Monday, July 11, 2016 - To Talkeetna and back

We were up at 5:45 this morning as we thought we needed to catch the 7:10 tour bus for our 160 mile round trip tour of the park. Fortunately Bet looked at the tickets and noticed that our trip is tomorrow. All in all that is a good thing as it was raining with a very low cloud ceiling.

Since we were up and ready to go we headed to Talkeetna which was on the itinerary for Wednesday. It is about a 280 mile round trip. As we drove south the weather gradually  improved. We drove through Denali State Park which is the largest State Park that I have ever seen. It is 325,000 acres which is half the size of Rhode Island. There are two pullout areas for views of Denali. Our first stop was the north one and we were able to see some of Denali but there was substantial cloud cover. By the time we covered the thirty miles to the south viewpoint the sky around Denali had cleared and we were able to get some good pictures.

We arrived in Talkeetna about noon. Talkeetna is where all Denali climbs begin. All climbers must register and sit through some Ranger talks and watch a couple of videos. To date this year 655 of 1,200 have summited.  That is about average. All climbers are transported by ski plane to the Kalhitna Glacier at 7,000 feet in elevation. From there it is a 14 mile trek to the 20,350' summit. I have read many books about climbing Denali and have always wanted to visit Talkeetna. It is just a small town in the wilderness. But now I can say I was there.

ILYB

    Denali through a telescope

    Denali. The river is a 700' in elevation. We are 40 miles (as the crow flies) from the summit.

    Happy camper

    Ice cream maker