One last view from my cabin on the first day of sunshine since arriving at Denali.
Looking back north toward the entrance of the park before heading south.
Before I leave, however, I need to fuel up my body. Earlier in this week, I experienced a seriously tasty reindeer sausage and fries at Denali Doghouse. I head north from the cabin, away from my destination, and enjoy a great lunch. It’s now time to drive south toward Talkeetna.
My one disappointment for this trip has been not seeing Mt. McKinley. I’ve been told only one in three visitors here ever see it. There is normally too much cloud cover. About a half hour down the road on this day of beautiful sunshine, a giant white ball starts to appear over the mountains in front of me. It’s Mt. McKinley! I get to be in the one-in-three group! I’m ecstatic. I pull over and set-up to take pictures. I spend a lot of time here and at another spot down the road shooting photos. It’s just incredible.
Mt. McKinley/Denali covered in snow. Previous to this day, cloud cover made the mountains only appear to be as high as the pine covered mountains below Mt. McKinley.
Back on the road, I see the Denali North Point View entrance to Denali State Park. One more opportunity I can’t miss. I stop to look here, of course. Back in the car and on route 3, I see the Denali South Point entrance to Denali State Park. Time is tight, but I can’t miss this opportunity to see Mt. McKinley and the other peaks from this vantage point. Am I glad I didn’t miss this. Fantastic.
Mt. McKinley, looking north from the south
Once I’m back on the road, time is really tight. I have to hustle. One more place is so beautiful I have to stop again! It’s where the East Fork Chulitna River crosses under State Route 3. Beautiful!
I thought I was going to be late, but I make it to my destination, Talkeetna, Alaska, with about forty-five minutes to spare. I’m here to take a 5:00 p.m. flight over and around the mountains and Mt. McKinley, including a landing on a glacier, on the Talkeetna Air Taxi. I’m excited for the experience.
Since I’m early, I take the chance to see some of the town. It is said Talkeetna was the inspiration for the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska in the television series Northern Exposure. I can see why. I instantly love it. The first local shop is Nagley’s Store, a combination grocery, deli, souvenir shop, and hardware store that you can walk through into a liquor store, that you can walk through into a bar, etc. I came into town with an oddly strong craving for chocolate cake. Do they have chocolate cake at Nagley’s Store? Yes they do! I chat with the very nice lady behind the counter about the town while I buy my cake, then leave the store to stroll down the street with a fork in one hand and my cake in the other, eating chocolate cake while I walk. This is my idea of a good day! I walk into the Roadhouse Café a block down from Nagley’s and talk with the guy behind the counter there. It’s a lodge and restaurant with the feeling of a warm, small-town-in-the-wilderness place. I definitely want to come back here after my flight.
I arrive at the airport and Talkeetna Air Taxi at precisely the scheduled meet time of 4:30 p.m. I go inside and sign the waiver forms that say I’m doing this at my own risk. After a quick briefing, we try on large boots that will go over our boots for our walk across the glacier. During the boot fitting, I meet some of the people going on this trip with me. There is a young married couple from Anchorage, he originally from New Jersey and her originally from Chicago, with her parents visiting from Chicago. The other two passengers are a man in his forties from Spain with his female companion from Mexico who has the appearance of being an actress or model. They flew here this morning from Mexico with him at the controls of his private plane. This has all the makings of a very interesting television series if we were to end up in a survival situation together.
After a briefing, the lot of us walk on to the tarmac and board the fire engine red de Havilland DHC-3 Otter. It’s a single-engine prop plane with skids around the wheels. Each passenger has a headset to hear and communicate with our pilot, Danielle. We’re off!
The flight north over the green valley with its snaking river is beautiful, but things start to get really interesting when we cross over the mountains and snow. Every minute is something new. The pictures and videos are the only things that come close to telling the story.
As we circle around to the shaded side of the mountain, we begin our approach to land on the glacier. My first plane landing on snow! Danielle pulls it in so smooth that I’m not even quite sure when we’re making contact with the snow. She pulls forward toward the mountainside, makes a u-turn to point us in the right direction for take-off, then kills the engine.
Looking down onto our landing area on the glacier.
We exit the plane into a place of amazement. I sink about six inches into the snow with every step. I’m grinning with the feeling of a puppy in its first snow. The views are magnificent, the feeling one of wonder. It is truly a spiritual experience for me.
Our view as we're landing.
Venturing out onto the glacier.
Our pilot instructs not to hike too far out on the glacier. Fresh snow could be covering a crevasse a few feet deep or tens of feet deep. After some exploring and photo taking, it’s time to return.
Back to the plane.
The take-off from the glacier is as much fun as the landing. The pitch of the Pratt & Whitney engine rises as we increase speed, the spinning propeller sounding like an enormous box fan revving up. The skids on the plane glide across the snow. We lift off the glacier surrounded by majestic mountain sides into a deep blue sky. I take in everything I can on the flight back, knowing that this view from my perch in the sky is going to be over soon. Before long, we land back at Talkeetna Air Taxi. I step off the plane with a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. That was amazing. Anyone going to the interior of Alaska should budget and plan for this without a doubt. Be sure to book the flight with the glacier landing.
A three-minute video of my flight and glacier landing.
I head back to the main street of Talkeetna after my flight. The blueberry pie at the Roadhouse Café caught my eye on my visit earlier today. I hope it’s still there. It is, and I partake. It is crunchy, sweet and tart goodness topped with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream. Wow. I’ve never had blueberry pie before, but I will be glad to again! It’s especially fun when I think about my experience with wild blueberries in Denali.
There’s a sense of humor here that is captured well in Northern Exposure. One of the items in the food case is labeled Rudy’s In A Parka. I missed the reference and asked the gentleman behind the counter what they were. He said “Rudy? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?” Got it. Reindeer meat in a roll. A dessert was labeled Hip Enhancers. You get the idea.
After a little more walking around Talkeetna, I decide that I’d better eat something more substantial than blueberry pie. One more trip to the Roadhouse Café. It’s between a Rudy In A Parka and something called a pasty (pronounced paa-stee, not pay-stee). The counter man explains that a pasty is a traditional one-dish meal miners would take into the mines for food. It’s a combination of rutabagas, carrots, potatoes, and reindeer meat cooked in gravy inside a pie shell. Always anxious to try a traditional local dish, I’m sold on the pasty.
The Pasty explained at the Roadhouse Cafe
It’s good. I eat it on the way to the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge. Note to self: gravy-filled pastries are not the best choice of something to eat while driving. The view from the lodge is beautiful, as it seems all are anywhere in this area. This is a particularly panoramic view of Mt. McKinley and the mountains I’ve just flown around. It’s a nice stop before heading south to Anchorage.
Another amazing day in Alaska! Of course, there are more stops for photos on the drive back to Anchorage. After passing through Wasilla, I swing east and north instead of south toward Anchorage to run an errand for my wife. I finally check into the Sheraton Anchorage on 6th Avenue about 11:30 p.m. I head up to room 1117 for the night. Shortly thereafter, Joe arrives from the airport. Joe is my roommate for this part of the trip. It’s always good spending time with him. We talk and kick around plans for the next couple of days before both us turn in about 1:45 a.m..
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