Alaskan Adventure: Days 52 & 53. Visit to quirky little town of Talkeetna and an AWESOME airplane flight from Talkeetna to land in the “Mountain House” area. The official name on maps is the “Ruth Amphitheatre” or “Sheldon Amphitheatre” which is the head of the Ruth Glacier. The Amphitheatre basin landing area is about 5,300′ and surrounded by much higher peaks.

On our way to visit Talkeetna we drove past a place advertising “Birch Syrup” and “Birch Ice-cream”. We had to stop. They described tapping paper birch trees very similar to the maple syrup process. Birch Ice-cream was a nice, mild, hard-to-describe flavor, like a really mild hint of molasses.

Mahay’s Jet Boat Adventures: This is what we were scheduled to do this morning but it was cancelled due to crazy flooding. They showed me a little video of the boat dock we would have been using but it was underwater with a raging muddy river surging over the gangway to get to the dock. It had been raining off-and-on for several days.

We went to check on the afternoon scheduled activity which was a plane flight up to see Denali. There were 5 people from our group scheduled but four had cancelled (Becky was not feeling well that morning). The morning flights had already been cancelled anyway because of the rain and clouds but there was a chance the 4:00 afternoon flight would go if it cleared up.

Becky and I had breakfast Taco’s at a food truck.

We walked around Talkeetna and of course stopped at the fabric store. We didn’t buy any fabric but we did get a Talkeetna Santa Christmas ornament…

Our souvenir Talkeetna Cabin Santa.

This is ‘downtown’ Talkeetna. The rain had quit. This is about the only paved road in the town and it is a dead end street. The town inspired the TV show “Northern Exposure” and the show’s town of Cicely. We did not see any moose wandering the streets. Many of the buildings in Talkeetna are original and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including Fairview Inn and Nagley’s Store. Fairview Inn was built in 1923 to accommodate travelers on the new Alaska Railroad. Many mountaineering climbers use Talkeetna as the starting point for trips. Fairview Inn is also infamous because President Warren G. Harding visited for lunch a few days before dying suddenly in San Francisco.

Horace Nagley opened this store in 1921. It was the General Store, Post Office and Territorial Headquarters for the area. Aurora may be seen in this store. Aurora is a cat. Aurora is the Mayor of Talkeetna, replacing Mayor Stubbs (also a cat) who had served 20 years until his death in 2017.

The town is located at the convergence of three glacial rivers—the Susitna, the Chulitna, and the Talkeetna. It was a place early nomadic people camped to dry and process fish and game near the rivers.

Three more historic buildings and background info. It’s an interesting tourist town with lots of repurposed old cabins.

After touring Talkeetna we went back to the Airport to check on the flight. This pic begins to explain why the morning Jet Boat Adventure had been cancelled. There were flood warnings and lots of water around.

The weather cleared up! This is the “Ski-Plane” that would take us up to see Denali – maybe… The guides were careful to point out no guarantee that we would see Mt. McKinley (everyone just calls it Denali) because the skies were not clear and clouds often hang around the top of Denali. The plane is a 10 seat De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter turbo prop.

Becky went to the town Library after taking this pic and seeing me off for the adventure.

Inside the plane.

The Pilot (Daniel) and a view looking back at the airport.

Another pic showing the flooding. That’s the whole town of Talkeetna there on the left side and airport on the right side. The road to Talkeetna ends at Talkeetna. Only the Railroad Bridge continues on to the left. The pilot explained that normally the rivers are gravel beds with a few braided streams weaving around, not full up to the banks and overflowing.

The trip was amazing. The pilot explained some things and named lots of landmarks, most of which I have forgotten. I’m just going to post a bunch of pics and add a few comments where I remember what he said. To make a long story short, I saw lots of absolutely awesome sights of mountains and glaciers but I did not see Denali. I was really close but it was mostly shrouded by clouds.

This is the lower end of “Tokositna Glacier”. The path we took from Talkeetna was to fly up Tokositna Glacier, across to “The Great Gorge” and land in “The Ruth Amphitheatre” at “Mountain House”. When we took back off we flew around in the Amphitheatre area then down The Great Gorge and Ruth Glacier back to Talkeetna.

Here’s a map showing the Glaciers and Ruth Amphitheatre just south and below Mt McKinley.

This map shows Talkeetna and the whole Denali National Park area.

Not sure what this is but it was cool looking.

I don’t know if this has a name but it is a beautiful outcrop of mountain in the Ruth Amphitheatre that we passed by as we prepared to land on Ruth Glacier.

Ruth Glacier near the top, just below Ruth Amphitheatre.

When we left Talkeetna there were 5 planes that took off. The first plane to take off was loaded with people and backpacks. I did not know at the time that you could stay up here on the mountain. As we were flying in our pilot pointed out the first plane that had just landed below us by itself. I think the passengers were headed to the Sheldon Mountain House.

Landing and Taxiing into position to take back off – long video.

The pilot took some pictures for us.

Behind my head, beyond the peaks you can see, in the cloud, is Denali, shrouded by clouds.

View from another direction in the Amphitheater. I call it the Ruth Amphitheater because that’s what the pilot called it but the Amphitheater was officially renamed by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2019 to honor legendary Alaskan bush pilot Don Sheldon. It is still the head of the Ruth Glacier. I was surprised to see buildings here!

This is the Sheldon Chalet, a very expensive “hotel” with everything catered and flown-in. It is 2,000 square feet with 5 bedrooms. Here is a link to the website is you want to reserve a room: https://www.sheldonchalet.com/the-chalet. Reservations start at $32,000/night. This Chalet is only 10 miles from the summit of Denali. The helicopter landing pad on the right side is also used as an observation platform for watching the Northern Lights.

For a more rustic experience you can stay at the Sheldon Mountain House. Here is a link to that website for book your reservation: https://www.sheldonchalet.com/mountain-house

Detail of the rock wall behind the plane and the plane tail in the snow.

The landing area and standing around in the snow was incredible and surprising to me. It was so bright I wished I had brought sunglasses. There was absolutely no wind and it was HOT up there!

Pic of one of the other planes leaving the Amphitheatre.

Cool jagged wall of rock and snow.

This is looking ‘down’ Ruth Glacier just exiting the Ruth Amphitheatre area where the snow cover ends and the glacial ice is exposed.

Next few pics are of the surface of Ruth Glacier as we flew back down to Talkeetna.

This is still Ruth Glacier but down lower in elevation the ice is covered with dirt as it goes around this cool green covered mountain. The yellow smudge is a reflection in the window.

Looking ‘up’ Ruth Glacier near the end. Still dirt covered ice.

Looking ‘down’ Ruth Glacier toward the rivers and Talkeetna.

This is on the way back to Talkeetna once past the end of the glaciers. The pilot explained that the areas without trees are too wet (marshy) for trees to grow. The linear nature of the low, wet areas is the direction the glacier traveled when it extended out this far.

There were a few isolated houses like this one with no roads to them. The pilot explained that many Alaskans prefer the winters in Alaska when everything is frozen and they can snowmobile through the trees to get supplies. It is very difficult to travel in the summer because it is so wet, buggy, and swampy.

Wrapping up this long post I had to include some pics of Denali (Mt McKinley).

I would like to say this is Denali but I really don’t know. This was what I saw in a break through the clouds as we were going up and coming through the clouds (before landing on the glacier).

Some others in our RV group took a different flight from Healy a few days earlier when we were visiting Denali National Park. Their flight did not land on a glacier but it went a lot higher (they were above 20,000′ elevation and used oxygen on the plane). My flight did not go above 10,000′ and was only at 6,000′ where we landed in Ruth Amphitheatre. But… they saw Denali and allowed me to use their pics. So here’s some Denali pics compliments of Mike and Amy.

Special Thanks to Amy for the 4 photos above so we could see what was hiding in the clouds!

I didn’t get to see Denali when I was about 12 miles away while at the Ruth Amphitheatre but finally, on the morning we were leaving Talkeetna to head south to Anchorage the day dawned clear and from 60 miles away we could see Denali!!! A grateful heart and a story with a happy ending.

Trivia: The peak of Denali is 20,310′ which is the highest in North America but much shorter than Mt. Everest at 29,032′. However, Denali ‘appears’ taller and more impressive because it rises 18,000′ above it’s surrounding plains. Mt. Everest rises 12-15,000′ above it’s surrounding plateau and local base. Denali is the tallest mountain in the world if measured by “land base to peak rise”.

Favorite Bible reading verse for the day: John 20:30-31

Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.