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Introduction
Part of our holiday included a six day land tour from Seward to Denali National Park during the period 9th - 15th July 2004.
Day 3 (Anchorage to Denali Park)
Another early start to the day, 07:30 short coach ride from the hotel to the Anchorage Rail Depot. Here we board one of two Celebrity rail coaches forming part of a passenger train whose final destignation is Fairbanks. Our 3.5 hour journey took us as far as the town of Talkeetna, some 115 miles from Anchorage, from where our coach driver Wade would meet us with motor coach.
 The Wilderness Express as it is known is, I guess, Alaska's answer to the Canadian Rocky Mountaineer. Made up of rolling stock from the official state run railway and travel companies such as Holland-America and Celebrity, the train was hauled by Alaskan Railroad locomotives.
I didn't get chance to see the standard of the other coaches, but it was clear the Celebrity two floor railcoach stood out from the rest of the train by size and logo alone. After boarding the coach we climbed a tight spiral staircase to the upper floor seating area, which had a bar and large picture windows that enabled you to see both sides of the train easily from any of the superb large leather seats.
By 08:15 the train set off with most of my fellow travellers opting to take the first breakfast sitting in the well appointed and laid out restaurant situated on the lower floor. This gave me a chance to sample a couple of excellent spicy Bloody Mary's which set me nicely up for the later breakfast! This form of transport can only be described as luxurious as the train meandered towards Talkeetna taking in some lovely scenery and getting our first glimpse of Denali Park and Mount McKinley in the distance.
Around midday we joined the motor coach and travelled north to the Denali Park Resorts at Healy along the George Parks Highway (3), stopping off for two photo opportunities, singing 60's songs, chating, listnening to Jesse's commentary and viewing the Alaska Range and Nenana River along the way.
Lynn and I spent that evening exploring a very small part of the Denali National Park in the back of a covered wagon drawn by two draft horses, another mode of transport for us, albeit with the challenge to keep down that nights dinner as we wandered and bumped our way through the forest!
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