Day 20 & 21, Talkeetna & Mt McKinley

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We left Denali Nat’l Park about 10 Friday morning & drove 155 miles down the Parks Highway to Talkeetna Camper Park. We had many miles of road construction on the way, which delayed us about 1/2 hour. The Milepost mentioned many scenic viewpoints of the Alaska Range, including Mt McKinley, along the route, but with the rain & low clouds, no mountain peak views for us. Of course, it had to rain through the road construction area; our rig is really dirty & there is no car wash in Talkeetna, not even a garden hose at the gas station! Nearest wash is 70 miles, at Wasilla, so that will be on our agenda Monday morning as we drive south to Palmer, which is just northeast of Anchorage. Talkeetna reminds us of Dorset, MN, on steroids! We cannot believe the number of people here wandering through the shops & eating at the local establishments. It is a small town of 800 residents, with 1000 tourists walking around! The cruise lines that cruise the inside passage, line up day trips to view Mt. McKinley via tour bus & train. Apparently, they stop here & then continue on to Denali Nat’l Park. We ate at a really good pizza place, Mountain High Pizza Pie, last night & enjoyed an Alaska craft brew, blueberry Hefeweizen, which is brewed right here in town at The Denali Brewing Company. Now on to today’s excitement! We had a flight seeing tour of Mt McKinley scheduled with glacier landing at 8:30 this morning with Talkeetna Air Taxi. The weather was “iffy” this morning so it was rescheduled for 2:30 this afternoon. It was an amazing trip even though Mt. McKinley was under the clouds, again, but we did get a couple peeks at the summit. To say it is magnificent is an understatement. Our pilot, Tom, did a good job narrating along the route. The entire trip was about 2 hours in length. It was really cool to walk on Ruth Glacier, which is 3800 feet thick & it is 40 miles in length. We were at 5000 feet elevation; very fun😊 The plane we flew in was a Beaver & held 5 passengers along with the pilot. While we were on the glacier, a thunderstorm popped up & Tom had to fly us around it. After supper tonight, we went to get a few groceries & to fill the pickup with fuel. We stopped along the route to view the mountains & again, Mt McKinley is partially hidden behind the clouds, but this is the best shot we have had at it so far. We are hoping for a better view before we leave the area Monday morning.

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Comments

[Kathy]

Wow
Once again your pictures are beautiful! I think I would have had a problem getting on that little plane! But I'm sure you had a fantastic day and the site looked awesome !!! ?