It was bags out at 7:00, meet at 8:15 this morning. We rode a bus the short distance to the train station at Denali National Park’s entrance and boarded Holland America’s McKinley Explorer double-decker car on the train to Anchorage.
The first segment of this rail line passes through Denali National Park via some narrow canyons, but it was raining and the clouds were very low, so we much of the scenery was not visible.
After leaving the park, the tracks follow a couple different rivers and things open up. We saw a few lonely-looking little cabins which may only be accessible via the river or the railroad.
Eventually we came out into the alluvial plain surrounding the Cook Inlet where we saw a moose, and then into “commuter communities” for Anchorage.
Finally we arrived in Anchorage and boarded a bus for the short trip to the Fairmark. Unfortunately some other buses beat us to it and there was no place to park, so we got a short “tour” of the center of the city, then we arrived. We had a room on the eighth floor and we could see down a couple streets.
After settling in we went to 49th State Brewery for dinner. My wife had a nitro stout that was nice but not exceptional. I had the Smoked Marzen which was, indeed, smokey and really nice with good caramel flavors. We ordered nachos and a “Sweet Baby Dall” pizza that was very tasty – reindeer sausage, caramelized garlic cloves, goat cheese, and a slightly sweet tomato sauce. Both were very tasty. Many of the pizzas were the same or similar to the Prospectors Pizza from a couple nights before, and my wife confirmed that there’s a relationship between the two locations. Then I had the Dubbel On Tundra which has a bit of birch syrup added – it was sweet for a beer, and perfect for me.