Alaska- Talkeetna Again

August 21- Merci Henri

First things first- We woke to a blue domer, just as Jenny had predicted. Departure day and it was gorgeous. Go figure.

We also woke to chaos as Hurricane Henri was closing in on Connecticut and both us and him were scheduled to be arriving at the same time tomorrow – not good! We tossed around ideas on what to do- just go with it and hope we can make it in? go with it knowing we could get stuck in Seattle or Chicago? Book new flights out for tonight? But as we discussed it and we realized we had the most gorgeous day of all, we had no desire to go sit in an airport stuck when we could just take the delay ahead of time, just in case, and stay on an extra day in Alaska. We would be able to make sure we have flights that shouldn’t get cancelled and roll with it. So, we rebooked our flights and will fly Anchorage to Seattle (spend the night) and then on to to Philadelphia where we need to rent a car and drive home – not the best but better than the more than likely alternative ( at least what the weather people were making it out to be).

We packed up and headed out not knowing exactly what we would be doing until we dropped out of the woods and came to the first clearing – audible gasps followed by some, “Holy sh@ts!” Then when the shock settled we couldn’t stop talking about how incredible the view was – the mountains clear as day were right there! When we checked in yesterday, the owner said, “I wish it wasn’t so cloudy so you could see the view.” Yeah, yeah I know…Now I know what view she was talking about!

It didn’t take long for the “if onlys” to start followed by a bit of a depression at all the time we had put in driving all over to have such limited views. But it also didn’t take long for Jenny to ask if we thought Denali was out too. And it took even less time for us to point the red baron in that direction, call the hotel we had stayed at before and hit the gas pedal hard when he confirmed not only a room but that Denali was out!

What, we thought, is another couple hundred miles detour, if we could get to see Denali -remember it was the one thing Jenny had wanted to see before we got here and had eluded us for the most part.

When the great one first came into view, the car went wild. We were giddy with excitement as I put the pedal to the metal. It was really overwhelming to finally see it and amazing that at over 100 miles away it took up our entire viewpoint!

As we raced north, we slowly watched the clouds coming in and start blocking the mountain. By the time we reached the Denali State Park South Viewpoint there was little left to be seen. We sat for a long time watching to see if maybe the clouds might move while coming up with a game plan to increase our chances of seeing it. And here’s where we went a little crazy.

We decided to go 30 miles more to the North Viewpoint but we didn’t have enough gas to get back to our destination to do that so we traveled south 18 miles to the nearest gas station, turned around went 18 miles north, had a big old black bear cross the highway right in front of us, stopped at the South Viewpoint again to see if it popped out, parts were visible but not all of it. We then drove the additional 30 miles north to the North Viewpoint where we saw nothing, we couldn’t even figure out where it should be with all the clouds. Turned around and drove south 30 miles to the South Viewpoint again, still only parts were visible. We then drove 50 miles to Talkeetna to check in and find dinner.

Wait times at the sit down restaurants were running upwards of 1 1/2 hours so we ordered tacos from the taco truck, grabbed a six pack of beer from the liquor store and sat at a picnic table chowing down on some delicious grub! We all agreed that we can say we saw Denali, even if it wasn’t from as close as we would have liked.

We started chatting with a family that was dining the same way as us. They were in a camper and were asking about where we had been, where we would recommend etc. Nice family from Minneapolis who we ended up giving our bear spray to as they hadn’t secured any as of yet – not such a good idea around these parts!

As we were getting up to leave, we commented on how perfectly clear the skies were now. Billy walked ahead with the family to hand off the bear spray while Jenny and I grabbed ice cream cones. While we were waiting in line, Billy texted that he could see the mountain. He got the car, picked us up and we drove 1/4 mile down the road to the viewpoint in Talkeetna where indeed, Denali was out!

As we sat looking at it, savoring our ice cream cones, Jenny turned to us and said, “We have to go to the South Viewpoint! We have to go! It will only be two hours round trip. We have to!” “Well…What else do we have to do,” I said. “Let’s go!” And this is where we went nuts…we jumped in the car and took off, stopping to grab a small bottle of bourbon, a bag of ice and two empty slushy cups. The lady told Jenny, “Welcome to the 30% club!” Only 30% of the people ever get to see Denali, so we were considering ourselves lucky!

On Jenny drove, arriving to the Viewpoint by 9:30PM, the sun still up and the mountain sitting on her throne of majesty for all to bow in awe at. The scene was spectacular and we sat there while the few remaining clouds slowly dissipated. After 30 minutes or so, we decided to see what the view was like up a trail that was off to the right.

Up we walked, hollering out to the bears, especially since we had given away our only line of defense. When we crested the hill, we all just about cried at the view. Unreal! Wow! Holy Cow! Mercy…

We sat and watched in utter disbelief that we were finally seeing not only 20,310 foot Denali, but a huge swath of the Alaska Range, as far as the eye could see, pretty much cloud free! As we and a few others sat in silence, marveling at some of Mother Nature’s finest work, a lady calmly, quietly said, “Look, there are three bears down there.” Sure enough down along the riverside we could see three bears, two cubs running wild and their mama!

Jenny, very calmly, very observantly noticed, “We are sitting here, looking not only at Denali, amazing on its own, but we are watching grizzlies too. Can it get any better than this?” “Welcome to what must be the 10%,” I responded, “Because honestly…what are the chances?”

So, merci Henri, for taking aim at Connecticut. Without you, we would not have seen her; we would have left completely defeated, instead we hit a high note, a super high note, on what should have been our departure day. Merci beaucoup Henri…merci!