Blogs from Talkeetna, Alaska, United States, North America - page 2

What an amazing experience. We started the day with a walk from the hotel to the Alaska Railroad Depot, which was about three blocks away. It was a good walk and we saw our first bear! The bear statue was along our path to the depot. In the distance, I saw a building featuring a huge gold monogram of the letter G. Interesting, so we walked closer. It was a hotel and with all of the monogramming in my past, I never considered a monogrammed building. The small park and statue are to the west of the train depot, but we were well ahead of schedule and took some time to explore the immediate area. The Alaska Railroad train depot is small and has limited seating, but the staff was friendly and helpful. The check-in process ... read more

I got a little behind on postings... July 13...Another very early start...up in time to make a 7:30 am shuttle bus in Denali National Park. It's the only way to see the park. We had reserved the first shuttle out for an 8+ hour ride through the park to the Eilosen Visitor's Center which is 66 miles into the park. It's a large school bus in which the driver narrates along the way and stops when there's any animal sightings. The park is beautiful. We saw a moose along the road almost as soon as our ride started and later on we saw a few caribou, one up close. Others in the distance. The driver and many of the people on the bus said they saw bears and sheep but they weren't so visible to me. ... read more

Geo: 62.3239, -150.109 Finally! A beautiful, sunny morning, with clear, blue skies. We left our hotel in Fairbanks for Denali at 8:30, heading west on Hwy 3 along the Tanana River, with little or no traffic and temperatures in the 60's. After an hour we crossed over the river and turned south, thrilled at our first glimpse of Mt. McKinley surrounded by billowing clouds in the distance. Eventually we picked up the Kenana, continuing along the George Parks Hwy 3 towards Denali National Park. We hit some major road construction along the way, and found ourselves following a pilot truck for about 5 miles, at one point traveling in a caravan right behind an earth grader. Along the way we had to yield to the caravan led by the pilot car coming from the opposite direction ... read more

Just letting family/friends know I am in Talkeetna as scheduled. Denali NP was absolutely awesome!! I hope to get story and pictures out before I move on Sunday afternoon but we'll see how tomorrow goes. Right now, I am way too tired to post anything other than this quick note just so nobody gets concerned about not hearing anything. I included two pictures just so you know I was really there (sometimes I don't believe it myself). The first is much better represented by professionals taking this same shot from Reflection Pond. However I was there taking this one and that makes it the best Denali picture at the Reflection Pond that I will ever see ;) The other is explained in picture. It was a wonderful week but now simply have to do an early ... read more

We have another exciting adventure planned for today. At 8:00AM we drove over to Talkeetna Air Taxi at the Talkeetna Airport. Talkeetna Airport is the base for all flightseeing tours of Denali and also the base for climbers to be flown up to base camps where they start their climb of Mt. McKinley. Each year about1,200 people attempt to climb it. On June 16th, 4 Japanese climbers died climbing after hit by an avalanche. At 20,328 ft., Mt. McKinley is the highest mountain in North America. It is also considered to be the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak. According to Wikipedia: "McKinley has a summit elevation of 20,320 feet (6,194 m) above sea level, making it the highest peak in North America.url=http://en.wiki... read more