Talkeetna Lookout

Mon, Jun 26, 2017

Carol and I are camped in Talkeetna, about 150 miles south of Denali.

When I was here 25 yrs ago, Talkeetna was a blue collar climbers town that had a wonderful feel.  But no more.  The cruise ship industry discovered it and have built a couple of huge lodges.   I think I’ve seen more buses than cars the past few days.  Yuck 😦

Back in the day, the local watering hole was the Fairview Inn.  I liked it so much that I bought the tee shirt.  Still have it.  And the bar hasn’t changed a bit.  Although I didn’t see any climbers in there 🙂

Just a mile out of town sits the Talkeetna Lookout with a nice view of Denali.  Well at least if the clouds weren’t blocking it.  I’ve been out there half a dozen times, starting at 7:30 this morning, looking for a window and this is the best that I’ve been able to do.

Shot with my trusty Nikon D800 and Nikon 200 f2 lens with a 1.4 teleconverter.

While I was waiting for the skies to clear, a group of four ladies arrived.  They seemed unimpressed by the mountains and couldn’t figure out which one was Denali.  So they asked me.  Turned out they were looking at the front range, those dark mountains that you can see in the lower left.  I told them to look higher.  Still nothing so I told then to look above the clouds.   Then I heard them in unison ‘Ooooh’!

Still can’t believe that I stood on top of that sucker on a perfectly clear day 🙂