Day 10 - Monday - 09/02/24 - Denali to Anchorage by Train

 Once again I was up early in order to put our checked luggage out for pickup to xe transported  by truck to Anchorage while we do the trip xy train.  We dressed and got ready for the day and caught a shuttle up to the McKinley Chalet which was our meeting point for the HAL bus shuttle to the nearby train depot.  With our food voucher, we purchased some breakfast items and saved one coupon for possible use on the train.  


At 8:30am we boarded our shuttle bus to the train depot and boarded the Kenai HAL train car.  The very nice observation cars are owned y HAL and/or Princess. This day we were on a HAL car in seats 11a and b,  It was near freezing when we left and the fall colors were once again on display as we traveled south.  It was also a very clear day and Denali was in full view unlike the previous day where it was clouded over.


We sat in our seats and enjoyed the views and the narration by Matt our car guide.  We signed up for a late lunch and enjoyed it with Laura, a single lady traveling the world on her own.  We made a stop in Talkeetna to disembark and embark Princess passengers.  Just beyond Talkeetna we observed a yellow van that had been swept into the river.  During the trip we also used siding tracks to allow northbound trains to pass. Approaching Anchorage, Matt pointed out a couple of Eagle nests which was useful on our bingo cards.  I also spotted an airplane on skis at the Wasilla airport which was a hard item to find.


At Anchorage we were dropped off at the Westmark where we easily found our room.  We dropped off our things (our luggage made it before us) and headed out to walk the town and find the rental car office and our next night's hotel.  We found both of those and then enjoyed a reindeer dog in the park behind the convention center before retuning to our room for our sleep.


Tomorrow the plan is to pick up the rental car and drive down 4.5 hours to Homer and have lunch. 

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