questions for alaska trip

arriving 8/18-9/1 2009 and had a few questions:

1. when driving between the different cities, am i ok using 45mph (to factor in road work-congestion, etc. - NOT stopping/viewing time) divided by the actual miles to get an est. of actual drive time between cities.

2. what is the best campground in talkeetna

3. what is most memorable thing to do in talkeetna to do for a once in a life time trip to alaska

4. allow 2 or 3 hours from talkeetna to denali in late after noon

5. check in for tek campground in denali is 5pm, i already have a reservation, but actual spot is first come first serve, should i be there right at 5pm on the dot? what is best spot to grab at tek campground, river or mt. mck. view

6. alyeska (sp) tram with paragliding down worth the money

thank you

questions for alaska trip

As a fellow first-timer, we made a few choices as to what was most important for us: fishing for halibut, flight-seeing into Katmai for bear viewing and a ERA helicopter tour with a glacier landing in Denali. I hope we chose right as we%26#39;re going in July! :)

Talkeetna also has several Denali flightseeing tours ~ and seeing Mt. McKinley is one of our big reasons for visiting Alaska. And it%26#39;s also why we booked three days on the Wonder Lake shuttle in Denali National Park ~ to give us the best chance of seeing ';The Mountain'; when its out. It%26#39;s gotta come out sometime and I really want to be at Wonder Lake to see it!

questions for alaska trip

When we went to Talkeetna we took a flight seeing tour of Mount Mckinley which included a glacier landing. It was amazing, make sure you take your camera! There are a few companies which offer this but we went with K2 Aviation and would highly recommend them. We did the blue route but added a glacier landing http://www.flyk2.com/

A few photos (if the links work??)

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Alyeska- we went up on the tram, which was ok. We saw someone paragliding down and it looked great but we didn%26#39;t do this ourselves.

1. Yeah, that would definitely be a safe bet. The drive down to Homer was the time I ran into the most slow downs from campers (still only took me 4.5 hours from Anchorage)- the times I%26#39;ve gone to Denali I%26#39;ve only had to slow down a couple times, but mostly was driving 60 mph the whole way.

3. Flightseeing for sure as a couple others have said.

4. Yep, I%26#39;d say that%26#39;s about right. Be sure to get supplies and gas in Anchorage or Wasilla before heading up further. Get a couple of coolers- a big one for the majority of your stuff and a smaller one to take on the shuttle buses (assuming you are taking the buses into Denali). Better to only have to buy ice in Talkeetna and up near Denali.

5. I%26#39;d definitely be there on the dot for the best spaces. We grabbed the first bus in to camp at Wonder Lake and were very glad we did. The folks that were even just an hour behind us ended up with the not-so-great spots. I%26#39;d go with a camping spot that gave you a good view of Denali so that you can continually check for it by just popping your head outside your tent. If it%26#39;s cloudy and you only have a five minute window during your whole trip to see it (as happened to us), you don%26#39;t want to miss it because you got a bad spot.

6. I think it would depend on the weather at the very least. It%26#39;s always been cloudy when I%26#39;ve been up at the top of the resort so I%26#39;m not sure paragliding in thick clouds/fog would be worth the money. But if it sounds exciting to you and you would still enjoy it even if you couldn%26#39;t see much, then go for it.

The one thing we didn%26#39;t do and wish we did was a scenic float trip from Talkeetna on either the Chulitna or Talkeetna River.

Oh my Gosh, please tell me you aren%26#39;t planning on driving 45mph.... :o)

Alyeska is great, I have not done the paragliding, but I have seen them do it and it looks super fun, I would definitely sign up for that if you can.

As for Talkeetna, it%26#39;s really not that great! Not to be a downer, but it%26#39;s really just a tiny town full of hippies. There is a great campground right along the river, it shouldn%26#39;t be too hard to find as Talkeetna is small. I recommend stopping at Carrs in Wasilla on your way up there. You will see some roadhouses that have good food, but if you%26#39;re planning to do a cookout, that would be the best place to stop on the way. Oh - and be prepared for high prices, our food has gone out of control recently.

I haven%26#39;t been to Denali myself, but I would think the river or mountain view would be nice. Really can%26#39;t go wrong with either! You might get some bear watching in if you choose the river view, which would be exciting!

Hi journey40!

I%26#39;m a bit confused by some of the responses. Wonder Lake CG has views of the mountain, as does Savage CG. However, you can%26#39;t peek your head out of your tent at Tek for views of the mountain. The Tek River tends to become a wind funnel. I always stay away from the riverfront sites because of all the blowing sand. I have experienced sand-blasting winds down there. Check-in time for Tek has begun at 11 am. I time all my visits to Tek to arrive by then to pick my choice sites.

The view of the mountain from the beach of the river in Talkeetna can be breathtakingly awesome.

streamreader