6/29 &6/30
Leaving Denali we are traveling along the Nenana River in a Valley and along side are the Alaska Mountains, the highest in North America and they are majestic. They remain partially covered with snow and glaciers year round. The highway is a little better than yesterday. It is very hazy again today. We have found that most of the fires burning now were set by the Parks. This burning is done every year in different years to help the forest ecology. The mountains are not clear but are still beautiful. For most of the way we had trees on both sides of the road so were not seeing many mountains but they are spectacular now. We are staying in Talkeetna at the Talkeetna Camper Park for two nights. Talkeetna is the main staging area for those wanting to climb Mt. McKinley. The planes fly them up to the base of the mountain and they start their climb from there. There were about 160 climbers on the mountain while we were there and they had heavy rain in the lower part of the mountain and snow above 1700 feet. We listened to a lady give a seminar on climbing. We decided it was way out of our capability let alone our desire. Mt. McKinley can be seen from Talkeetna but only 80% of people who come here actually see it because of cloud cover. Gene ate Salmon Bake while here. He liked it. I like salmon cold out of the can but not much cooked. Our last morning we ate at the famous Roadhouse. They are known for their sourdough pancakes. These pancakes are about 12 inches in diameter. Yes, that is correct. Then later we took a flightseeing ride to the Mt. McKinley area. We had hoped to land on Ruth Glacier but the clouds were sitting on the floor of the glacier and the pilot thought it unsafe to land and or take off. It is quite awesome to see those big big mountains and the glaciated valleys. The mountains are above the tree line. They are granite and the wet Tundra valleys are covered with mosses and lichens. These huge mountains made us feel very small. As soon as we landed we left for Anchorage which is about 2 hours south. The road were in good shape. We did not see any mountains again until we were close to Anchorage. This is the Pacific Range. We had hoped to stay at Walmart for one night but they do not allow overnight parking so we are staying at the Golden Nugget Camper Park. We will be here for a week.