Tucked away in the trees!
Summer Snow!! This fluffy cotton was everywhere!!
We had closer pictures of "the mountain" but I like the contrast of water, clouds, trees and white mountain... Mt McKinley
Our "wide" spot next to the road. Not bad, huh?
Our visitors. Mama and baby! What looks like steam from the baby breathing is unfortunately a reflection in the glass. We had to take this through the window.
Safe and sound after our evening walk. We didn't get eaten by bears. hehehehe When we left Denali our destination was Montana Creek State Campground just off the highway. When we arrived there it was .......... well............. not to our liking. So we made the decision to back track a little and drive 14 miles out of the way to Talkeetna. We didn't know much about it except what we had heard in passing conversations, which wasn't much. Our little detour turned out to be a great one. When we arrived in Talkeetna there were 2 campgrounds to choose from. The first was very rustic and "camp' like with a river that ran by it, lots of trees, that shed what we have come to affectionately call summer snow, (a cotton like material that is falling to the ground giving the look of snow not only on the ground but also in the air) and no hookups. The second was a full service campground with all the amenities, power, water, and wifi. We chose the rustic over the amenities (plus is was $20 instead of $40). There are 2 main streets in town, the Talkeetna Spur Road that leads from the main highway 14 miles to the center of town. The second turns left from the end of the spur road and is about 3/10's of a mile long. At the intersection where these two roads meet is the city park. This park looks like something out of Little House On The Prairie. In the center of the park stands a gazebo surrounded by well worn grass that you can just picture family picnics and sack races. Across the street from the park is a General Store that sells everything from nuts to bolts, and has been doing so forever. We took a short walk down the street and found ourselves feeling like we just stepped off a bus back in the 60's. There were couples sharing an ice cream Sunday and store keepers greeting any visitor who is willing to take a look around their store. We stopped at the Denali Brewery and immediately felt comfortable. The guy that helped us had dreads and was very "mellow". He sure knew a lot about beer. After sampling several types of beer including one made of agave (yes, I liked that one!!~) we decided on one called Purple Haze. It seemed to fit the feeling of the town and it was very tasty.. We bought a "growler" of Purple Haze, a tie dyed t-shirt and were on our way. After dinner we decided to walk back into town (the walk took us all of 10 minutes) and head to the end of the road. Here the road ends at a short walk to the edge of where 3 rivers meet, the Talkeetna, the Susitna and the Chulitna Rivers. From the bank of the river, on a clear day you can see Mt. McKinley. We were fortunate enough on this particular day to be able to see "The Mountain" (that is what the locals call it). Because it is not visible very often it is a big deal when it is. We enjoyed the evening watching the clouds move over "The Mountain" then disappear, dogs playing on the combination of rock and sand beach, gulls bathing in the shallows of the river and swallows zipping to and fro plucking bugs out of the air. Hopefully they were all mosquitoes. We slowly walked back to our camp, this time it took us 20 minutes because we were at the river's edge, stopping at a local bakery to pick up some cranberry/nut bread that was freshly baked that afternoon. Chip has gotten to be quite the pastry eater! ;-) The night we spent in the "campground" it rained and rained. Because we were tucked into the trees what we heard was not so much the rain itself but the water falling off the trees. At one point I woke up thinking we had birds running all over the roof of the motorhome. When I realized it was the water dripping out of the trees I put in my earplugs and went back to sleep. Rather than go through that again the second night we moved to a "wide" spot in the road about 1.5 miles from town. Here in Alaska you can stay overnight in any "wide" spot on the road if it does not say you can't. We looked around and there were no signs indicating we could not stay so we stayed! I am so glad we did. Not only was it free but not long after we got settled a Mama Moose and her baby walked right by our motorhome. That was so cool! While we were in town we stopped in a shop where the shop owner, a woman, was very friendly and willing to give us tips on some of the local places to go. One was a hiking trail not far from where we were parked. At that point we got on the subject of bears and heard some interesting stories. (Not a good thing when you are planning a hike in bear country). We has a few laughs, thanked her for the information and were on our way out when she turned and told Chip "If you come back from the hike single, come back in tomorrow", we all laughed and she said "I have to try"!!! We did go on the hike and luckily neither of us came back single. Actually we didn't even see anything except a few people jogging. That evening another lone female moose also walked right by us eating as she went by. We watched her for quite a while and were amazed when she got to the edge of the road, as cars honked and stopped she wasn't the least bit fazed. I have read that Moose have no traffic sense so you have to be very careful when you see them. We were sure glad we moved out to this "wide" spot in the highway because we would not have had the experience of seeing the Moose. So far this is probably one of, if not OUR favorite stop so far and it was a detour!!!
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