earthy Kate, spotted for us a pair of wolves in the distance, a foraging honey-colored grizzly and a family of Dahl sheep grazing on the hillside. Later on we caught on to this art of “spotting” and were able to distinguish the white spots on the steep slopes as sheep and not just boulders. The ptarmigan birds were rather tame and in variable feathers just waiting by the roadside for their portraits to be taken. Later on we also met up with a caribou and a moose with their tiny calves. The scenery what we could see of it was majestic, vast and wild. The clouds rolled in and out, the fog rolled in and out, then it rained, then it cleared up a bit, but The Mountain (Mt. McKinley that is) was in hiding and we never even saw its footsies. Still the experience left me in awe, and wishful of returning here sometime to really immerse myself in the beauty and unequaled wildness of this place. Yes, maybe someday….

After this most memorable tour we parted with Denali and it’s rattling transport, and re-boarded our old friend the McKinley Explorer that speeded us toward Fairbanks. Once again we took our chances in the dining car, where our dinner proved to be up to par with the décor and ambiance. There is something very nostalgic about having dinner on the train. Memories of yester-years…. Our ride was most comfortable and picturesque by the side of the Tanana River. (Tanana is Athabascan for Mountain Water).

We awoke to sunshine and blue skies in Fairbanks and ready for our first tour for this morning with a paddleboat on the Chena River. We saw the usual dog and pony show by the river side, such as planes taking of and landing from a backyard strip, dog musher Suzan Butcher (Iditarod winner) training her sled dogs, Athabaskan native preparing fish on the slab, just your normal everyday life in Alaska.

Eventually we stopped at a native village, well, a make believe village, most ingeniously called “ Chena Indian Village”. Here we were further educated on animal skins and clothing by Dixie Alexander an Athabascan native, as well as on the fine science of dog mushing (sledding).

By the way the dogs were exceptionally friendly, inquisitive, playful and affectionate. And, coming from me that is a real praise. As you all know, I am a cat person!

In the afternoon we had more education in store for us. This time we visited Gold Dredge No 8., a true representative of a bygone era. We had miner style lunch with the long tables and benches, kettles of stew, baskets of bread and fantastic little packets of honey. Here too we were encouraged to try our luck at panning for gold, and once again with about the same success that we had at the trapper’s camp in Denali. But here they actually weighted our treasure and gave us the price of our toils. My findings were about a whopping figure of five dollars worth!

We closed our memorable day with drinks at the hotel’s bar in the company of Suzie.