Talkeetna, AK to Cantwell, AK 7/31/14

Day 90 of our summer trip. 

We did not travel far today. For the past two days, we have had beautiful clear skies and fantastic views of Mt. McKinley.  It is said that only 30% of all visitors to Alaska get to see the mountain during their visit.  We feel very privileged to have had two great days.  Today is the more usual view of the mountain and similar to what we saw when we were in Alaska on our cruisetour with Princess Cruise Line several years ago.  We are sure that we are looking in the right direction, because we took these photos from the same general area that we took yesterday's clear view photos. 

Now, we have made many twists and turns and have made our way farther north.  We don't even know if we are looking in the right direction to see Mt. McKinley.  What we do know is that no matter which direction we look, there are low hanging clouds that obscure the views of any high mountains that are out there.

The fireweed is so beautiful and plentiful right now, so I just had to include it in today's post.  We took these photos right before we left our campsite in Talkeetna.  Notice the bee on the first photo.

 

 

We found a nice RV park, the Cantwell RV Park, in Cantwell, AK.  Cantwell is located about 25 - 30 miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park.  Here is where we will stay for the next two nights.  This is definitely a seasonal campground.  It has electricity and water at the site and a dump station.  Interestingly, the water is supplied to each site in PVC piping laid on the ground, so that it can be picked up at the end of the tourist season and there is no worry about frozen, broken pipes.  That is what is inside the orange pipes on the ground.  It works fine.

There are animals at the RV Park.  They are the most wild animals that we have seen for quite awhile - a moose, a bear, and a wolf.  The plants have sort of hidden the bear, but he was there.

After we got settled in our campsite, we went to get some milk.  We wanted fat free milk, but all we could find at the store was 2%, so we decided to get 1/2 gallon to last until we got to a bigger store.  It was different and cost $6.99/half gallon.  The expiration date was 9/18/14!!!  We thought maybe they had made a mistake at the dairy, but all of that brand had the same date.  We looked and looked to see what was different about this milk but we couldn't figure it out.  Since I am writing this post after the actual time that it happened then back dating it, I can tell you that we did finally figure out what the difference was.  We went into a supermarket and saw that the same brand of milk had a regular milk dated to expire in a couple weeks and an "ultra-pasteurized" version that cost much more.  Since the convenience store that we had gone to did not have any other options available when we were there, we didn't have much choice and couldn't compare.  You always learn something.  The milk tasted the same as usual and was gone well before the expiration date. 

 



Houston, AK to Talkeetna, AK 7/30/14

Day 89 of our summer trip.  Parks Highway and Talkeetna Spur

Today we moved to Talkeetna.  We have been blessed with spectacular views of Mt. McKinley for two days.  They say only 30% of those who visit Alaska get to see the mountain because it is generally shrouded in cloud cover.  We can attest to that.  When we were here several years ago on a Princes cruisetour, we did not see it or even have any idea of where to look because all we saw were clouds.  As we drove today, we first saw the mountain at about 12:30 PM at a view point in Willow, AK (left), then again about an hour later as we were continuing along the Talkeetna Spur off the Parks Highway. 


We found a really nice camp ground, the Talkeetna Boat Launch and RV Park.  It is an Alaska Fish and Game area.  When we arrived, there was only one other RV here.  We aren’t sure why, but when I made a reservation for the next two nights somewhere else, the person that I talked with hinted that things were beginning to slow down.  Could the travel season be ending here already?  It is hard to believe, with such nice weather.  It was in the mid 70’s today.  Here is where we are staying.


We had another short drive today, only 56 miles, but it took almost 1 1/2 hours to drive.  Well, I guess we stayed 20 or 25 minutes at the view point, taking pictures and admiring the clear view of the entire Alaska Range from Willow.  After we got our camp set up and ate some lunch, we drove to the Talkeetna View point for more mountain photos.   Here’s a better view of some of the mountains in the Alaska Range.  Mt. McKinley is to the right of the first picture and would be left of what you can see in the second one.


We took one of Mehay’s Jet Boat Tours on the Susitna river.  It was very interesting.  Here are some highlights.  Hover over the photo to get an explanation.

It was a very interesting tour.  The jet boat driver really enjoyed driving the boat at full speed along the river when we were going between points of interest.

I will leave you with the changing faces of Denali/ Mt. McKinley.  It is so rare to see the mountain for so long at a time, that I thought I would like to show it at the different points over the course of today.   It is interesting to see how the light changes the appearance and what features that you can see as noon time progresses to evening.  The times of day are on the photo. We were closer later in the day, as well.