Talkeetna, Alaska: Denali Wilderness Adventure Launchpad

Today, Thursday June 18, 2009 we drove south from Denali National Park to Talkeetna, Alaska. A relatively short trip of ~150 miles by road took us through some spectacular scenery. You get a little 'immune' to all of the splendor; it's simply one breathtaking vista after another.

Our drive was through both Denali National Park and Denali State Park. We stopped at several points along the way that, if the clouds & weather are cooperating, provide spectacular views of Denali's Mt McKinley.

Long story short is that the views, while breathtaking and spectacular, did not include a view of Mt McKinley. Despite the clear weather and copious amounts of sunshine locally, Mt McKinley was still hiding behind it's own blanket of clouds.

Yesterday, Mary Lynn and I spent time exploring the town located just outside the entrance to Denali National Park before joining Dave & Mary Anne for dinner. Over a fine dinner of hamburgers & salad (made all the more 'fine' because Dave was the one who had to dodge the mosquito's to grill the burgers), we compared notes on our explorations during the day and planned the next few stops of our trip south towards Anchorage and then into the Kenai.

Around 10:30 pm last night I wanted one more chance to see Denali:"The Great One" so I went to the Denali National Park and drove the Denali road. It stretches for 90 miles into the park however visitors are only allowed to drive the first 15 miles into the park. So that's what I did. I drove 15 miles in & then 15 miles out, all the while looking for Mt McKinley to show itself or for some wildlife to show itself.

Normally my nocturnal roaming pay off and I was hoping this would pay off as well. I did see more of Mt McKinley around the mile marker 9 pull-out. I sat for half an hour or so as the clouds swirled around both the north and south peaks of the mountain, teasing me with brief glimpses through thin veils of clouds. In the end it never fully revealed itself. I saw lots of Snowshoe Hares and birds but no moose or grizzlies.

Oh well. I was treated to the special Alaskan light that occurs just before the 1 am 'sunset'; the sunset itself was nice as well.

So tonight MLA told me she was giving me a Mt. McKinley flight seeing trip for my birthday, which is at the end of June. What a great gift! We are scheduled to fly to Mt McKinley tomorrow evening at 7pm. In addition to flying over several of McKinley's six glaciers we will get to land on one of the glaciers.

How cool is that? Land on a glacier and spend some time exploring/taking pictures plus get another chance to see "The Great One".

I am so excited I can hardly sit down to type/post this blog entry. The flight will last about an hour and a half.

Talkeetna is a pretty cool little village. Just about everything/everyone here caters to keeping the visiting tourists happy (and emptying their wallets).

In addition to flight seeing and glacier landings they have guided fishing, float plane fly-in fishing, jet boat wildlife tours, hiking, mountain climbing, river rafting, fishing in local lakes/rivers, dog sledding, bush pilot tours, kayaking, etc., etc.

You name it and they can make it happen here in Talkeetna. MLA and I went in search of a few groceries and found the historic downtown area of Talkeetna, which is entirely devoted to adventure trips, eateries, bars, etc. Very relaxed in Talkeetna; kind of a modern day Hippie village except people are very much focused on making money. They have to be; it's tough (and expensive) to live in Alaska.

Talkeetna is the launching center for the flights that take the mountain climbers to Mt. McKinley's base camp. Once at base camp, climbers spend several days 'acclimatizing' before beginning their attempt to ascend the mountain. Hopefully we'll be able to see a few of the climbers during our flight seeing trip tomorrow evening.

Hey, maybe I can get MLA a guided fishing trip for her birthday!

See Ya!