Today was Jennah’s day, she was so excited to ride on the train. We rode on the Wilderness Express which is attached to the trains on the Alaska Railroad, but runs as a separate car. Once we found where to check in we were excited that while they allow 1 carry on, your bags are at your feet so whatever you can tolerate you can have with you. This was good since we knew the ride was almost 8 hours and wanted to have breakfast, lunch, and snacks with us on the train. We rode in the dome train, so we had a nice view of the sky and could look for birds and planes while riding. There is also a platform downstairs were we could stand outside and watch the world pass by. It was a little chilly outside, but a lot of fun standing outside and you could see the front of the train on the turns. We left Anchorage at about 8:15 am and arrive in Denali at 3:40pm.

We were picked up at the train station by the Denali Bluff’s Hotel. When you checked your luggage at the train station in Anchorage it was delivered to your hotel. When getting on the bus we were handed our room keys, a card with our tour information for Monday, and asked to put our name and room number on our luggage tags, so our bags could be delivered to our room. Once we arrived at the hotel we dropped off our carry ons and decided to take the short walk around the hotel. The hotel provides free shuttle service into town (it is about a 5 min away maybe) and to the visitor center for Denali National Park. We decided to walk down the hill and check out the town. It is mainly, hotels, restaurants, shops, and tour offices. We found the Salmon Bake and decided to have an early dinner. The place had just open for the evening (it was 5pm), so we had a lot of space which was nice. I had an Elk burger which was amazing. After eating we decided to walk around a little check out some shops and the town. Since we had to be up early the next day we wanted to try and go to sleep early.