Mckinley Princess Lodge Talkeetna

I traveled from Denali to Talkeetna on the Alaska Railroad on Thursday. This is a little town that reminds me of Metamora, IN. A bunch of little shops and restaurants. I took a boat ride on the Susitna River. We saw an eaglet in a tree - looked like one of this year's by its size. Less than a hundred yeards from the eaglet, we saw two adults in the ...

... thought I’d been attacked by a bear. This somewhat soured the last bit of the ride, but by the time we were back at the stables and Anna was playing with one of their dogs, all was forgotten.

We spent some of that night doing a final repack on our bags, hoping against hope that we’d distributed the weight enough that no one bag exceeded 50 lbs. Skipping ahead, we weighed in at 47, 46, and 49 pounds respectively. Not bad for eyeballing it!

... three-hour drive south, to another Princess lodge, this one called Mt. McKinley Lodge. It is, by everyone’s admission, located in the middle of nowhere, but is on the south side of McKinley and offers some of the best available views – when it is out. We arrived to cloudy skies, and while the huge banks of floor-to-ceiling windows across the entire lodge told us there SHOULD be a mountain out there, we couldn’t see it.

... is important because you need to do something for the 22 hours of daylight, climbing mountains, kayaking rivers, and running with wolves only takes about 1 hour. So, being Irish comes in handy.

Now, I have a few words to say about nature. Rivers here run like busy interstates with southbund lanes a rush of steely grey glacial melt cascading down mountains and through u-shaped valleys, while northbound lanes ...

... across one of the viewing parks to look at Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America. The chances of seeing this mountain peak is less than 15% and as you can see by my photograph, all I saw was white cloud!! This is the second time I have tried to see this mountain peak and it looks like I'll have to try again some other time in the future. The rain really started up again as I continued south, so I turned into a town a few miles off the main ...

... our guide took out all kinds of skins for us to feel. Our guide carried a 12-gauge just in case a bear came around - good protection. Being glacier rivers, they were very wide as they change their course all the time and they are filled with trees so it was kind of fun watching our boat swerve in and out trying to avoid these little impediments. In the middle of the trip we did get a little snack - a coke and a LARGE cookie - yum, yum!!! The second ...

... situation, I know a few people who would likely do the same (not mentioning any names......Matt!)! At least half way through this museum visit (in fact I think it was before we even got there) Matt mentioned the possibility of going for a beer, soon he was demanding it! Poppy and I however were far more of the "tea and cake" persuasion, eventually we compromised with beer and cake! A leisurely evening was then spent skimming stones (well ...

... form the mountains. Then up to Denali which is granite and eroding slower than the other mountains. It is three times higher than Mt Kosciosko, covered with glaciers and at 20.320 feet is the highest mountain on the continent of North America. The crevasses were huge and iceblocks as big as apartment blocks. Words can not describe the enormity of it all.

The next day we take a ride to the town of Talkeetna, which I think is
maybe the length of 1 mile, it is so small. There we take a 1 hour
flight, over high mountain peaks and glacier-filled valleys. From the
small 6 passenger plane, we see many ...

ok... after contemplating the last days in Talkeetna... I'm honestly NOT sure what day we went to the museum...pretty sure it was yesterday though! =) so today we woke up bright and early and headed to grab a quick breakfast. The place we went was the cutest thing ever, sweet owner (she didn't loose her mind when 14 hungry 20-somethings stormed in and demanded food!), and great atmosphere! It was a small place, served typical breakfast fare ...