Talkeetna - Day 14

Tue. July 7

We wake up to a beautiful sunny morning with bright blue skies. It appears the smoke has cleared. We wonder if Mt. McKinley is visible today, so we head over to the Ranger Station where they have a web cam showing the mountain. Low and behold it’s in full view . . . but from Wonder Lake inside the park. We’re not going back inside today and hope we might get a glimpse as we head south down the Parks Hwy. to our next destination, Talkeetna. On the way, we stop at the Creekside Café near Cantwell for breakfast. It’s a really cute little place with a restaurant alongside a beautiful creek and nice campground with cabins for rent. As we continue down the Parks highway, all the mountains around us are in full view and then at the next turn there it is . . .The Great One, Mt. McKinley! Wow, what an awesome sight! We can’t believe how fortunate we are that on the day we’re leaving Denali we get to see this rare occurrence. Denali is only visible 20% of the time, so most people never get to see it in full view. As we get closer to Talkeetna we loose sight of the mountain, but it’s okay with us because the best is yet to come.

We arrive in Talkeetna and head straight to Talkeetna Air Taxi for our Glacier Flightseeing trip. They tell us that the weather today is absolutely perfect for flying and we are in for a real treat. . . someone is definately looking over us! We were a little apprehensive about flying in such a small plane (a Beaver), however we knew this would be an experience of a lifetime and couldn’t miss the opportunity. We meet Tyler our pilot and the 2 other couples that will be flying with us. Tyler’s been flying with Talkeetna Air Taxi for 6 years. He’s originally from Arizona. He went to school in Valencia Spain. In the summer months he does these Glacier Landings in Alaska and in the winter months he does flightseeing tours in Hawaii. After cracking a few jokes about his young appearance, Tyler gives us a brief safety course and off we go. First we enter a scene over boulder-strewn crevasses seven miles long, a mysterious jumble of rock and ice resembling a bomb blast’s aftermath. Soon, the plane is dwarfed on all sides by towers of black, brown and grey granite. Then snow covered glaciers appear all around us. We are heading directly into them and they are very close . . . like we can reach out and touch them! The ice below is 3,700 feet deep, some of it more than a thousand years old. The views are breathtaking and we just look at each other and shake our heads in amazement . . . its surreal. We are totally engrossesd in mind-boggling scenery – when suddenly we look up and see we are heading straight into Mt. McKinley. As we approach the mountain, Tyler maneuvers the plane thru narrow valleys that remind us of a scene from Star Wars. In the distance we can see the landing area, called the Ruth Amphitheatre, that Tyler is heading for. Landing the plane on the glacier doesn’t seem possible and I’m just shaking my head as he touches down perfectly on the snow. I even burst out laughing because I can't believe this is really happening.

We step out of the plane onto the glacier with our special boots that resemble moon boots from the 70’s. The immense size of the glaciers surrounding us is overwhelming and we feel like little specs in the snow. The sun is shining so brightly off the snow, its blinding. The air is cool and comfortable. Tyler tells us the temperature where we are standing on the glacier is 60 degrees. We don’t even need coats and Santos is so caught up in the moment that he takes off his shirt and starts making snowballs! Tyler is a wealth of information and educates us as we walk the glacier. We spot another plane coming in for a landing . . .it looks like a little tiny red spec against these vast glaciers. After roughly 30 minutes, Tyler tells us we have to head back (but we want to stay forever!). When we’re almost 7 miles from the landing strip (and 1 mile high), Tyler shuts off the engine and glides the plane down for our landing. Wow, what an incredible experience that again brought us up close to Alaska’s dramatic beauty. This now tops our list for most awesome experience in Alaska!

*Talkeetna is a colorful historic town nestled at the base of Mt. McKinley. It retains much of its early Alaskan flavor with its narrow dirt roads that are lined by log cabins and clapboard buildings and houses. It draws anglers, adventurers, recreation seekers and climbers, who use the town as a staging area for ascents of Mt. McKinley. Today there are 138 climbers on the mountain. Just over 50% of the expeditions successful.

Temp: 84 degrees, felt like 100
RV Miles: 160