Waiting…

After the Palmer/Wasilla area, we came to Talkeetna, Alaska, a little community on the edge of Denali National Park. Here is a train station for folks from the cruise ships to go from their inland buses to the Alaska Railroad and ride up to the park entrance, where they can board another bus, and be taken around the park. Denali National Park is the location of Mount McKinley (AKA Mount Denali), the tallest mountain in North America. This mountain is a “must see” for anyone who comes to Alaska, but, ironically, is most often shrouded in clouds, due to the weather patterns in this mountain range.

We arrived on Thursday for a scheduled two day stay, but with a weather forecast which did not look all that good for seeing the big mountain, but out traveling companions were interested in taking a flight over the park and hope to at least see something of it. The weather still did not look all that good, but there were peeks of sun coming out, and the flight service said they were able to go high enough to get above the clouds, and even above the summit of the mountain, so you would at least be able to see the part of it which was above the clouds. It still seemed there would be a risk of not being able to see much but they even said if the view was a bust, we could get our money back. Ellyn is a bit of a white-knuckled flier in small planes and it was a bit expensive, but Geoff decided to go as well.

As it turns out, the flight was great, the pictures were terrific, even though we could not see the base of the mountain and many of the other mountains around it were totally buried in the clouds. But the main peak and several of the surrounding peaks were really great to see up close. We had to wear oxygen masks above 13,000 feet and got as high as 21,000 feet before heading back down.

One of the objectives of coming to Alaska and of trying to have as much flexibility as possible so we could get to see Mount McKinley on a clear day. Well, we tried. Ken and Martha had scheduled a flight to the Arctic Ocean from Fairbanks on Tuesday, but the weather forecast made it look like there may be some clearing around Denali on Tuesday. So we decided to split up for a while. Ken and Martha left Talkeetna on schedule on Friday, but we stayed on for four additional days to try for some better weather.

Talkeetna itself is a cute little town. There are many original log cabins in the town and some other old buildings from the era of the gold rush. The campground is on the out-skirts of the town, but still within easy walking distance. There are several good little restaurants, one with Tai food, and a couple of little booths selling food, almost like a County Fair. It is very much a tourist town, with lots of different tour companies. The tour buses come into town to get the train to Denali and people come into town for food and shopping.

So we waited. Saturday, wet. Sunday, wetter. Monday, not looking good. Tuesday…to be continued.