Our trip from Denali to Anchorage was aboard the Alaska Railroad. The bi-level, glass-domed McKinley Explorer cars were perfect for viewing the extraordinary landscape of Alaska.
The Alaska Railroad’s routes are entirely contained in Alaska and the railroad carries both passengers and freight. While the railroad depends heavily on tourism, inland residents of Alaska depend on the Alaska Railroad for supplies and transportation. But our experience is as passengers, so we’ll focus on that.
This is not your average passenger train. The lower level is the dining car and, from our experience, the food is quite good. The upper deck is glass-domed, which gives the passengers great views of the passing landscape. There’s a full-service bar on each passenger car. Here’s a view of the beautiful yellow and blue engine from the passenger car.
The trip was around eight hours and we passed through some beautiful country. Inland Alaska is sparsely populated, so much of what we passed was wilderness. We never tired of watching the mountains, forests and rivers pass by.
One of the highlights of the trip was Denali. Few visitors to Alaska get to see the Tall One. Denali spends most of its time hiding behind banks of clouds that hide it from most people. We among the fortune few. The weather was perfect, with few clouds. Denali was in sight from the train for over an hour.
Denali was the icing on the cake. The rest of the trip to Anchorage was pretty uneventful and relaxing. Each car had a guide who pointed out interesting facts and, in general, kept us entertained. We enjoyed a nice lunch, a drink or two, and a beautiful journey. Soon we would reach our last stop on our Alaska journey, Anchorage.
Mostly True 