Alaska diaries : Talking about Talkeetna, Alaska !

We've just got back from a fortnight in Alaska and it was A-MA-ZING ! - so peaceful, beautiful and green, with you still only being twenty minutes or so away from a huge supermarket when it was time for dinner ! Think vast forests, crystal clear lakes and enormous stretches of bright purple fireweed everywhere you looked. Not to mention everyone driving around in super-sized trucks ! We were there from mid to late July at the end of a heatwave which had resulted in three enormous fires all around where we were staying, near Wasilla, but luckily by the time we flew in, the smoke had cleared and on our drive up to Talkeetna, we could vaguely see Mount Denali in the background.

We were heading to Talkeetna, a a touristy town on the way to Denali National Park, which is on the register of National Historic Places. It has buildings dating from the early 1900s (yes, that's old in American terms !), including Nagley's General Store (see below), Fairview Inn and the Talkeetna Roadhouse. None of them looked particularly picture-worthy though, to be honest, and I think we just strolled past them without even noticing ! It's basically a lovely, friendly place to wander around, checking out the shops, talking to the locals and taking zillions of silly photos in their photo frames !

Yes, we can see you ! ... Smile ! 

After scoffing some fabulous burgers and chips (sorry, fries !), and looking across the road to the big, old-fashioned train at the Alaska Railroad station, we set out, buying magnets, postcards and other souvenirs, as well as taking some pics of the cool moose figures dotted about. Make sure you call in to Aurora Dora, a little shop where you can buy, or at least marvel over, some fabulous photos and postcards of the Northern Lights - just for this, I want to come back to Alaska in winter !

Pierre found a couple of old snowmobiles set out on display, that he thought were very cool.

Even on a blazing hot summer day, you can't forget that this place gets seriously cold in winter !

There was a walk down to the river (Talkeetna is, in fact, at the confluence of three rivers, the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna), but we decided to head back home, as we were still pretty flaked out after the long flights.

We headed into Nagley's Store, buying sweets (candy!) and drinks for the way home. There we spotted an official mention of  Stubbs, a cat who was the honorary mayor of Talkeetna from July 1997 until his death in 2017. Jim, who we were staying with, had been telling us about him on the way down, but I was convinced he was winding us up !

Bye bye Talkeetna ! It was nice visiting !