Denali park

A lot has changed from 20 years ago, when the only hotel was the princess lodge and the train let you off across the street from it. But I was incredibly impressed with the way they move people through here. It was a lot like Disneyland.


We got off the train and found the bus with the McKinley chalet sign on it. Our luggage was later taken directly from the train to our hotel. As we boarded the bus we gave them our luggage claim tickets so they could match them up. About 10 minutes later we were in line to check in, collecting the keys to our 3 rooms in building L. We have to walk down a steep hill to get to our building, which is essentially 8 hotel rooms. But we lucked out Because a lot of the buildings are further away than ours. The hotel runs a shuttle bus but we found it quicker to walk on our own.


After getting settled and chasing down a missing suitcase, we made our way across the street to check out the trinket shops. Chuck took a hike on his own during our shopping excursion. The boys spent their dollars on goofy things such as mood rings, dinosaur poop fossils and a hat/mitten combo that looks like a moose (Grady wore it all day). Mom and I enjoyed browsing through a fur shop that had some amazingly beautiful coats and jackets. I ended up picking up a little something  for Steve that cared a lot of laughs later in the eveninVg.