Anchorage and Talkeetna - Page 1
We decided to go to Alaska to cool off and see some glaciers and wildlife. Susie and Larry could not make it during July 4th week so Felicia, Kendra and I flew to Anchorage, Alaska on July 2nd and came back home on July 12th. We cooled down while we were gone, and in Dallas it was 100 degrees every day. Despite driving over 800 miles in southern Alaska, we did not see the wildlife that we had expected to see. We were looking for moose, bears, elk, or caribou and did not see any of these on the roads. On both of our trips to British Columbia, we would see bears and elk every day on the roads and on trails. Not sure what we did wrong while we were looking around Alaska.
We spent our first and last day in Anchorage. On our first night in Alaska, we stayed at a very nice A-frame cabin on Sand Lake in Anchorage. All the neighbors had float planes at their docks, and we immediately liked the cool temperature and the quiet lake. In July, it does not get very dark in Alaska, it gets dusky looking from 11 PM until about 4 AM and then it is bright again. It was hard to sleep without something over your eyes or good blackout curtains.
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Anchorage, Alaska
Our house at Sand Lake was a Bed & Breakfast. We woke up very early because it was daylight, but the view was great.
Talkeetna, Alaska
Leaving Anchorage we drove north through Wasilla, looked for Sarah Palin, and then went north again to the town of Talkeetna, population 800?? Talkeetna is very old and is built around a dirt runway where small plane with big rubber tires land about 200 feet away from the main street.
Talkeetna is also where climbers from around the world start and finish their trips to climb Mt McKinley. We were told that 98% of the climbing expeditions go through Talkeetna. Climbers are flown to and land on glaciers about 7000 feet up and begin their climb which seems to take 3 or 4 weeks. We stayed in Talkeetna in a small cabin for 2 days and ate breakfast with a group of 5 hungry climbers who had just spent more than 24 days on the mountain without making it to the top. One of the climbers had made it to the top of Mt. Everest, several had climbed the tallest mountains in Europe and South America. They were frustrated that they did not make it to the summit, but one guy told me that they reached the top on about half of their climbs so they would be back to try again.
Talkeetna is very old and is built around a dirt runway where small planes with big rubber tires land about 200 feet away from the main street. These pictures show the runway and planes buzzing just overhead. These bush planes are made to use dirt and gravel landing strips and to take off and land in very short distances. I took some pictures of trees right next to the landing strip that had bent and broken propellers from rough landings picture with a tree.
We saw small planes with floats taking off and landing on rivers and lakes, bush planes with fat rubber tires taking off on dirt strips and saw planes with skis for landing on ice (glaciers in the summer, rivers, and lakes during wintertime). Very few towns in Alaska have a paved road to get to the town, but they do have dirt landing strips. Travel by small plane is a way of life in Alaska.
In talking with Alaskans and then flying over the Talkeetna area and Denali National Park, I was amazed at how many people live way out in remote cabins that are off the grid – no dirt road access, no electricity, computer, phone, cell phone, internet, newspaper, etc. A lot of people go to town every few months for supplies – driving a truck or ATV to a road or flying onto lakes or frozen lakes.
We booked a trip with K2 Aviation in Talkeetna to fly over the mountains and glaciers in Denali Park, to get a good look at Mt. McKinley air and then to land on a glacier to take pictures. The weather was too bad our first day in Talkeetna, low clouds and it was snowing on the glacier, so we moved our flight back a day. We flew the next day to view the mountain and glaciers and rivers draining from the glacier melt. We could not land on the glacier because it was still snowing. The morning we left, as you would guess, the weather was perfect, and you could see Mt. McKinley from 65 miles away with no problem.
Kendra had to sit in the front seat with the pilot and spare controls. Felicia and I sat in the back of the bus. Kendra has been very brave on some of the helicopter and small plane rides we have taken her on.
While we were waiting in Talkeetna to fly into the mountains, we walked through the town, watched everyone putting out decorated moose statues for the 4th of July parade.
We also went on a raft ride near town where three rivers with Indian names come together. The water was ice cold, they knew that it had melted off the glacier less than 8 hours before it reached our rafting area.
