EXCITEMENT
Only days before we’d been further to the south, at the Mount McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge in Trapper Creek, and there’d been scant sign of the mountain then.
The Wilderness Lodges, owned by Princess cruise line – hence the name – are the largest hotels in Alaska.
In the middle of nowhere, sprawling grounds house timber-clad blocks of bedrooms dotted around central restaurants, exhibition spaces and lounges with roaring open fires.
The rooms offer rustic comfort, albeit with all mod cons. There’s wi-fi in the public areas, but you can kiss your mobile phone signal goodbye up here. And that’s part of the attraction, the chance to get away from the routine, to relax in the best Mother Nature has to offer.
The McKinley Lodge has a new, and impressive, tree house from whence to watch for the mountain. It’s a bit of a trek uphill but the views from the balcony are stunning.
Cameras traced the building of the new attraction for an edition of TV’s Treehouse Masters (think Grand Designs with lumberjacks) and, during our visit, a golden eagle which had been nursed back to health was released into the wild from the tree house. It was an emotional moment.
At Denali, we meet Iditarod sled race veteran Jeff King, a local legend and winner of the gruelling event dubbed “the last great race on Earth”.
Each year, the husky-sled race crosses 1,000 miles of jagged mountain ranges, frozen river, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast. Temperatures are far below zero, visibility is a bonus, and mushers and dogs face long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs.
It runs from Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast. Jeff is still racing at the age of 61, and now faces competition from his own daughter, who’ll be taking him on this year.
“She’s good,” he says. “Is she as good as me? I hope not!”
He brings four adorable husky puppies to meet us in the Lodge lounge. We’re privileged to enjoy the private audience.
Visitors can meet the dogs at his Husky Homestead on a guided tour for which reservations are essential Our time at both lodges is comfortably laidback – bar the occasional adrenaline adventure outing, a minor earth tremor (did the Earth move for you, too?) and the appearance of the hauntingly beautiful Northern Lights on two nights of our stay. Food and wine in the restaurants are good, with salmon unsurprisingly high on the agenda.
But what’s it like when winter sets in? We’re on a Princess Cruises Land & Sea Vacation. We’ll shortly be leaving by train for the nine-hour journey to board the good ship Star Princess (more of which another day), for the last sailing south before the ice tightens its grip.
Denall Lodge general manager Bonnie Westlund says a skeleton staff remains behind during the long, cold, dark months before re-opening is possible.
“We gather in the lounge each year after all of our guests have departed,” she grins. “We put a big sheet up and we watch The Shining together.”
Only in Alaska. Jack Nicholson would be proud.