Alaska 2026: Day 3 – Alaska Railroad to Denali (July 15, 2026)

July 15, 2026 – Alaska Railroad to Denali

Day 3 started very early with alarms at 5:30am and our luggage had to be packed and outside the room by 6:00am for transport to our next stop in Denali. Denali National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet so I was very excited to see it again.

We met Kate and Sara shortly after 6am and again grabbed breakfast in the Seasons Cafe. We all ordered hot drinks and a combination of scones and breakfast sandwiches. We then joined Papa and Claudean in the lobby for a few minutes while we enjoyed our breakfast.

Next we boarded our motor coach for the short drive to the Alaska Railroad Station in Fairbanks. Our bus driver David gave us the welcome and safety speech in a rhyme that sounded like The Night Before Christmas.

He then recited a poem he called “Cruising Alaska” which was very funny but a bit crude. Along the way he told us a little about the Alaska Railroad. It is the only railroad the federal government ever built that never made a profit prior to WWII. It was eventually sold for half of what it cost to build it to the state Alaska.

It now is used to transport petroleum, gravel, and coal for local power plants, including one at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (we saw this later). It is also the railway in the US to carry both freight and passengers.

Since we were on our way to Denali National Park, David explained that 13% of state of Alaska is National Park. Denali is the third largest in Alaska even though it is over 6 million acres or roughly the size of Massachusetts.

At the railway station, we were given our tickets and loaded into “A” car just before 8am for an 8:20am departure. It was a rainy day for most of the route southbound to Denali.

We got to briefly meet the conductor Grant and got a picture of him with the girls.

As we left the station, we saw coal and petroleum cars as well as a piggybacker used to lift semi trucks and rail cars on the train. As mentioned earlier we briefly saw the coal power plant at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as we were passing through town.

About 30 minutes after departure, we headed downstairs for second breakfast (like hobbits). Even though we road the train in 2017, we did not end up eating a meal, so this was a cool experience.

The breakfast was really good, and all of us tried reindeer sausage which was the best part of the meal. After breakfast I ended up spending a fair amount of time riding in the covered area between cars.

I had to do this in short spurts because it was very cold and windy. We saw a lot of burned trees from the frequent forest fires they have in northern Alaska due to the dry climate.

At one point back inside, I did spot a moose climbing out of a river but wasn’t fast enough to get a photo. The train ride to Denali took a little over four hours. The further south we traveled, the more the rain trailed off and we got a little blue sky with the sun peaking out.

As we entered Healy Canyon, the first thing we saw was the Golden Valley Electrical Plant. Next we began to take in the majesty of the canyon with the glacial Nenana river flowing through. This was breathtakingly beautiful from the train, and not something we got the experience in 2017.

While traveling through Healy, a Princess representative came into our car and gave us our room keys and information for our next two nights in Denali. We arrived at train station in the park and boarded our motor coach around 12:15pm. Onboard the bus we met our driver JR from Utah. He comes to Alaska every year mainly for his love of mountains and photography. Later we talked a little about gear, he shoots a Nikon D850, and he showed me one of his photos of Mount Denali, which was stunning.

Along the way to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, he told us a little about the area. One interesting thing is that the presence of people on this end of the park has driven away most of the bears and wolves which has increased the number of moose due to a lack of predators.

At the lodge, we found our rooms in building A along with Papa, Claudean, Ben, & Patsy. Then Olivia, Kate, Sara and I separated for the afternoon. We grabbed a quick snack in the General Store at the main lodge, and then boarded the 1:30pm shuttle to the Denali National Park Visitor Center with our driver Geoff.

After a quick visit to the gift shop we hiked from the Visitor Center to the Horseshoe Lake Trail. It was just over four miles in total (out and back) with about a 550’ drop to get to the lake. This area of the park is filled with spruce, pine, and birch trees.

Some of the spruce trees are dying due to a native spruce beetle. Periodically these dead trees are cut down, piled up, and then burned. On the trail we saw lots of these piles and could hear chainsaws.

We did this same hike in 2017 (minus the trek from the Visitor Center), and it was even more stunning today with beautiful blue sky and fluffy white clouds. The temps were in the mid 50s and very pleasant.

We made several stops for photos down the trail and around the lake.

We also stopped for photos by the Nenana River, which is on the boundary of the park.

One of the photo spots was near the start of the trail at an overlook for the lake. We all remembered that Sara called this spot a “death cliff” back in 2017 when she was 8-years-old (she admitted it was much less scary today).

At the lake there is an awesome beaver dam, and the water is crystal clear. It was so special to visit this place again.

After we made the climb back out and then to the Visitor Center, we took a few more moments to shop before boarding the shuttle back to our lodge. At the lodge, we met the rest of our crew for dinner in the King Salmon restaurant. For the second night in a row, I had a grilled sockeye salmon fillet, which was delicious. I think that sockeye is my favorite type of salmon if it is fresh and prepared properly.

While we were at dinner, the temperature dropped dramatically and it began to pour down rain. Thankfully, there was a lodge shuttle available to take us back to our cabin, which saved us from getting very wet on the walk back to our room. After saying goodnight to everyone, we got cleaned up from a busy day and turned in for the evening before 9pm. This is a very early bedtime for us, but we have to be up by 4:30am tomorrow to meet our tour back in Denali National Park & Preserve.