Talkeetna, how did we get here and why did it take so long?

We meant to go from Denali to Anchorage and then Cindy didn't feel so good so we aborted that plan and looked for another place to stay and just by chance decided on this place I liked Talkeetna from the very first kiss!
We kept seeing all these people walking around with aluminum foil hats, and then we found them
THE ALUMINUM FOIL PEOPLE



If you stood still long enough you were suddenly clothed in aluminum foil

This man spoke another language, do you suppose an aluminum dialect, anyway, we could tell by his gestures that he was offering us an aluminum delicacy that we were familiar with,

Hershey Kisses

He seemed so happy with himself, maybe his aluminum halo was a little tight

Gracie was having none of it and was ready to protect us at all cost from these strange aluminum people, even as Mr Alcoa tried to calm her down

Curses, foiled again......

Talkeetna has two major events in the year, The Moose Dropping Festival, which was last weekend, and the Talkeetna Blues Festival, which is next weekend

This is the place to go if you want to sightsee Mt Denali by air, or go fishing for salmon on the river, or you have arrived by train from the cruise ships in Anchorage

These are just a few of the many charter fishing and flight sightseeing outfits

Tee Pee Oasis, and the palm tree is lite up too

This woman is from Maine and she stood still long enough for the aluminum people to adorn her with a hat, notice the Oriental Fast Food, lots of tourist from the orient, smart idea to put together a place for them to eat too

We went back into the suburb's of Talkeetna, to where the real people lived, lots of nice log cabins, and with doors high enough so they can get out when it snows, in the winter the 14 miles road from Parks Highway is not open, the only way in is snowmobile, or dog sled

The Youth Hostel in Talkeetna

This covered wagon picked up tourist at the train depot and gave them tours of the town

We had guessed, before we read, that this town is the inspiration for "Northern Exposure"

Talkeetna sits on the south edge of Mount Denali

For $250 a person, you can summit Mount Denali, and land on a glacier, if you so desire

There is a private airport and a Federal one, the Federal one is bigger

This outfit, K2, takes most of the mountain climbers to the staging area, when they are going to climb Mt Denali

There are 3 rivers that border Talkeetna

The Talkeetna, the Susitna, and the Chulitna River

The blue forget-me-not's are the state of Alaska's flower

Can't you just imagine Northern Exposure happening here

This man owns the RV Park in Talkeetna, before he was married and had a child he was an Iditarod Musher and had to give it up because all of his money was going in to it



This was his team of dogs, he now has a golden retriever

The train station was right in back of the RV Park, very active with all of the cruise passengers

All the Cruise lines had their own train cars, more Princess cars than any of the others

There's are little RV looking at it from the train station

The trees were bent over, they teach a willow chair weaving class in town, maybe they use these trees

These are the generic Alaska Railroad Cars, you'd see alot of foreign people getting off this train, with their tour books out, it was only a half mile walk in to town, lots to eat there and lots of knick knacks to buy

This is where we ate our BBQ, Gracie and Rainier were in the car having a fit, Gracie started to chew on the window to make more room for her to escape

Sure would have liked to have been here for the Moose Dropping Festival

This is the private airfield

That's all Folk's