Wednesday June 29, 2022 - Jim (Gail & Brian's neighbor) took us for a boat ride on the Kenai. It was great to get to see the area from the river. Gail cooked a great meal, with Halibut, smoked salmon, reindeer sausage, and a bunch of other stuff. The neighbors all came for dinner (as they have every night). It's been quite a treat to know them and hear all their Alaskan stories.
Jim's boat
The Kenai River
A huge eagle's nest on the river
that's a lot of stairs
Jim has a great set up for cleaning fish. They catch over 150 pounds of salmon in July from this river
Janet & Bob's find at the local antler shop
Kev & Janet bought oysters in Homer and shared them with Uncle Gene
The dinner gang
Gail & Brian with Gerry & Gene
Thursday June, 30, 2022 - Today we headed off early for a 5 hr drive to Talkeetna. We drove back along the Turnagain Arm and through Anchorage. Talkeetna is off the Parks Highway about 15 miles and is a qwirky little town that is the jumping off point for mountain climbers headed to climb Denali. Our campground was only a half mile from town, so we walked to town to explore and have dinner.
Tiny on the road again
loved this planter made to look like the Alaska railway
Turnagain arm at high tide
We spent an hour or so at the Talkeetna Historical Society which gave some background on Talkeetna. It was originally settled when the Alaska Railroad was built in the late 1920s. It was where the engineers were stationed while it was being built. The museum also had a nice display with stories about Denali mountain climbers. The season for climbing is just about over. Almost 1000 climbers attempted to summit this year and 3 died.
I liked this chair made from antlers and hides
downtown Talkeetna
another antler store
Main Street Talkeetna
the non-shoppers
Beer & pizza for dinner
wheel barrow planter
Talkeetna Airport, 1 block from main street. A plane came in directly above our heads and seemed to tip his wings to get in between the trees
flower art
Aunt Gerry arm wrestled the spoon maker to get a better deal on the spoon she bought from him
the welcome to Talkeetna sign
The trains were stopped for the night, so we of course needed some pics
Friday July 1, 2022 - It was a 3 hr drive from Talkeetna to our campground in Denali. It was another great sunny day, so we were hoping to get some views of Denali (Mt McKinley). They say you're lucky if you get to see it, as it's covered in clouds quite often. We are staying at Savage River, which is a campground run by the National Park at mile 12 in the park. It's a small campground with only 35 sites, and no services other than some pumps for water and a bathroom (no showers). It's got a few nice hiking trails from the campground and views of Denali, when the weather cooperates.
Our campground in Talkeetna
We stopped on the drive to Denali and were able to get our first view. There were a few clouds, but we'll take it!
The mountain was cut in half by the clouds, but can see the peak above the clouds
as we were leaving a tour bus came
Janet, Kev and I decided to do the Savage Alpine Trail, across the street from our campground. It's a 4 mile hike, 1500 ft elevation.
We had some nice views of Denali from the hike (a little hard to see, but you can see the snow cap above the other mountain)
more views
a little hard to see, but Denali's back there
Saturday, July 2, 2022 - Another nice clear day for Denali viewing. We took the Mountain View hike, from our campground, and then the Savage River Cabin trail. We then drove into Healy for our Glacier flight on Fly Denali.
The view of Denali from our campground
the view is found at the top of the road to the group sites
Mountain View hike
the view of Denali from Mountain View hike
The Savage River cabin, which is still used by the rangers in the winter. They patrol Denali year round, and in the winter they patrol using sled dogs'
Kevin couldn't just walk by those sheep horns
The plane the guys rode in for our Glacier flight on Fly Denali
They outfitted us with boots for walking on the glacier
Janet, Gerry & I were in the smaller plane
Our 24 year old pilot and one other passenger
be prepared for lots of photos
a hiking trail along the ridge
If you look closely you can see where the park road collapsed, last year. The road was built on permafrost and it melted causing a 10 foot collapse in the road one day and 80 feet the next. They are going to build a bridge , which will take 4-6 years to complete. Instead of being able to take one of the buses to the end of the park road at mile 92, you can only go to mile 42 currently, were the landslide happened
more pics of the landslide
we're landing on Ruth Glacier
Our pilot photobombed our selfie
kettle pools
The Polychrome mountains
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