Talkeetna

Moving south today and kind of - sort of  separating from our friends, Troy and Kelly, who we have been hanging out and traveling with since Whitehorse. They are traveling south faster than we are to go fishing. We look forward reconnecting with them later in our trip. We have so enjoyed our time with them. Good people.

This bridge crossing Hurricane Gulch allowed travel to Denali. Prior to this bridge being built in the early 1970s, you could not cross this Glulch, you had to go around into Canada and back to Denali which was a couple day trip. This made travel so much easier.             

Hurricane Gulch is so deep you can hardly see the river flowing below.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The flowers were so pretty I had to take a closer look.   Talkeetna is the 1st town of the day for us. This cute quirky little town is located at the confluence of the Talkeetna, Susitna, and Chulitna rivers. Many tours can be taken here such as fishing, rafting, horseback riding,             and flightseeing. We enjoyed walking along the river and up to the railroad trestle, where at one time the train would stop for the local homesteaders anywhere along the track.     This doesn’t happen now and for the homesteaders this walkway onlong the tressle, wide enough for a 46 inch ATV, is the only way to and from their homes. They will leave a car in Talkeetna and take the ATV over the trestle and go miles and miles back in the woods to go home. Can you imagine how long it takes to build a home, barn, garage, anything, lugging  supplies back on an ATV with a small trailer attached? How about groceries? Remember that is tough in summer but winter is coming and it’s dark. No street lights in the outback. That is a way of life only a few can do.

The cotton wood trees are shedding their cotton and it is so thick it looks like it is snowing on this warm 80 degree day.

All of that white stuff on the side of the road is  cotton like fluff.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                We caught a Bald eagle perched                  and watched it fly away. We are on our way to Wasilla, and Man we are in the big city now. Street lights line the main road of Wasilla.     Almost looks like Vegas! LOL. Strip shopping malls, Target, Walmart, Fred Myers (like an upscale Walmart), all the food chains. This is a big city, the 4th largest in Alaska, but not too big with fantastic mountains as a back drop. Walmart is home again for the night.