So far during my Alaska trip I've visited a glacier, seen a huge oil pipeline, climbed aboard a gold Dredge and froze in an ice museum.
Sadly after 3 weeks of being here the trip was drawing to a close, but there was one more adventure to go on.
A day trip to Denali national Park. However rather than using the trusty Chrysler Pacifica, I was going to travel in style aboard the Alaska railroad.
The full journey was an 8 hour trip from Fairbanks to Anchorage, but the plan was to hop off at Denali and spend a few hours there before getting a ride back to Fairbanks.
The Gold star experience entitled me to sit on the top floor of a double decker carriage with a panoramic glass roof and balcony on the back of the carriage.
We were also given a breakfast of Reindeer sausage and two alcoholic drinks. I opted for a mimosa first, but once I started standing on the trains balcony I switched to an Irish coffee to warm me up.
The first couple of hours was spent passing through towns and heading closer and closer to the Denali mountains. For the most part the landscape was flat forest so I spent the time keeping my eyes peeled for wildlife. My holy grail to was spot a moose or bear.
The town of Nenana had this amazing looking bridge. We stopped in town for a few minutes to pick up more passengers before continuing.
Once we continued the journey we finally left civilization behind, my perseverance paid off and I was able to snap this bird of prey. #featheredfriends anyone know what it is?
After breakfast I spent pretty much the entirety of the rest of the journey standing on the balcony. I even had people asking how I wasn't getting too cold, (I think the Irish coffee helped!). After roughly 2 hours of travelling the train slowed down and the driver announced our approach to Denali. As time went on the views got better and better.
As the train navigated a corner into the canyon the landscape dramatically changed and suddenly I wasn't the only person on the balcony. Thankfully my stubbornness staying outside worked in giving me a good spot to continue taking unobscured pictures.
At this point the train slowed to a crawl, either to give us tourists a longer look at the views or because the track started to snake through the mountain valleys.
Eventually we reached Denali station and we departed for the next adventure of the day.
This train journey wasn't actually on my list of things to do while I was in Alaska and I accepted the invitation as a "what the heck, why not" kinda thing. But if anyone is visiting Alaska I 100% recommend taking this trip!
Join me again when I write about what we did once we arrived in Denali National Park, hopefully it doesn't take me another 3 months to get round to writing it!
All photos taken by me on a Oneplus 8 and Panasonic Lumix FZ1000
Wow! that looks so amazing! It gives a such a vibe of "the Snowpiercer" and I want more!
I wish I had gone on the trip as soon as I arrived. When we landed it was still - 12°c and would have looked just like Snowpiercer!
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The ship and the natural scenery are so beautiful.
That's definitely something I'd like to do as I'd like to see more of America but not cities and don't fancy driving.
Sadly the train network in the US is terrible everywhere else. Even this was a novelty, anyone commuting to Anchorage just drives.
Apparently a convertible car is the way to go if you attempt a road trip across the states, it's on my bucket list.
Ps thanks for the pinmapple prize!
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I envy you for having train tracks along these gorgeous sceneries. The one we have here got nothing but buildings. Nice photos!
an adventurous train journey. I understand that you like to photograph birds. good luck. Thanks for the article.