All Day Bus to Talkeetna
We had another long travel day with a bus ride leaving this morning in route for Talkeetna, which is just on the southern side of Denali National Park. We left around 9:00 am with Riley continuing to watch more of the Star Wars movies. We actually had a great driver on the Seward to Anchorage leg of the journey, who was not only filled with interesting information, fascinating facts, but also the occasional joke or two. One fact that came up over and over again every time we passed an area of dead trees was the story the 1964 9.2 earthquake which lasted over five minutes. It seems the ground dropped in a number of areas causing the roots of trees to fall below the water level so that they were now in salt water, causing them to die. We were also told that the weather changes rapidly, although I’m not so sure this is actually weather changing but more that the distances you travel are so great that’s it’s really just moving in to another weather system. We stopped in Anchorage at the Museum of History and Art, it was a nice break in our journey but the museum itself was rather boring even for a museum. We ended up eating lunch there which was a mistake, I think it can be best summed up with a quote from the waiter, who upon bring us our food asked “Did I get the order right?” rather than something like “How is everything today?” We got back on the bus and headed to Talkeetna, this time with some air head girl who thought she was funny but no one was laughing. I had to barrow back my media player from Riley just to silence her. We got to Talkeetna Lodge and this place was amazing, huge log pillars, beautiful fireplace, awesome sitting areas, and a great restaurant.
On a clear day you have an amazing view of Mt. McKinley, which is only called Mt. McKinley by the federal government, everyone else refers to it by its original name, Mt. Denali or K2. I’m told its big and beautiful, however the two days we were here were overcast. There were forest fires in the area and they tried to tell us it was smoke from the fire, however being from Seattle I know clouds and overcast when I see it. This place is more grey then Seattle, in fact if you want a chance of seeing Mt. Denali plan on staying a week and even then there is no guarantee and you may be stuck with this view.
There was a walking path through the woods so we went on a walk before diner, Riley decided on taking a shortcut until he could not see his way out among the tall grass.
We got back and had an amazing meal, it was equivalent to a 4-star restaurant, I wish we could have stayed another night in this place. We went back to the room, jumped on the bed, and with the overcast did not need to use the special shades to block out the light.