Talkeetna, Alaska: Flight Seeing Denali From Talkeetna: A Little Preview Of Heaven

I had breakfast this morning at a small lodge just down the street from the Talkeetna Camper Park, our 'home' while we explore Talkeetna for the next few days. Dave & Mary Anne were leaving this am to go see friends in Palmer; Mary Lynn and I decided to stay and soak up the good vibes of Talkeetna for awhile.

One, we had already scheduled a flight seeing tour for this evening at 7 pm (more on that in a minute!) and two, there's a lot to see and do in this small town. Like a lot of small towns in Alaska Talkeetna caters to the tourists in its own kind of quirky way.

Many communities heavily dependant on tourists develop a kind of love/hate relationship that needs to be kept in check. On one hand locals hate to see so many visitors come into town since it risks changing the look and feel of a small community, the very essence that makes the town appealing to locals and tourists alike. On the other hand, locals love (and depend on) the money spent by the tourists. It's a real balancing act to develop the attractions & activities that brings in the tourists without letting the repetitiveness of the tourists and especially the tourist's unending questions/jokes. All of which the locals have heard a thousand times. And yet another discussion about about how vicious the mosquito's are in Alaska. Talkeetna appears to perform this balancing act as well as any town we've visited so far.

Anyhow, at breakfast, I looked up and there, right out the window was Mt McKinley in the distance, blindingly bright as the sun drenched it's snow covered mass, trying to throw off the clouds that normally hide it from view. Only about 60% was visible however this was more than I've seen so far. Wouldn't you know this was one of the few times I was without my camera?

In the five minutes it took for me to get back to the RV, get the camera and return to take a picture, the local clouds had blown in and covered the mountain completely. After all this time, the clouds that normally cover The Great One's slopes had cleared however the local (Talkeetna area) clouds were blocking the view. Go figure...

The rest of the day was spent fixing the washer/dryer, which needed to

have its lint traps and dryer hose cleaned. Sounds simple right? It took

four hours to complete a 20 minute

job. The design of our RV (and most RV's) crams as much 'stuff' as possible into the smallest space possible. Every inch is utilized.

Well, to get access to the back of the combo washer/dryer I had to remove

the toilet, which meant turning off the water and septic, sliding the w/d out and around. To get access to the dryer vent hose I had to take the living room TV off the wall so that a shelf below the TV could be removed. Oh yeah, I also had to take up the floor under the w/d.... What a trip! However it's typical of what happens when you work on your RV. Most repairs would be done in a jiffy if you didn't have to dissemble half the coach to get to your project.

Now here's the bad news. After spending four hours on this project the dryer is still not completely fixed. It's much better but still having a slight problem. Means I need to call the factory on Monday and start all over again. Bummer dude.

Let me tell you about the much more enjoyable part of my day. Mary Lynn and I took a flight seeing tour where we landed on Mt McKinley. Actually we landed on one of Mt KcKinley's six glaciers. This one is located in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon. The glacier ice we landed on is just over 4000 feet think and our elevation was 5000 feet. The peak of Mt McKinley towered over us; in fact it was another 15,000 feet to the top of the mountain. Our plane, a 10 passenger De Havilland Otter, was outfitted with a combination of skis & wheels that allowed us to take off on a runway, land and take-off on ice/snow, and then land on a runway when we returned home.

See the small dots on the picture below? Those are three airplanes that landed on the glacier just before we took off. We had the glacier & valley all to ourselves and then these three planes landed within minutes of each other. It was very cool to watch them land and then see them from the air after we took off. That's when it hit me just how massive the scale is in these mountains.

The sight of these massive mountain peaks and valleys is simply amazing. I took so many pictures I thought my finger would fall off.

Here's the best part. Four of the ten passengers wanted to fly up front in the co-pilot's seat so we decided to flip coins to determine the 'winners'. I won the coin toss for the return trip so I sat up front as we took off from the glacier. Wooow hoow!

It was just too cool; spectacular view of the glacier sliding faster and faster under the plane as you descend the glacier, bouncing all over the place, while you quickly gather speed and then suddenly -- swish -- a silky smooth ride as you circle this massive glacier valley to gain altitude.

I offered to take over the controls if the pilot needed a break. I explained I had left seat flying experience from my Combat USA flights where I fought 12 dogfights and flew a number of acrobatic maneuvers: emmelmans, split S's, barrel rolls, wing overs, etc. She was not as impressed with my two hours of flying experience as I had hoped... and declined my offer to help her fly the plane. I didn't want to fly anyhow...

There are several flight seeing tours to choose from -- we flew Talkeetna Air Taxi since we had a two-for-one coupon for their flight. Not all the flights land on the glacier so be sure to specify you want a glacier landing -- and trust me, you do want to land on the glacier. The views and the silence once the plane's motor was shut down made it very special.

You would not believe how many people build cabins beside a lake miles and miles from the nearest road. The only way to get yourself/supplies/building materials in and out is by snow machine in the winter or by plane. Don''t get me wrong; this part of Alaska is not crowded by any stretch. It just amazes me to see these cabins located in what most of us would label 'the middle of nowhere'.

The ride back was over all too quickly. In total we were gone about 90 minutes; probably spent about 20 minutes on the glacier. Very cool! MLA gave this trip to me for my birthday -- what a special lady. Thanks Hon!

Tomorrow we are scheduled to take a 3-4 hour jet boat ride and look for wildlife on three different rivers, tour an Native Indian village and a trapper's cabin.

I mentioned people building cabins. That's been going on up here forever. I enjoy looking at the construction of these cabins. I take pictures and examine every one I can, especially the inside. There is just such an amazing variety of log cabins in Alaska. Each one seems to have its own special flavor although most of the one's built in the early years have two things in common: almost all of them are small and dark, really dark. Usually they minimized windows in order to keep the cabin warmer, especially since glass was pretty hard to find and rarely used for cabins.

How small you ask? So small you have to go step outside to change your mind. Small enough that a man could sit on his bed while he cooked a meal on the stove. Many times these small cabins were shared by 2-4 men. Ouch.

BTW - Danielle, our pilot for our flight seeing trip was excellent. She's been flying for over 19 years, the last seven out of Talkeetna. She's convinced she has the best job in the world -- I couldn't agree with her more.

See Ya!