Month: July 2018

This morning we got our Diet Coke and headed into Talkeetna. Our RV park is about 20 miles outside of town. First we stopped at Fish Lake where a float plane base takes tourists on siteseeing and fishing trips. The lake and float plane base is very pretty. Next we headed for Talkeetna Alaska Lodge to enjoy the views from their wonderful deck. This was a favorite spot from 5 years ago. If I were going to stay in a hotel in this area, this would be the place. It is super nice, fairly close to town, and has spectacular views of Denali. After hanging out for an hour or so, we headed into downtown for lunch. We ate at West Rib. This was another favorite from our previous visit. Five years ago West Rib was featured on the TV show Man vs Food. We sat outside and had a super nice lunch. This time of year the Cottonwood Trees are blowing their “cotton” in unbelievable amounts. It looks like it is snowing everywhere downtown. It collects as drifts along buildings and curbs an inch or two deep. After lunch we walked along the river and Maverick got some off-leash time. Donna checked out a few more gift shops we missed yesterday while Maverick and I waited in the car. Before heading back to the coach we drove around the Talkeenta airport. We wanted to make sure where to be for our flightseeing tour tomorrow and I enjoy seeing all of the bush planes.
A note about DENALI VIEWING!

If this is your first time to Alaska be aware that they claim only 30% of people visiting Alaska get a clear view of the Mountain. This is because it is shrouded in clouds much of the time. While there are views of the mountain from Denali National Park, the views are mostly distant and only at certain gaps in the mountain ranges. I believe the views deeper in the park are better but we only committed to the 6 hour round trip and our pictures show the mountain as good as we could hope for. By far the best viewing is from the South either in the Denali State Park or in the town of Talkeetna. The mountain is much closer, visually bigger, and more prominent from this side of the Alaska Range. There are two official state park view points, Denali View North and Denali View South. Both on the road South of the actual mountain range. Our pictures from Mary Cary’s McKinley View Lodge is very close to the Denali View South park and from our campground. The mountain seems huge in real life and small in our pictures. It is the largest visual landmark I have ever seen in person. Not only is the mountain very tall at over 20,000 feet but it has the largest “prominence” or “relief” falling over 14,000 feet from the peak in a sheer face before reaching the smaller mountains/foot hills.

June was an EPIC travel month for us. We left May behind in Glacier National Park and headed back to Coeur d’Alene ID, on to Grand Coulee Dam, through North Cascades National Park, and back to Burlington WA to complete the RV repair at Camping World. June 10th we headed across the Canadian border at Sumas WA and trekked through Kamloops, Williams Lake, Tudyah Lake, and Dawson Creek BC to the start of the Alaskan Highway. From Dawson we traveled through Fort Nelson, Liard Hot Springs, Watson Lake, Whitehorse, Beaver Creek, and arrived in Delta Junction Alaska on June 20th. That is 9 stops in 10 days. That is a lot for us. Next we spent 5 days in Fairbanks, 3 days at Denali National Park, and 2 days in the Denali State Park. I think this was a pretty full travel experience by anyone’s standard. We were super fortunate to have spectacular views of Denali Mountain. All that and we aren’t even close to done yet. In July we expect to explore the rest of Alaska South of Denali with many more great adventures. Stay Tuned!!!!

This morning on the way out of the park we stopped for breakfast at Mary Carey’s McKinley Lodge. Lunch yesterday was great and the breakfast this morning was also very good. This morning Denali was very beautiful and tour buses were stopping for people to grab Denali pictures here at Mary Carys. The drive to Mat Su RV park was very short and only took a little less than an hour. We checked in and set up pretty quickly. We waited until about 1:30pm before heading into Talkeetna for lunch. Downtown Talkeetna was very crowded and we had a difficult time finding parking. We chose the Denali Brewery lunch and had to wait for about 20minutes to get a table. The food was good. After lunch we walked the downtown street and checked out a few shops. A really beautiful day and and the mountain looked spectacular.