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Train to Denali
We left at 7:00 on the McKinley Explorer - a domed train to Denali National Park and arrived at noon. While there we went to the visitors center, had lunch and scoped out the souvenir shop. There is so much to see that we made reservations for camping in the park and taking a guided bus tour on Monday. At 4 in the afternoon we caught the return train to Fairbanks. The train had tour guides telling about what we saw along the way.
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Domed Rail Car
Inside of the train were two levels -the top was the dome and the bottom was a restaurant. There was a bartender on every car.
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Rapids
The train ran along the river where we saw a number of rafters in the rapids.
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Nenana
In Nenana, they have a tradition of wagering when the river will thaw in the spring. They set a tripod on the river with a cable connected to a clock. When the ice breaks up the cable is pulled and stops the clock telling them the exact time of the breakup. The winner last year got approx. $300,000.
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Fairy
The town of Fairy is divided by the river and train tracks. If the locals wanted to go to the other side it was about 20 miles by road. Therefore, they used the train bridge as a shortcut for their ATV's until the railroad got a court order stopping them. Since then the locals have an annual tradition of "mooning" the train each July 4th.
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Sourdough Cabin
Log cabins were built by miners and prospectors to shelter them from the elements. The men were called sourdoughs because they ate sourdough bread and often smelled of sourdough.
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View from the train
The train followed the edge of the canyon walls often above the river.
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