We broke camp at 5:30am this morning and enjoyed an unexpectedly tasty breakfast (first experience with dehydrated food which proved quite good, even by Jeanine standards) before catching the 6:30am bus to the park entrance. On the bus we were fortunate to meet and enjoy the company of the Pitcher family from Homer, AK. He is a professional photographer and author of several travel guide books including one of Alaska which he gifted to us. It proved to be far better than the Frommer’s book we had been using and offered many great suggestions which we used for the remainder of our travels.
Today we are destined for the town of Talkeetna. En route we stop at the famous Mary’s McKinley View Lodge for lunch.
Alaska legend Mary Carey came to this area as a widow in the early 1960’s and promptly homesteaded 100 miles from the nearest road at a spot with the best view of McKinley she’d ever seen. Mary Carey was friends with the great bush pilot Don Sheldon and constantly advocated the building of the Parks Highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks to improve access to the Denali National Park. When she wrote to then-governor Bill Egan about the project, he famously replied that, “Alaska already has two roads, how many do you want in one state?” When the Parks Highway was finally constructed in 1973, it passed by her homestead where she built a lodge which offers some of the best views of Mount Denali. She then proceeded to write 16 books, including “Alaska, Not For A Woman.” Ownership of the lodge has passed to her daughter who is also an accomplished author of children’s books.
Rumored to be the inspiration for the television show “Northern Exposure”, Talkeetna is a quirky historic town located at the confluence of the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna Rivers. The townsite was established in 1919 when the railroad surveyed and auctioned 80 lots for $14.25 each. The downtown area is classified as a National Historic Site, with buildings dating from the early 1900s including Nagley’s General Store, Fairview Inn and the Talkeetna Roadhouse where Jeanine discovered Pasties (a Michigan Upper Peninsula food of her childhood – a hearty meat and root vegetable pastry).
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Inclement weather conditions cancelled the flightseeing tour of Denali we had reserved for this evening so we booked the first flight in the morning and hoped for better conditions. We settled into our lodging at the Meandering Moose Inn and enjoyed watching the Olympics from a very cozy bed. Click on any photo for a larger view and click again for the full image.
