A Mountain That God Made
Our train leaves the Anchorage Depot this morning at 7:15 a.m. Alaska Time. Today we might see moose, black bear, brown bear, beaver lodges, lots of waterfowl, and possibly even a wolf between Anchorage and Denali!
We have one stop along our way in the village of Talkeetna, at the confluence of three rivers where the Dena’ina people once fished and traded. The Dena’ina are a subset of native Athabaskans. The name Talkeetna comes from the Athabaskan word meaning river of plenty.
Prospectors came to Talkeetna in the late 1890s when gold was discovered nearby. The village remained a supply town for miners until the 1940s. After that it was home to homesteaders, trappers, a few miners, and the men who built the railroad taking Ray and me there today.
After we leave Talkeetna, we are to cross what the tour itinerary bills as “the startling 918-foot Hurricane Gulch trestle, towering 296 feet above the creek below.” I want to look out the window. Really I do. “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”
If the day is clear, we should see Mt. McKinley, or Denali as it is known by native Alaskans.
We are to be delivered to our hotel in “the gentle lower slopes of Sugarloaf Mountain” by late afternoon. I was excited to learn that a native corporation based 430 miles away in an Alutiiq village owns the hotel.
On Saturday we have one item on our agenda–the thirteen-hour Kantishna Wilderness Trails Tour through Denali National Park. The National Park Service has tried to protect the Denali region and to keep it wild. Our wildlife bus excursion (which is a lot like a school bus) leaves our hotel at 6:30 a.m. and travels 95 miles to the end of the only road in Denali National Park and back again. We are hoping for clear weather for more views of Mt. McKinley, plus sightings of more bear and moose, plus caribou, foxes, and wolves. The tour folks said we should bring a camera with extra memory. Ray and I are bringing three cameras and both our phones. Do you think it will be enough? I’m sure my kids will think it won’t be enough for me.
On Sunday afternoon we plan to ride a bus back to Anchorage, which includes another stop with great views of the tallest mountain God made in North America.
The mountains rose; the valleys sank down
To the place which You established for them.
Psalm 104:8Â