Long Day Behind the Wheel

But a really good one.

My mom and I headed out early this morning for the Matanuska Glacier, some 130 miles ENE from the house. Once there, I suggested that we head west to Talkeetna. It was sunny so there was a chance that we might be able to see Denali (Mt. McKinley, to you Lower 48 folks who never knew it had a name for several thousand years before Congress got involved).

The glacier was right where I remembered it - go figure, huh?

We doubled back through Palmer and into Wasilla, where we topped off the gas tank & picked up some more food for the road. Off we went, northwest up the Glenn Parks Highway.

Just as you reach the village of Talkeetna, there's a small parking area from which you can see Denali if the weather is clear. The mountain is so big (20,322 feet) that it makes its own weather system, and it's most often shrouded in clouds.

We didn't think we could see anything, until I finally realized a portion of what looked like a cloud bank wasn't moving with the rest of the clouds. Lo and behold, it was part of The Great One (that's what "Denali" mean, in the original language). Here I've zoomed in on the portion of the north shoulder, so you can see what we finally realized we were seeing. It's not even the summit, just a shoulder that's about 2/3 of the way up. It's a BIG mountain.

Talkeetna was wall-to-wall people, as Princess cruise lines had just dropped off a few hundred passengers to get on bush planes, trains, jet boats, or buses, heading out to the great interior of Alaska. There was barely enough room on Main Street to maneuver my truck between the weary passengers, trudging with heads down while texting in traffic.

Talkeetna is really built up since the last time I was there, some five or six years ago. Lots of new construction, new shops ... new everything, as "the town that Princess re-designed" continues its quest to become the Branson of the North.

Pah.

Anyway, we saw the glacier, part of Mt. McKinley, the village of Talkeetna and Mom was happy to have been in world-famous Wasilla (the place former Governor Sarah calls home).

It was a really good day.