Yesterday I spent nine hours on a train!

The Alaska Railroad begins in Seward on the South coast and travels north to Fairbanks. I say north, but technically Fairbanks is pretty much in the middle of the state! The railroad was completed on 15 July 1923.

On arrival at Talkeetna station yesterday morning I thought I’d ask abut an upgrade to Gold Glass (oooh) and I am so glad I did. The pin badge alone was exciting, never mind the endless soft drinks, two alcoholic drinks (another two if you got one with both your lunch & dinner), the aforementioned meals, an outdoor area at the back of the carriage and a glass domed carriage – so cool!

There was commentary at certain points which was helpful, and would have been even more so if the other passengers actually just shut up and listened!

On arrival at Denali, everyone else in my carriage got off. Every single person. So for the next four hours on the train, I had the whole carriage all to myself. One of the staff did ask if I’d like to move to the other gold class carriage which was busier. You can imagine what my answer was! I very much enjoyed my platinum class experience!

During the journey I was looking left and right looking for wildlife. I saw a couple of Peregrine Falcons whose nest was on a telegraph pole relatively close to the train line! Apparently some folk saw a beaver, must have been when the train was going very slowly 😉 but the most glorious animals I saw were moose. There was the odd few here and there, I saw back legs more that once disappearing into the trees but, the most splendid sighting was when I had the carriage to myself sitting right at the front and saw a mamma moose and her baby emerging from the river. It was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. I didn’t get my camera/video, because in that moment I knew I would have missed seeing the water just flowing off the back of mamma moose and the wee one just appeared right at the back of her. Most of the rivers in Alaska look cloudy because they are fed from the glaciers, but the Delta Clearwater River is, as it says, clear which is why I was so lucky to see the moose emerging – a very special moment indeed!

I had a quick wander round Fairbanks last night, I think it was about 2230 and the sun was still out! Sunrise this morning was 0343 and sunset tonight is at 0010. Wow!