Eagles galore!

July 4

Mark and I stayed up late packing last night, and decided to sleep in. We’d had enough early mornings and needed a good night’s rest.

After an early lunch, we boarded our motor coach to the Mt. McKinley Lodge. The bus took us along a 120 mile road of beautiful Alaskan countryside. We saw a mountain that formerly housed a glacier, and a giant igloo (an unfinished hotel, not an ice igloo!). We saw rivers and trees, and Edra even spotted a moose. We crossed over a bridge with giant ravines below, sheer drops that were pretty scary.

We saw everything but Denali, which was clouded in today. Apparently, it even clouded in yesterday afternoon, reported Edra, who’d met a couple on the Natural History Tour after ours. They’d been disappointed to miss the mountain, and we were even more thankful for our clear day and amazing views of it.

After 2 ½ hours, we arrived at the Princess Mt. McKinley Lodge. Of course, it’s beautiful here. The lodge rests high above the Chulitna river (we learned that all river names named by the Athabascans end with the letter “A”). And it being the Fourth of July, there was a celebration.

We skipped the celebration, which turned out to be a parade of the lodge staff. This is the smallest lodge by far, and the number of staff reflected that.

It’s light all night long here, so there were no fireworks, but the staff did their best to put on a show. They passed out popcorn to the guests, then joined the parade, which consisted of floats sponsored by each lodge department – Maintenance, Food & Beverage, Housekeeping, Transportation, and Administration.

There was also a special guest appearance for the Grand Marshall –- Sarah Palin (OK, a Palin lookalike -– who I’m pretty sure was a mustached man!). Considering she resigned from her governorship today, it was an ironic choice for Grand Marshall.

The "big" parade

Our hotel was literally in the middle of nowhere, so we boarded the 4 o’clock shuttle to the nearest town, Talkeetna. The driver didn’t want to disrupt the parade, so he left as it came down the path -- our bus actually started off the parade. Guests could vote best float, so as we passed the parade viewers, we waved and shouted, “Vote for us!”

The shuttle took an hour to drive us to Talkeetna, a small town about two or three blocks long. It was a tiny little place with 400-800 permanent residents and today, a lot of cruise passengers passing through.

Edra in downtown Talkeetna

You could definitely tell the locals from the tourists. The locals seem to have a sense of humor.

The town was very festive, with celebrations all along the river bank. We checked out the view where the Chulitna, Susitna and another river converged. It was a pretty but rapidly moving river.

A local pub hosted our dinner. Most of us picked one of the two local specialties -– caribou or halibut. The halibut came in tacos or sandwiches, and was excellent. Bill ordered his caribou as a chili cheeseburger, which he proclaimed delicious. Wende and Mark enjoyed their caribou in chili, while Edra savored the caribou tacos. (I sampled the caribou tacos –- tasted like lean hamburger.)

Dinner was a bit rushed, because we had another activity planned –- a jet boat along the river. I was a little nervous at first, especially when another jet boat flipped around the corner past us really fast. But we had a great driver who really knew his way around the river, and my fear soon dissipated.

The boat stopped suddenly when someone shouted. Turns out they saw an eagle’s nest, complete with a parent eagle sitting in it (couldn’t tell if it was the mama or the daddy, but the naturalist said they take equal responsibility). It was the most fabulous thing ever to see that eagle sitting in the tree. Next to the moose, it was my favorite moment yet.

Until five minutes later, when we passed a sandbar with another eagle. This eagle was sitting on a log, and was super close! It was magnificent, and huge. We later saw it fly off over the river, its humongous wings powering it far across the river.

I just couldn’t believe our luck. We were sighting the most incredible animals!

We exited the boat for a small hike through the woods. Our guide took us to a replica of an Athabascan bivouac, complete with dried bear pelts hanging from the walls. He also explained how the Athabascans cooked over an open roasting pit, which we think looked a little like this:

That meat might be a little tough

He then led us to another encampment, with more animal pelts and a small smoking cabin. PETA representatives would blow a gasket if they saw even half the animal furs and skins we’ve seen this week.

Would've preferred to see a live caribou...

We also saw some new vegetation we hadn’t seen before: ferns.

They're quite tasty sauteed in butter and garlic

Specifically, fiddlehead ferns, which flourish here. They were gorgeous.

The mosquitoes were out in full force here. I killed a humongous skeeter in Denali, but here they were small, abundant and aggressive. It was 80 degrees outside, but I put on my fleece sweatshirt. I figured I’d rather be hot than all bitten up.

We returned to the boat and headed back to the docks. I was eager to see the eagle in the nest again, but it was in a different tree. Still marveling over the majestic birds, I exited the boat, and stepped on to the sand. Suddenly, a few of us spotted another eagle, right off the dock, just a few yards away. Some smaller birds were dive bombing it, trying to chase it away, but the eagle resisted them. It headed straight for us, then turned, and repeated the move two or three times. That eagle flew right over us, wings spread out. We couldn’t believe our luck.

Eagle!!!

Then it was back onto the shuttle and headed toward the Mt. McKinley lodge again. It was still light out when we arrived, though more of a dusky sunlight than the bright-as-noon sunlight we experienced in Fairbanks.

Sunset at the Mt. McKinley Lodge. That's about as dark as it gets.

The lodge has a huge deck and chairs pointed directly at Denali. Because of the haze, we could only make out the tip of the mountain, but we saw the surrounding mountain ranges, including the sawtooth range (aka the moose tooth range). It was a beautiful night, with a beautiful view, even if we didn’t see the whole mountain (though I doubt any view could top the one we had yesterday). We enjoyed the view for a long while, until the mosquitoes got the best of us. I was shocked when I walked into our room to put Mark to bed, and realized it was 11:39 p.m.!!! No wonder he was whining up at the lodge, I realized. Kid was three hours past his bedtime!

But it’s all good. Tomorrow we head toward Anchorage for a night, and then on to the ship. We met an older lady who said she’d been freezing all week, which was the polar opposite of our Alaska adventure so far. A middle ground would be nice, since it’ll be odd going from 85 degree weather to much colder climes. But I don’t care, I’m just thrilled to start the second leg of our journey. The land portion was more than I could’ve hoped for, and probably the only thing that could top it is a calving glacier.

I’m hoping to report on that soon enough!