Friday, May 25, 2018

Talkeetna, Alaska


When we were looking for a place to spend a few nights in Alaska, I didn't do a search for a hotel. I searched for cabins. We were happy with our stay at McKinley Creekside Cabins. And we were even happier with our stay at the Talkeetna Wilderness Lodge and Cabins.

How could you not when your cabin looks like this?
How can you not when you can sit on your porch in the morning, with a view like this, soaking up the warm Alaskan sunshine?
It was down a gravel road several miles outside of Talkeetna. We couldn't have asked for a better location. Peace and quiet.

After some time spent in that morning sun, we headed into Talkeetna for breakfast. On the way we came across quite the view. After two days of clouds, Denali popped out. Just spectacular.

Then we made our way to a place called the Talkeetna Roadhouse. I sat down and hubby got wide eyed. He pointed to a sign right behind me. See that sign? It said Adam from Man v. Food sat in the exact same spot I was sitting.
Here's the view from my seat (instead of the sign on the wall).
 I went with a breakfast wrap, hubby went with biscuits and reindeer sausage gravy. Of course, he added plenty of pepper.
Then I saw these raspberry cinnamon rolls in the case.
While we weren't hungry anymore, we just had to try one. Oh. My. Goodness. Best thing ever!
 If you're interested in their menu, you can find it below.



Thursday, May 24, 2018

A Day in Denali - Tundra Wilderness Tour


When we booked a Tundra Wilderness Tour a couple months back we knew very little about it:
  • We could choose a time but the actual time will be assigned 24-48 hours before the tour begins.
  • It goes into Denali National Park.
  • The tour uses an old school bus.
  • There was some kind of snack or lunch or something.
  • It was supposed to be a good tour.

That's it. We didn't know a darn thing else.

After doing the tour today I can report it was a good tour. Actually, a great tour. I highly recommend it.

Yep, our assigned time was different than the time we signed up for. Thank goodness! We had chosen a 6:40 am time (yikes, right?) but our actual assigned time was 9:10 am (whew).

Yep, it was an old school bus with student seats replaced with coach seats.

We had brought a box lunch from McKinley Creekside Cafe, just in case. They made amazing box lunches.
Look at the size of the brownie they put in our box!
 And the turkey and red onion!
But we really didn't need them as when we got on the bus there were boxes of snacks on our seats. Good snacks? Yep, and bottles (actually cans) of water to boot.
Just look at the variety of snacks each of us got.
Why would we need such a robust box of snacks for a bus ride? Because this bus ride went 52 miles into Denali National Park. On gravel roads and dirt roads, roads inaccessible to private vehicles. Through the forests and tundra and snowy vistas. For seven hours! (Later in the season the road opens a bit deeper into the park, but not in May.)

We saw bears. Lots of bears.

Lots of caribou.

Lots of Dall sheep.

How about porcupines? Yep.
Ptarmigans? Yep. Lots.
And if you didn't have a good view from your seat, the driver stopped the bus and used a zoom lens camera to get up close video. That video is broadcast right then and there on screens throughout the bus.

They had a heavy snow winter and it made for spectacular views.

No climbing up to the top of this viewpoint.
The roads were in good shape. But some of them were a bit scary. Glad I wasn't driving! 
See the road in the side of the mountain? Scary!
 It was an amazing day. Even heading south towards our hotel in Talkeetna was super pretty. Alaska is just gorgeous this time of year.