This day had been secretly planned for a very long time as a special occasion for Barb.
At 9:30am we left the room and went to the little local
airstrip. It is not an airport as there
are no buildings there and it is just a one short landing strip next to the train
station.
There we were first fortunate to see a mother Moose and her
two babies come out of the bushes between the airstrip and the train tracks and
walk right towards us. It was amazing to
see something that close just walking around.
Then Barb went into the train terminal and Ed waited for an
old friend of Barbs family who used to live just north of us to arrive in his
plane.
At 10:00am Rick landed and walked over to the train station
while Barb was still inside. Ed went in
and told her there was another Moose and she came out and was totally, totally
surprised to see Rick standing there. It
was an amazing moment.
After catching up for a few minutes, Rick, in his two-seater
Piper Cub took Barb up for her first small plane ride for an hour or so and
Barb loved the ride and the experience of seeing Denali Park and the Mountain from
the air. The Rick took Ed up and both of
us had amazing flights around Denali.
When the flights were done, we took a cab into town, had a
late lunch and spend a lot of time talking about the time when Rick and his
family were in Merna. They lived just
north of us and Barb has known them since they were little kids. Rick is now 71!!
We then took Rick back to the airstrip and he flew home,
which was abut 2 hours away. We make
plans to hopefully meet Rick and his daughter Allison in Anchorage Monday or Tuesday
for dinner.
We walked across the road from the train station to a bus
stop within Denali Park where we bought tickets for a 4 ½ hour round trip into
the park as far as the road will let you.
We boarded the bus at 4:30pm and since it was one of the
last busses for the evening, there were only 2 other people on this big bus
with us. So, it was almost like hiring
your own personal tour guide.
During the trip, we saw some Mountain Goats, Cariboo and a
couple of Wolverines so it was eventful.
The view however was the real attraction, including Denali which
is the highest mountain in North America.
We were told that there have only been 5% of the people visiting the
park have seen the entire Denali Mountain without any clouds and we were so
trilled to see the mountain several times in all its beauty!
We arrived back at the hotel at 9:30pm, packed for tomorrow’s
trip to Anchorage on the train and finally went to sleep.
Night from Denali and tomorrow is Anchorage.
