Tuesday June 12. So we arrived in Anchorage at 8pm (from Glacier Bay), picked up our hire car and drove to the Sheraton where we had booked a one night stay on award points. We checked-in and when to the hotel dining room looking for a quick light dinner which proved to be a challenge. The whole thing was something of a disaster - we left a message with the hotel manager to call us - at this stage we're still waiting.
Wednesday June 13.
Nevertheless, after a somewhat restless night we got up early and went back to the dining room for breakfast - it was packed (with tour groups) so we opted for a coffee, juice and a shared pastry in the lobby's take-away coffee shop - a much faster and cheaper option. We headed off to Denali around 8am in our hire car - it was a rainy and cold day so things could only get better. We arrived at the Denali Bluffs Hotel around midday - checked-in and rushed off to find a quick bite to eat as we had a 1:30pm heli-tour booked and the weather had fined up.
Our heli-tour with Era Helicopters was sensational - we had a glacier landing, walked around for 15 minutes then flew back - all-in-all over 1h 15m - totally great - in brilliant sunshine.
We got back to our hotel and at this stage could move into our room which had not been ready when we checked-in earlier. The Denali Bluffs turned out to be pretty ordinary - could use a makeover. All we could see from our "view" room, which we had paid extra for, was a large spruce tree. We went to Denali's most famous restaurant for dinner, the Salmon Bake, and had a great meal (Dieter had halibut and I had Alaskan king crab legs) and a great time. Then it was off to bed for some well deserved sleep.
Thursday June 14.
We got up very early for our all day Denali park trip - 6:15am-5:15pm - what an ordeal !!! You travel on old school busses over winding mountainous gravel roads hoping to see wildlife and of course the "mighty mountain" - Mt Mckinley. We lucked out with the weather and had a mostly sunny day so we saw the mountain in all it's glory. Wildlife was a bit sparse but we did spot our first moose driving into the park then on the bus we saw another moose right along side the bus - as we progressed we saw brown (grizzly) bears, moose, dall sheep and caribou as well as bald eagles. One of the highlights was just before getting back the depot we saw a grizzly right beside our bus as well as 2 moose very close by. We were ever so happy to get back to our crummy hotel, the Denali Bluffs where we had a very so-so meal in their restaurant - about a 1 or 2 out of 10).
Friday June 15.
A lazy start compared to Thursday - we did a 2 hour walk from the Denali Visitor's Center then had an early lunch at the Salmon Bake (again) before driving to Talkeetna. Out hotel, the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge was most impressive - we were extremely happy with the hotel and our room - a deluxe view room. We had a late lunch at the hotel before rushing off to our pre-booked jet boat tour (6pm-8:30pm). Before the tour we walked around the Talkeetna village which was extremely picturesque as well as hip-hop and happening. After the jet boat tour we a very late dinner at 9:30pm in the hotel bistro - an excellent meal.
Saturday June 16.
We again started off early with a scenic flight of Mt McKinley, with K2 Aviation on a Piper Cherokee 6. It was totally amazing - the mountain was in full sunshine. We swooped between the peaks and over the glaciers and saw the base camp for the Denali climbers - we later learned that 4 mountaineers died that night during their ascent. (Note - the following day we leaned that one of the K2 planes had made an emergency landing on the river bank the day before - all were saved but it was a very close call - not sure if I would have made this flight had I known this).
Back at the our hotel, I did a quick load of laundry then we had a quick lunch before heading off on our 4-hour rafting trip. This trip was on one of the local glacier rivers and required a 1 hour drive to get to the start but ended up back in Talkeetna village - the highlight of the rafting was the majestic views of the mighty Mt Mckinley as well getting grounded at one point (some of our passengers helped the guide push us off).
Back at the lodge we spent another wonderful sunny evening admiring the Denali views, the sunset and having an excellent dinner at the lodge.
Sunday June 17.
Onto to Seward - we got up early, had breakfast at the lodge then made the very scenic drive to our hotel in Seward, the Holiday Inn Express.