Day 47 - Byers Lake to K'esugi Kem

First Views of Denali

We found a brand new campground today, K'esugi Ken, in Denali State Park. It opened only six weeks ago. I'd read about it on the State Parks web site as being under construction with a planned opening this year, but there was nothing that said it was actually open. We were going to try the Denali View South Campground, but that is actually a parking lot. We saw the sign fo K'esugi Ken as we passed and after the disappointment of Denali View South, we came back to check if it was really open. We are very glad we did.

The roads are all paved and the sites are all large and open. All the RV sites are electric, but it is more expensive at $30 a night...but it allows two vehicles per site. We managed to grab a big pull-through site which happens to have a view of Denali that we can share. We will be staying a while. It is probably the best RV site in the park. It seems to be the only one with a view of the mountain from the site.

After getting settled in the campsite, we decided pile into Harry and Sally's van and go on to Talkeetna, the town which is known for being the base of operations for climbs of Denali, the highest mountain in North America. It is about 15 miles from the campground as the raven flies, but 40 miles by car as there is no bridge across the Susitna River for about 30 miles.

There were lots of people in Talkeetna. It is as much a tourist town as a climbing town. The train stops here. It is the base for flight-seeing trips around the mountain and it has lots of shops and restaurants. We had a good lunch at the Denali Brewing Co.

After lunch we walked to the end of the main street, which ends at the Susitna river,  just below the confluence of the Susitna, Talkeetna and Chulitna Rivers. It has a great view of Alaska Range and Denali. The river flows very fast here. It is no place to fall in. 

We stopped at the Talkeetna Ranger Station. This is the registration point for pepole wanting to clib Denali. The climbing season starts in May and ends today, with over 1100 climbers this year and a 40% success rate. There were still about 35 climbers on the mountain but most were expected to check back in today.

We wandered around town a bit an enquired about Denali flight-seeing. There are at least three companies that have flights up to the glaciers and around the mountains and all see to cahrge about the same prices. The weather was great today, but is expected to get worse over the next few days, so a flight will have to wait...maybe later in the week.

I was able to make an appointment so we will be off to Anchorage tomorrow for new tires, then we will be back here for at least the weekend.