We got up and took the tour bus to the train station. The Holland America cars were taller than any other. We took our seats. They shortly called us downstairs for breakfast. We each ordered breakfast. I had a lovely French Toast with Reindeer sausage. This was accented by Moose Mary’s which were also very good. We crossed mostly swampland filled with Aspen, Birch, Spruce and Willow until we got to Nanana where we finally saw some civilization. They were already building the tripod for next year’s contest. South of Nanana there were forest fires that had actually caused the train to not be able to run just a few days ago. There was fire evidence on both sides of the track. On down near Clear we could see the new ABM facility off in the distance. I was surprised to see it west of the Parks highway. On down to Ferry where we crossed the Nanana river again and then on to Healy where the govt. spent many millions on a coal powered electric plant only to decide it was not cost effective due to insufficient demand because of low population density. After seeing the coal deposits in Healy we started up the canyon toward Denali. We could see rafters on the river which had some pretty good rapids in some places. We saw no wildlife of any kind. We pulled into the Denali station and departed for our Hotel (Denali Chalet). After checking in to our hotel we walked up to the Salmon Bake for lunch. I had a delightful Alaskan crab cake lunch and we walked back visiting many gift shops along the way. My mother bought us all Udu knifes and bowls. Mine was make with a walrus rib handle and an antique saw blade. The bowls were made by some guy who lived outside of Fairbanks with a solar powered lathe. We got back and went to the Airport for an evening fixed wing fly by of Denali. The sky was really clearing up and it looked to be a beautiful evening to fly. We flew in a Piper Navaho courtesy of Denali Air which was a twin prop with 10 seats. John flew in the copilot seat. It was my first flight from a gravel runway which had quite a different feel to it. The flight was bumpy and quite scary at times. At our maximum altitude we were still 1 ½ miles below the summit of Denali and it seemed that we barely skimmed over some high mountain passes which were always greeted by turbulence as we crossed the ridges. We did see a skid plane land at the base camp and we saw a few climbers on their way to the summit. There were supposedly 300 climbers on their way up. The fly by of the North Face was up close and personal. We came back to the airport and the gravel runway landing was even more fun. Back at the hotel we had a cocktail and then went to a local pizza place for dinner. It was after 10:00 when we got back and we were all grateful to see that the gift shop was finally closed.