Talkeetna, Welcome moose

Talkeetna

From Denali we drove south on highway 3 to Talkeetna, a small town at the base of Mount McKinley. Talkeeta is the staging site for climbers. Tour and air companies operate from there, outfitting and flying climbers to base camp and guiding some of them up the mountain.

Nagley’s Grocery Store is right on the square. We went there first for ice cream and saw a sobering sign on the counter, a whiteboard listing the numbers on the mountain, as registered at the Denali rangers’ office in town.

All along the trip I bought postcards where I couldn’t get a good picture. Bears, mountain ranges, native art, etc. The postcards at Nagley’s, and only at Nagley’s, were of climbers at spectacular ledges and cliffs, not just on McKinleybut throughout Alaska. It’s a climber’s world.

The ice cream was great. The rules listed on the hotel door kitty-corner from Nagley’s were entertaining. The square was busy with food booths, people basking in the sun, tour kiosks, souvenir and craft and art shops.

The next week, on the Fourth of July, there would be a Moose Art Award. Moose art, that is models of moose, were in front of many shops and houses. They were pretty cute. And always the mountains surrounded us.

Coming up next my last blog – Anchorage