Another funky little Alaska town, shots fired, and fishing stories.....

Heading south from Denali on the Parks Highway, there is another funky little Alaska town called Talkeetna.  This small town began as a trading post in 1896 and is now the jumping off point for  most climbing expeditions to Mt. McKinley (Denali).  Also, many sight seeing flights to see Denali leave from here and if you ever wanted to land on a glacier, this is the place for that.  Also, the Alaska Railroad stops here on its way from Anchorage to Fairbanks.

The general store

Mostly Moose gift shop

Looks like a nice place to eat

The Alaska Railroad stops here

A few nights later we had an event happen that I would just as soon forget about.  We set up camp at along side the Knik River, along with a few other campers.  Sometime after we went to bed, a group of kids set up camp in the area, and at 2:30 in the morning, after drinking enough beer, got out their guns and started shooting.  This went on for over a hour and was quite  uncomfortable not knowing if those bullets might hit the trailer.  The truck was still hooked up to the trailer, so we quietly put things away, and left at 3:30am.  I guess I should have expected this after watching the Alaska State Troopers on TV.  Seems like every car they pull over has not one, but several guns in it.

From Talkeetna we drove to Seward and spent two days sitting in the rain.  This is on the coast and the cruise ships make a stop here.  Not only do these  huge ships dock themselves, but I saw one turn around and back into his slip!!  What a show off!!

Next we drove to Homer and stayed on the famous Homer Spit.  This sand spit goes out into Kachemak Bay several miles and has lots of camp grounds, fishing charters, and gift shops. I was lucky enough to be invited to go halibut fishing with a semi retired charter boat captain and two other guys.  We caught seven halibut total. There is also a small lagoon where they have released young salmon, who go out to sea for up to four years, then return to this spot when its time to spawn.  This is done just for the folks to have something to catch.  Also, the TV show Alaska The Last Frontier is filmed a short distance from here.

Salmon fishing in the lagoon

Fish and chips on the boardwalk

Camped right along the shore in Homer

On the way back up the Kenai Penensula, we stopped in Soldotna at a campground along the world famous Kenai River, and I caught my first ever sockeye salmon.

Kenai River sockeye salmon

Denali National Park and Reserve

Denali is the tallest mountain in North America

Saturday May 30,2015……   Today we had the pleasure of visiting a very special place.  We had no idea that Denali National Park was so beautiful.  The park road goes back into the 6 million acre park a distance of 92 miles.  The public can only drive in the first 15 miles, so if you want to see the good stuff you need to ride a shuttle bus or tour bus. The reason for the buses is to keep the impact of all the visitors to a minimum.   We boarded our bus at 7:00 am for the 53 mile, 6 1/2 hour  trek to see the sights.  And we really saw some sights.

Not exactly a luxury coach

 We had perfect weather and Denali showed itself all day long.  The road follows the mountain side most of the way, gravel, and  just barely enough room for the buses to pass each other.  We were  so close to the side and so high up that I had to look away several times.

North face of Denali

A tourist checking out the view

A much different look further back into the park

We saw:  moose, caribou, wolf, grizzly bears, big horn sheep, ptarmigan, and arctic squirrels.  Everyone needs to put this on their bucket list of places to see.  I hope these pictures can do it justice.

Give these big boys lots of room!!

We saw lots of caribou on this trip

Update on the arctic circle trip:  We started out to drive to the arctic circle but aborted the trip only after 25 miles.  The road was the worst we have seen to date.  We weren't even off the paved portion and the pot holes and frost heaves were terrible.  Several times we had to cross clear over to the opposite lane to miss the bigger pot holes.  It just wasn't worth the wear and tear on the equipment.

Mother moose

We stayed at a campground in Denali Park where a mother moose with two calves has taken up residence.   She was extremely defensive and sent one woman to the hospital and another woman she knocked down while we were there.  These can be very dangerous animals.