Talkeetna and Another Shot at Denali (08—8-14)

  After leaving Hatcher Pass, we drove north to the small town of Talkeetna.

Along the way we were teased with some glimpses of Mt. McKinley. Sometimes its hard to tell what’s cloud and what’s mountain. McKinley sits so far above the other mountains in this picture, that it looks like clouds.






Talkeetna is the jumping off point for people who want to climb or fly over Mt. McKinley. Climbers are flown from Talkeetna to a peak close to “the mountain” and they climb from there  The ranger’s station had a display comparing climbing back in the early 1900s and climbing today.

In 1951, climbing Mt. McKinley changed forever when Bradford Washburn successfully landed his plane on a glacier. Since then the time required to climb the mountain has been reduced from months to weeks.

Talkeetna is a small but active town, that in some ways hasn't changed much in the last 70 years or so.  There are quite a few restaurants and shops.  Since we had seen the mountain briefly earlier in the day we decided to take a flight seeing tour to McKinley.  While we waited, we ate lunch in one of the many restaurants.  By the time our flight was set to leave, the clouds had come in and they weren’t sure we’d see the mountain, so we elected not to spend $400 and take the chance.

We spent two days driving across Denali Highway, but don’t be fooled by the word “highway”. Years ago this dirt road was the road used to get to Denali National Park. It has since been replaced with other roads, but Denali Highway is purported to be one of the most scenic drives in Alaska.

      
The road is only 135 miles long but there is so much to see that it takes a long time to drive it.








Mountains and glaciers were everywhere we looked.









Out in the middle of nowhere we came across a tree, all decorated for the Christmas.








When we stopped for the night, this was the view from our window. Although driving down a dirt, scenic road doesn't give me much to blog about, it’s one of our favorite things to do, and its so much more fun to do it in the camper!






 

There were several very small roads that we explored.(although we did have to turn back on this road).  We would never have ventured here while towing.

We've been trying to let Dozer out as much as possible so he doesn't feel cooped up.

He decided he liked the water outside better than the water in his bowl. He tested out All the puddles!



Our next stop will be a brief one in Delta Junction…..