September 17th, 2006:

McKinley Lodge

huskyDay 9 – Today we are at the Lodge. Weather wasn’t great yesterday but much clearer today. That said we still can’t see the top of Mount McKinley/Denali which is 40 miles away. In a couple of hours we are going to an Iditarod dog sled camp – Kathryn is desperate to see some Husky puppies.

Hopefully we will get a chance to see the Northern Lights this evening – although it might mean being awake at 2am. The cloud yesterday certainly gave us no chance.

Mt McKinley

Mount McKinleyDay 8 – Today we left our ship behind and boarded the train for our long journey to Mount McKinley. The train took almost 6 hours and we had some fantastic views along the way. We eventually arrived at the lodge early this afternoon and although we have been having some rain, we had a lovely walk around the grounds. They were not kidding when they called this lodge a ‘wilderness lodge’… absolutely nothing nearby – the closest form of civilisation is an hour away by bus. Unfortunatly we have not been able to see the mountain due to mist/cloud, but hopefully we will see it tomorrow.

The people at the reception said that they have been seeing the northern lights from this lodge over the past couple of weeks, and said they will call us to let us know if its visible.. no matter what time it is!