Sep 10, 2012 - Talkeetna, AK

We arrived in Talkeetna on Saturday afternoon. Found a campsite near the railroad tracks. The Alaska Railroad has been our constant companion since leaving Fairbanks. The locals refer to it has the cattle cars - day after day disgorging tourists into their tiny towns for just long enough for them to buy the place out and leave again - until another train shows up an hour later. I have to say the train is very attractive with it's shiny cars all painted up with rapt faces in the windows being awed by the scenery, cameras clicking away. I...

Aug 17, 2012 - Devil's Canyon

Rivers abound in Alaska. After all that snow and all those glaciers, there's all that melting. Rivers that are composed of glacial melt have a special look - the finely ground rock that the glaciers scrape as they move is suspended in the water and makes them appear milky. As the glacial flour piles up, it begins to dam up the rivers and new rivulets are formed as alternate routes. Locals call these braided rivers; that's how they look from the air. In October freezing temperatures will stop the glaciers from melting and all the rivers will...

Aug 16, 2012 - searching for Denali

Talkeeetna is busy place until July 4 since it is the spot where crazy mountain climbers gather and get flown to the first base camp on their way to summit Denali, the highest mountain in North America. Only six climbers died here this summer. After July 4 the glaciers begin to melt and it gets too dangerous to climb to the summit. From my perspective climbing Denali is always too dangerous, but then no one asked me. When we came to Alaska in 1989 the weather was much, much better than it has been this summer, but even then we never saw...

Aug 9, 2012 - Talkeetna

Talkeetna has become a good tourist town. It is also the starting point for the people who climb Denali. On clear days, you get a good view of the Alaska mountain range from the south if you go down to the river including Denali or Mt McKinley. The state of Alaska refers to the mountain as Denali which is the native name and the US Park Service uses the name given the highest mountain in North American as Mt McKinley. Jet boat tours are popular and we toured a re-created fishing village as well as a trappers cabin.

Jul 20, 2012 - Talkeetna Spur, AK

Fri, 20 Jul: We are boondocking at the Talkeetna/Denali Visitor's Center at the junction of the Parks Highway and the Talkeetna Spur. We departed the Big Bear RV Park in Wasilla after dumping the waste tanks and topping off our potable water. We also topped off our propane tank as it was convenient (convenient does not equal inexpensive!) Then we stopped at a nearby Shell station to top off the diesel. We took the Parks Highway north through Wasilla and Willow to the Talkeetna Spur junction. We have two nites to kill as there are no spots...

Jul 13, 2012 - Talkeetna and Beyond

After saying our goodbyes to the Behr's and the Gray's and stopping at the septic dump, we left Denali National Park and turned south. After several stops along the way, where we took more pictures of Denali, we reached the junction of the Parks Highway and the Talkeetna Spur. Mind you it was only about 180 miles that we traveled but it took us about 6 hours-about twice as ling as it should have! At the junction was a small visitor's center for Talkeetna. We had subscribed to Day's End which is a listing of boondocking sights around the US...

Jul 10, 2012 - Flightseeing

7-10 Cloudy And 50 Degrees What a wonderful day! …I’m getting to that! We had a slight disappointment this morning, but it was not unexpected. This is the first place we have been where it has been late enough in the season to catch a salmon run in one of the creeks. Unfortunately, there was no run this year. It was King salmon time (there are 5 types of salmon), and they may have another kind later in July. The King salmon have been overfished in the ocean and there are not enough to make it this far. We drove about 15 miles to a...

Jul 9, 2012 - 7-8, 7-9 Talkeetna

7-8, 7-9 63 Miles Talkeetna Before leaving Denali State Park, we checked out both the North and the South Campgrounds that have views of Denali, but the clouds were even thicker than they were yesterday. We also made a stop to see the Alaska War Memorial that was near our campground before packing up and leaving. How fast can a scared black bear run? Very fast! We were on our way back to our campground with 4 of us in our truck when a black bear ran out into our path at the same time a large vehicle was coming around the bend from the other...

Jul 9, 2012 - Mt. McKinley / Denali

This morning looked promising for a flight around Mt. McKinley so I had coffee, got ready, and left for the Talkeetna Air Taxi office at 07:35AM. I could see the mountain when I left the RV Park and hoped I could change my 14:00PM flight to one at 08:30AM. Luckily, they said they had an opening. We departed on an "Otter" plane at 08:30AM. I was lucky and got the co-pilot seat and the views were just spectacular. Our pilot Will was great. No turbulence. We flew around the mountain and saw it from all sides. We then landed at Don Sheldon...

Jul 8, 2012 - Talkeetna

It rained all night finally stopping about 06:30AM this morning. Looks like there might be a break in the clouds to the northeast. I left the RV at 09:00AM for the Talkeetna Air Taxi office for my flight around Mt. McKinley and glacier landing. They told me the weather was not cooperating and to come back at 10:30AM to see what the flights look like. I drove out to the city park on the river. Talkeetna is located at the confluence of the Susitna, Chulitna, and Talkeetna Rivers. The water was really swift. While there, a tour boat with no...

Jul 7, 2012 - Talkeetna, Alaska

I left Denali RV Park and Motel at 07:45AM. Temperatures were in the low 50’s with lots of clouds. The weather got worse and the clouds were low and thick. There was no view of Mt. McKinley at any of the rest stops along Alaska Highway 3 south. I stopped at the Alaska Veterans Memorial for 15 minutes for some pictures. The weather got worse and there was light rain all the way to Talkeetna. I arrived at Talkeetna Camper Park at 11:05AM. 50amp E/W/S. In the tress so satellite Internet and DirecTV would not work. The Park Wi-Fi was weak and I...

Jun 22, 2012 - Talkeetna, Alaska

This was an incredibly beautiful day from start to finish. The Princess Shuttle took us from McKinley Princess Lodge to the village of Talkeetna. We walked through “downtown” to the riverfront – wet from recent flooding – and crossed a creek on very small logs to the “beach” beside the Susitna River, where we saw beautiful views of Mt. McKinley, lovely wild roses, and the Talkeetna River flowing into the Susitna, both in flood stage. “Talkeetna,” by the way, is an Indian word that means, appropriately enough, “where the rivers meet.”...