Talkeetna #3

After breakfast this morning, we caught the hotel shuttle downtown to look around. Talkeetna is a neat little town and we enjoyed walking around and looking in the many varied shops. One had a small museum in the back that was quite interesting. The kids favorite shop was full of homemade jams and jellies. The owner was very nice and let them sample all the different flavors. There were all made with local wild berries and they were indeed delicious!

Meanwhile, Roland caught a ride to see the doctor. He has been suffering from a cold the past few days and his ear has been clogged up and bothering him. He now has a prescription and some OTC meds to help get him cleared up and feeling better.
We hurried back to the hotel to get ready for our Denali sightseeing flight, but the weather was deteriorating quickly. As we got back, it was raining and overcast. The tour company called and we rescheduled our flight for later.

Suddenly, we found ourselves sitting around with nothing to do –which doesn’t happen very often on our trips! We took the kids back to the room for a quick nap, while I caught up on some e-mail, bills, and blogging. Finally, I laid down for a little while, too.
When we woke up, the skies were clear and sunny, which shows you how quickly the weather can change here. We ate an early dinner at the hotel and then the tour company picked us up for our 7:15pm flight.

We had the plane (DeHaviland Beaver) all to ourselves, which was nice. I sat up front, of course, and there was plenty of room for everyone in the cabin. We took off turned toward Denali / Mt. McKinley about 60 miles away and began a steady climb. By the time we reached the first peaks, we were climbing through 9,000 feet. The weather was perfect and the scenery was absolutely stunning! We made our way through mountain passes and continued climbing to 12,000 feet as we circled around to the North side of Denali. We saw the base camp on the glacier where most climbing expeditions start and a higher camp where climbers stay before attempting the summit complete with footprints heading up.

We began a descent between the jagged peaks and began to circle over a glacier where we saw a small cabin and some airplanes parked in the snow. Pretty soon, we came in for a landing (on skis) and were parked there beside them. I can’t really describe how georgous the scenery was…it was so beautiful, it seemed surreal, almost fake. I could hardly believe what I was seeing with my own two eyes. It was mostly quiet, but we could hear water running all around us and some cracking noises every once in a while. The boys had fun playing in the snow while I just walked around and took pictures. I could have stayed there all day, but we were soon back in the air and following the glacier downhill back to Talkeetna. What a wonderful way to spend the evening!

Tomorrow, we’ll be leaving making the short flight down to Anchorage, where we’ll spend two nights.