Talkeetna/Hatcher Pass

July 4-7th: Happy Independence Day!! We traveled from Denali NP to Talkeetna area. We took the Parks Hwy and it did offer a few frost heaves and plenty of beautiful mountains. 

We chased Mt. McKinley the whole way and at one point passed by to see the South side of the majestic mountain.

Sean found a small park for us to pull in and take a break for a good view of Mt. McKinley. We walked a short nature trail and stopped at the information kiosk for a view and look through sight scope that was provided.

Just amazing...

We stayed at Mat-Su RV Park & Campground and is run by a great guy. He is very nice and attentive to his guests. He's having to rebuild after a fire that wiped out his RV park and everything around him about 5 years ago, so he is currently working on rebuilding the RV park. 

After we were settled in our campsite, it was time to take care of business and drive to Talkeetna. Fortunately, there was a bike shop that was able to fix my bikes rear brake, so we dropped that off and got a few suggestions from the repair guy on where to eat because we were starving!

Talkeetna used to have a cat named Stubbs as their Mayor, but sadly he died after 2 decades of service. Now the honorary mayor is Denali, another cat.

Their were some dogs running for the Honorary Mayor position and we saw a couple of campaign posters, but they weren't elected.

It was very crowded due to Fourth of July celebrations. We missed the parade by a couple of hours and there were still lots of people in town.

We found the closest food and snagged a table. I had a pulled pork sandwich with strawberry lemonade and Sean had a pulled pork quesadilla with pickle lemonade.

You read that right! Pickle lemonade complete with a pickle slice on top. It wasn't bad, but certainly something I wouldn't drink. Sean loved it, lol!

We went walking around and found the river with its stunning view of Mt. McKinley. 

We went down a walking trail that took us a bit closer and away from the crowd to an even better view. 

There was lots of activity on the river.

We walked across the pedestrian bridge attached to the railroad bridge and figured out that this was actually part of Chase Trail, literally a trail that leads you to the town of Chase. The only way to get to Chase is walking, biking, motorcycle, or 4wheeler... no cars. We decided to try to bike there once my bike was repaired. We walked back to town and to a few shops for a look around and headed home shortly after. 

Hershey was getting extra cuddles while Skittles was sleeping. She's my sweet girl and deserves all the extra cuddles!

The next day, Sean said he wanted to take us to Hatcher Pass, so we all loaded up for an adventure in the truck. After turning off the Parks Hwy and going a while on pavement, we started gaining elevation and soon found a dirt road. We were following a creek at that point and passing by lots of people camping on the creek.

Then the mountains started to show through the dreary weather.

We started seeing more waterfalls.

Then found lots of snow still on the ground...

...and this beautiful lake still frozen.

We let the pups burn off a bit of steam from being cooped up in the truck. They love some snow!

We got to the pass summit and we weren't disappointed with the beautiful drive. We hiked a couple short distances and headed out in search of food and a car wash.

We found a car wash in Wasilla that was directly behind a Dairy Queen, so two birds one stone.

After stuffing ourselves with chicken strips, fries, and ice cream, Sean found a place called Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge and we were able to take a walk out on the mud flats and look for salmon in the stream.

It turned out to be a pretty day after a very cloudy start!

We did see a few young fish, but none of the bigger salmon coming back to spawn.

Once we got back home, we were confused why there was an 18wheeler that pulled up next to the park. We had seen two teens with luggage walk from the vehicle and turn around to wave goodbye to whoever it was, but the truck didn't leave. The two teens walked to an RV in the park. We were intrigued, so we had to investigate what was going on and why the truck didn't leave. Turns out it was a racing team and the driver was just staying in the sleeper on the 18wheeler. He stuck around 2 nights.

We returned to Talkeetna to pick up my bike and travel to Chase.

Good as new!

There were 3 trains that passed while we were on the trail. The trail follows the railroad for about half the distance to Chase.

We traveled 9 hard miles to this point... a block in the road that states the GPS is wrong and turn around because you are on private property. We couldn't figure out what we had done wrong and couldn't find a way around this, so we angrily ate our picnic lunch here and headed back. It was not an easy trail and both of us wiped out a couple of times due to slick conditions from recent rain.

Sean's disappointed face.

We traveled a total of 18 miles on the bikes and decided to walk around town once more. The town was certainly less crowded this time around. I spent some time looking through the gift shops for a magnet while dragging Sean around with me. We both decided we were still very hungry and found a pizza place. That was a great pizza!

We checked out Mt. McKinley again, but couldn't see much due to the cloud cover. We tried to get a hold of Sarah (Sean's sister), but kept missing her to tell her Happy Birthday with the view. We ended up sending her a Happy Birthday video later in the day.

The entire next day we spent cleaning. Everything had been a bit neglect and deserved a deep clean. I guess everyone has to have these days, lol... I tackled the inside and Sean took the outside. 

We were also getting ready for something special the next day...