{"id":96,"date":"2006-07-10T12:58:48","date_gmt":"2006-07-10T18:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/saturday-712006-anchorage-to-denali\/"},"modified":"2012-11-08T08:23:56","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T14:23:56","slug":"saturday-712006-anchorage-to-denali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/saturday-712006-anchorage-to-denali\/","title":{"rendered":"Anchorage, Talkeetna, and our Cabin in Denali"},"content":{"rendered":"

We awoke at 5:30am (which happily felt like sleeping in), and checked out of the hotel. We got us some Starbucks downtown, then stopped at a supermarket for the supplies we felt might be hard to come by in Denali. They were playing Don’t Stop Believin’<\/em> over the loudspeaker, just for me. I also stocked up on decongestants, because I’d stopped being able to breathe since we’d gotten to Alaska.<\/p>\n

We were well up the Parks highway by 8:30am, passing through the few suburbs of Anchorage, and then out into what felt like the middle of nowhere. It looked kind of like northern Wisconsin for a while; pine trees, cabins, and the occasional tavern. We stopped at Montana Creek to look around and climb under the railroad trestle, then headed to Talkeetna<\/a>, a little town about 15 miles off the highway. It’s reportedly the model for the town in the show “Northern Exposure”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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\ntalkeetna mermoose<\/em><\/p>\n

Talkeetna is ridiculously cute. It’s all outfitters, gift shops, a famous old general store, and restaurants. Everyone is friendly. We wandered around a bunch of artsy little shops, stopped to talk to Stubbs the cat, the mayor and mascot of Talkeetna (as one of the locals informed us), and walked up to see the depot where the Alaska Railroad pulls up along the Susitna River.<\/p>\n

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\nthis tiny airport is where almost all Mount McKinley\/Denali climbing expeditions begin. <\/em><\/p>\n

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\nstubbs!<\/em><\/p>\n

We had lunch out on the patio at the West Rib Pub<\/a>, then wandered around the town some more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We went back out to the Parks highway and continued towards Denali. We stopped at a few overlooks in Denali State Park, where we encountered our first bear warning signs, and got our first (very limited) view of Denali.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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\nin denali state park <\/em><\/p>\n

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\nmy obligatory sideview photo<\/em><\/p>\n

We reached Denali National Park<\/a> around 6:30pm, and drove up to our hotel, located in the little community across the highway from the park entrance, which doesn’t even have a name; directions are given based on the mile marker on the Parks Highway.<\/p>\n

The Denalis Crow’s Nest<\/a> was spectacular. It’s a bunch of cute little cabins lining the side of Sugarloaf Mountain. Ours was on the fourth tier at the far end, with a great view of Mount Healy and the park entrance. It was set up like a rustic hotel room inside, and had a couple of chairs and little table out front on the deck. We couldn’t have picked a better place to stay.<\/p>\n

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\nthe denali party cabin (ours is the last on the left)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We unpacked and went downstairs to the Overlook Bar and Grill for dinner. We sat on the patio drinking girly drinks from milk bottles and staring at the park. It was kind of hard to believe we were actually there. After dinner, we went up and sat on the patio, reading. We had trouble deciding when to go to bed, because the sunset never actually happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We awoke at 5:30am (which happily felt like sleeping in), and checked out of the hotel. We got us some Starbucks downtown, then stopped at a supermarket for the supplies we felt might be hard to come by in Denali. They were playing Don’t Stop Believin’ over the loudspeaker, just for me. I also stocked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[16],"tags":[506,211,76,77,207,113,56,210],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":{"latitude":62.3125572000000005346009857021272182464599609375,"longitude":-150.089157099999994215977494604885578155517578125,"description":"Talkeetna, AK 99676, USA"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2006\/07\/186895556_4868b5212a_o1.jpg?fit=3072%2C2304","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Z5R-1y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":100,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/wednesday-752006-denali-to-the-kenai-peninsula\/","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":0},"title":"Denali to the Kenai Peninsula","author":"Jenni","date":"07.10.2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We got up, checked out of our awesome party cabin, and headed back south. We saw a moose crossing the highway with two babies along the way. Traffic sucked in Wasilla, so we got to Anchorage around 1pm. the igloo We stopped for food and a memory card for my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alaska"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/alaska\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2006\/07\/187099969_7857ca20b4_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":103,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/saturday-782006-seward-to-anchorage\/","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":1},"title":"Hope, Alaska, and Back to Anchorage","author":"Jenni","date":"07.10.2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday morning, there were brand new cruise ships in the harbor. Sadly, we checked out and headed back up the Kenai Peninsula. We decided to take a short side-trip to see Hope. We liked the name. hope Hope was a ridiculously cute little town, and from the looks of it,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alaska"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/alaska\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2006\/07\/187344814_a3f0e2586e_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":98,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/monday-732006-denali-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":2},"title":"Denali National Park","author":"Jenni","date":"07.10.2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday morning, we took the park shuttle from the visitors' center to the dog kennel, where we got to meet the dogs, and see a sled-pulling demonstration. It was kind of rainy, but the dogs were raring to go regardless. They were probably wishing for snow. denali sled dog kennels\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alaska"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/alaska\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2006\/07\/186979362_33a86fcced_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":97,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/sunday-722006-denali-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":3},"title":"Denali: All the Way to Wonder Lake","author":"Jenni","date":"07.10.2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We woke at 6:15am. Though it had been light all night, we slept fine. I was not particularly enjoying my cocktail of decongestants, however. I didn't feel sick otherwise, I just couldn't breathe. We drove into the park and followed the signs to the Wilderness Access Center. Because the buses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alaska"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/alaska\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2006\/07\/186928441_232e8923cf_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":99,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/tuesday-742006-independence-day-denali\/","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":4},"title":"Celebrating Independence Day in Denali","author":"Jenni","date":"07.10.2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We got to sleep in on the 4th of July, getting up shortly before 8am to make the 9:30 bus to the Toklat River station. It was clearer, with no sign of rain for once. We called home to reassure my mom that we were alive, then went to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alaska"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/alaska\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2006\/07\/187039435_1d6625ad67_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C813&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":104,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/alaska\/sunday-792006-anchorage-to-minneapolis\/","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":5},"title":"Anchorage -> Minneapolis","author":"Jenni","date":"07.10.2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We got up at 9, stomped on our suitcases to close them, and said bye to the mushrooms in the bathroom. I think I saw them waving back!","rel":"","context":"In "Alaska"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/alaska\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/60\/187346993_a4f117ea56.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}