0032 Sun 8th June - Denali to Anchorage

I woke up early and spent a couple of hours sitting in the early morning sunshine downloading photos while Janet snoozed on. But by about 9 am, dark clouds were starting to come over, so we quickly packed up and got on the road.  It wasn’t long before the rain started, and as it was quite heavy, we elected to miss dropping in on Brian who we had met at the Bake a few days earlier – Sorry about that, Brian, if you are reading this ! It rained pretty solidly for 2-3 hours, so once again, Janet missed seeing the dramatic back of the Denali mountains and Mt McKinley as we drove down the parks highway towards Anchorage.

 Once we reached the Talkeetna turn off, the weather was starting to clear, so we decided to drive the 20 miles back north (on a side road) to Talkeetna. On my trip 2 years ago one of the highlights was a ski plane flight up to Mt McKinley, the tallest mountain in N America, when we landed on the Ruth Glacier, and the pilot of the plane was Trent Griffin.  I had contacted him recently and found that he was now flying out of Talkeetna with Talkeetna Air Taxis, so we went looking for him – And found him as he wasn’t flying that day. It was good to see him again, and he kindly showed us around and on the big De Havilland Otters which he normally flies up to McKinley – As well as the tourist flights, they take about 400 climbers a year up to a base camp and pick them up once they have completed their climb. We also saw Trent’s own little plane, and took some photos together.  Great to catch up with you again, Trent – Maybe we will see you in Australia one day ?

The weather was starting to close in again, so after a quick look at Talkeetna (rather a lot of coffee shops and tourists all wandering around), we headed back south towards Anchorage.

 

To be completed

 

Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0032DenaliToAnchorage?authkey=Gv1sRgCM6qybHPy6OXSQ#