Day 3 - On to the Denali Princess Lodge

Thursday, May 19, 2016
As my previous blog mentioned, this morning started out poorly.  But we were finally able to do what we most wanted on the computer and now it is now.

We met our group of 8 at 9:00 am for breakfast at 20,320,

yes that is the name of the restaurant.

It is named after the height of Denali which we have not been able to see due to the rain and very heavy skies.  Following breakfast, we returned to our lodge 18 for our carry on luggage and took it over to the main lodge to be stored till it was time to leave on a bus at 2:00.

Lots of other people had done the same so the place was quite busy with people eating breakfast at the little cafe, enjoying the fire in the huge fireplace,

playing games at the many provided tables, visiting the gift shop, listening to the piano music,

working on a provided computer

or on smart phones,

and sitting in the viewing chairs hoping the rain clouds would life and they would be able to see the range of the Alaskan mountains including Denali (that being the main reason people want to come here).

Ken and I went back along the trail we had followed with the naturalist yesterday to take a few pictures of some of the things we saw including this intriguing lichen that tends to look like Spanish moss that is seen in so many trees in the south.

It, however, is green so was even a little harder to see when drapped over branches in evergreens. Forget-me-nots are the Alaskan flower and were in bloom on one hillside right close to the lodge. There were even a few pink ones but mostly they are blue.

This devil's paw is a wicked looking plant that made me think of hot air balloons because of its shape.  It is full of tiny needles and poisonous so nothing you'd ever want to get close to.

The Tamarack tree looks like a short needle pine till you touch it. The needles are very very soft with lots of little cones along them - male cones.  Larger ones stand up on the branches and are the females. The tree itself is deciduous!!! It loses all of its needles in the winter and grows new ones each spring.

There are lots of statues around the grounds so I had fun taking photos of them as well.  They were of the various animals that can be found in the area such as these wolves,

black bears,

moose,

eagles,

dall rams,

and grizzlies.

David took me on another geocashe hunt that took us out by a pretty waterfall and stream with a bear holding a fish in its mouth.

They were actually clues as to where to look that also included a little bridge over the tiny stream.  It was in a magnetic key box

put under the metal rail on the bridge.

There are all kinds of places to sit and just enjoy what is suppose to be a fabulous view BUT all we see are rain and clouds.

But about an hour before we were due to leave the clouds started to disappear and we began to discover the fabulous view out the windows and off the deck

This sign on the deck rail gave a picture and diagramed list of names for the various peaks that we would be seeing on a good day.

We were then off for the 2 1/2 hour ride north to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.  The sun came out and we were treated to fabulous views of the the Alaskan Range of mountains on one side and Talkeetna Range on the other.  No matter where we looked it was beautiful though all of the trees did block out clear views.  We were lucky to have the second row of seats behind the driver so we could also see ahead. (Dead mosquitoes eventually made it tough to get a decent picture out that window) 

Our driver taught us a way to remember the 5 kinds of salmon that can be found in Alaska by using the fingers on our hand. The thumb is CHUM, the pointer is SOCKEYE or RED (cause you can poke someone in the eye with it), the middle finger is KING cause it is the longest, the ring finger is SILVER (cause you often have a silver ring on it), the little finger is PINK (for your pinkie).  

At one point the driver pulled over into a viewing area and we were able to get out and take a picture while standing still and not through a window.  WOW!!!!

We were lucky to get Lodge K which is right behind the main lodge. 

And once we were all into our rooms, we regathered to go to the Grizzly Bar and Grill for an early supper.

Out the windows was a large deck overlooking the Neana River

The other six went on the trip to see the Jeff King sled dog complex that we had visited back in 2009 so we were on our own to take a walk along the upper path looking down on the river and check out some of the shops and other haunts in the complex (check out some of the many red roofs of over 20 buildings)

before returning to our room, fighting a bit more with the computer and then calling it a night.