Friday, Aug. 22, 2014 – Travel to Talkeetna, Hurricane Turn, Gorgeous Sunset over Clear Denali

With Denali checked off the list, we decided to head back to our favorite place so far, Talkeetna, and take the Hurricane Turn train, which had been our original plan for last Thursday, but we scrapped when the clear skies drew us to K2 aviation instead. On our drive down, we were about 50 or 60 miles south of the National Park when we turned a corner, and there she was!! Denali (aka Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North American) as clear as we'd ever seen it, absolutely gorgeous!! Starting to get spoiled seeing it so many times, so clearly, since only about 30% that visit ever get to see it, and now we've seen it more than once! We pulled off on several occasions to get good pictures, and the trip was made even more gorgeous because of the beautiful weather. As we got further south, though, it clouded up again, and the mountain was again obscured. Definitely have to take advantage whenever it comes out! We left Denali early so that we could make the train, and got there with a little time to spare. They gave us a permit to park the RV, which they said was good until tomorrow morning, so we decided we would probably just stay the night there, and before we knew it, we were off and running! ANOTHER great day, with unplanned stops all along the way, as this train is one of the last flag stop trains in North America, meaning that in order to catch it, all you have to do is stand by the edge of the tracks and flag the train down! It still services many old homesteaders in the area, and takes many hunters, fishermen, and even rafters up river for a few hours, a few days, or whatever, and they either float down the river or pick up the river on the return trip. Beautiful scenery once again, though we didn't see much wildlife, and the trip back wasn't as leisurely as normal, as one fisherman we had dropped off was suffering from chest pains when we picked him up, so we pretty much had to head straight back to the terminal, with just a few flag stops along the way. We had some interesting chats with the Conductor, though, even delving a little into the taboo subject of politics, and overall had a very good time. Check another one off the list! We opted instead of getting off at the depot to stay on the train until it backed up into town, then had dinner at a little pub behind the main general store that was having a Friday night special, a half pound burger, fries and a beer for $6.95, can't beat that! Then I persuaded Hubby to walk with me down to the edge of the river, where we were rewarded with a gradually clearing view of Denali, as the sun was setting, and got into a conversation with a couple from Oregon, I think, and we were literally there standing on the beach until 11:00! It gets dark so late here, that was just about when twilight was fading! Finally we walked back the half mile or so to the depot, where we spent the night, with only a couple of freight trains going through to disturb us before it quieted down for the rest of the night. Another GREAT day in (still) our favorite place in Alaska!