Train Ride to Talkeetna

Here's a little glimpse of our trip from Denali to Talkeetna, which took place many days ago but which I'm only now getting a chance to pass along.

To recap, our Natural Habitat Adventures "Hidden Alaska" trip started in Fairbanks, followed by the better part of three days in Denali National Park. After Denali, we boarded an Alaska Railroad train right inside the national park and headed to Talkeetna, about four hours to the south. As part of the NatHab experience, we got the deluxe Gold Star service, which included a clear-domed car, for better viewing of the scenery, plus the railroad equivalent of flight attendants waiting on us throughout the trip.

That's John and Adrienne, a couple from Sonoma, Calif., enjoying the train's service and the scenery. John and Adrienne are one of five couples on the trip; then there are four of us who are singles; plus Andrea, our NatHab guide, for a total of just 15 travelers. It's great to travel in such a small group and have a guide all to ourselves.

After we arrived in Talkeetna, we headed off to dinner, then spent the night, then had a few hours to explore the town in the morning. If you've traveled to Alaska, you may have experienced Talkeetna yourself. It's a very tiny town—the main street is probably three blocks long at most. Here is Talkeetna's version of a strip mall:

One of Talkeetna's claims to fame is that a lot of people who climb Denali, or Mount McKinley, start off here. We had breakfast at the Roadhouse, which is a combination rooming house and restaurant that caters to climbers. That must explain the enormous portions of food they serve!

That's Ted, another of the NatHab travelers, showing off his Roadhouse pancake, which as you can see is bigger than the plate itself. As for me, I had the "half order" of eggs, which is four eggs; I figured I didn't need the "full order" of eight eggs, since I had no plans to climb Denali that day. Or ever, actually.

There's a ranger station in Talkeetna where you can watch a very cool video of what it's like to climb Denali, and also check out this chart of who's been climbing Denali and a neighboring peak called Foraker (pronounced "four acre"):

Apparently the time to climb Denali is in the spring, before the snow starts to melt and create dangerous crevasses. So by the time we got there on Labor Day, the climbing season was long over.

By the way, Andrea has requested that I include a photo of a golden retriever we saw in Talkeetna. Ted (the guy with the big pancake) pointed out the dog to me. Note the built-in toy around its neck:

After checking out the shops and sights in Talkeetna—some of the gang did a little laundry as well—we got on a bus and headed off to Girdwood, for a night at the Alyeska Lodge, which I've already written about.

Back to real time: Today (Thursday, Sept. 6) we left Seward and headed up to Anchorage. We made a stop at Exit Glacier, which was very cool, and at Portage Lake, which wasn't too shabby either. After dinner at a seafood restaurant in Anchorage tonight, we head to Katmai National Park tomorrow for—we hope—some very close encounters with the brown bears near the famed Brooks Lodge.

More later!