June 24 and 25--Independence Mine to Talkeetna to Byers Lake

---

Friday, June 24, 2011 9:13 55 degrees with high clouds mostly clear, sunny and warm. 10401 starting mileage today.

Continued our drive down the mountain looking at the wild flowers blooming on the side of the road. A couple miles from where we camped, we found Jim, Diane, and their dog Rocky, , camped at the lower campground. Disappointed we didn’t camp together, as we enjoy their company. Talked with them for a bit and then continued on down the mountain and turned at the fork onto Fishhook-Wasilla Road. Obviously, Fishhook was once a community, but we didn’t see evidence of one.

Came to the small, unattractive, community of Wasilla, which is mostly spread along the Parks Highway and found a place to have our toenails cut. Hadn’t had them cut since we left home and mine were beginning to hurt. I just can’t get in the right position to cut them myself anymore. Interesting that all the operators were Vietnamese men, instead of the usual Vietnamese women that do most of the nails in the Atlanta area.

We then looked for the library to do a bit of internet work. What a small, ugly, outside paint peeling building. To use the internet you had to sign up, we had our own computers, and then you had ONLY one hour, no exceptions. Other libraries we had been in, in Homer and Seward, you could be on line all day as far as they were concerned. Valerie ran out of time as she is working on a project besides trying to upload stuff for this blog.

Left there and went down the street to a Carrs Grocery Store, which is part of the Safeway Store family. Bought lunch at their deli and then sat in the café area to eat it and stayed long enough for Valerie to continue on with her internet work using their wifi connection. Bought a couple of items, can’t remember what, but their prices are higher than most other grocery stores here, we have found.

We had planned to camp at Willow Creek State Park which was just up the road a piece. Actually, paid at the park entrance but found it to be “combat camping” as the fishermen were out in droves and this was one of these parks that you “camp” in the parking lot and have your tents and stuff on the other side of the curb. Asked for our money back, as picturesque it wasn’t!!!

So, drove on to the next Park listed in our guidebook, which was Montana Creek. It was just plain ugly, with camping spots in the dirt, deep in the trees, with no real developed sites nor any real “view” of anything other than other campers. So, got out the map and decided to drive to town of Talkeetna, which was off the Parks Highway on a spur road. This town is the starting point for any hikers who wish to climb Mount McKinley. They need to register at this ranger station and flights leave here to take you to the usual trail starting point on a glacier at 7,000 feet.

Remember, that I said, at the beginning of this narrative, that it was a clearish day. Well, as we came down the road, toward the town, there in front of us, was the whole Alaska Range with Mount McKinley front and center!!!! There was a pull out for the view and we pulled out. What a breathtaking sight!!!! We didn’t realize how rare a sight it was, as only 30% of the days of summer can you see the mountains at all. Many in our group never saw them because they were a day behind or ahead of us. Just great luck on our part that we kept going and hit it just right---we never saw it again, at the several points along the road to Denali Park, that you can see them. Nor, did we see it from within the park at the Eielson Visitor’s Center, which sits on the side of a mountain and looks straight out at them.

We found a campground near the airport and found lots of RTs there also. One couple had gone on a flight that day and was so pleased that it was clear. The people who were scheduled to fly over the mountains the next day had the flight cancelled because of the cloud cover and rain. This private campground, near the airport, on the Talkeetna River, was absolutely full of blowing cotton off the cottonwood trees.

Saturday, June 25, 2011 Talkeetna River Campground. Rain and 55 degrees.

We drove into the cute, neat, little town of Talkeetna to look around. All the shops and businesses are in small peeled-log cabins. In front of most buildings, sat a decorative moose painted in various styles and colors. Most of them are plywood cut-outs, but some are more elaborately made and are more moose-like. We wondered if they had had some sort of contest or were like the painted cows and bears that we have seen, done to raise money for charity.

Looked in a few of the shops and then headed north on up the Parks Road toward Denali Park. Since we were still running a few days early, we decided to call the 1-800 number and see if we could arrive 2 days earlier than our original plan. We knew the National Park would have things to do and would be a “good” campground. They could give us one day, but not two, so we drove to Byer’s Lake State Park by lunchtime and called it a day. Not raining and thankfully no cottonwood fiber filled the air.

---

Comments

[Wendell]

photos
Really nice shots of Mt. McKinley