Talkeenta, AK

[shofer]

We are booked for a Land/Sea trip on Princess next May and Talkeenta is one of our stops for the land portion. What is there to do there?

 

Not too sure where we will stay either. Any suggestions?

 

Sue

[compozer]

Saw pictures of it last week - flooded. SO sad to see. Haven't heard how much damage was done. We were there 2 years ago so things may have changed.

 

There isn't much to do - walked thru some gift shops. I shouldn't say that - we only stayed three hours - wanted to get the train back to the lodge so just did a short stop over. Loved walking down to the river/stream and seeing Mt McK. You have to stop for a Caribou buger and beer.

 

Have fun.

[Nancyquilts]

It's a great place to rent a plane ride to see Mt.McKinley on a (relatively) clear day.

[WeBeGone]

Not much to do there. We walked the 3 block long "main street", had lunch, and that was it.

[caribill]

If you are on a Princess land tour, then you will be staying at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge which is about an hour bus ride from Talkneetna itself.

 

As others have pointed out, the town itself does not have much in it. Can see it all in less than an hour if you do it leisurely.

 

Also nothing in the Lodge area but the Lodge grounds. Princess does offer optional excursions that you may book in advance or when there.

 

This lodge offers a fantastic view of Mt. McKinley on the days that the mountain is willing to show itself.

 

 

 

[mgcarnut]

Talkeetna is the jumping off point for several cool tours. Mahay's Jet Boats has a number of tours of local rivers, including the Devil's Canyon tour where the boat parks on top of Class 5 rapids. Talkeetna Air Taxi offers various flightseeing excursions, we were going to do a McKinley summit flight and glacier landing, but the weather didn't cooperate. We still got to flightsee in the foothills of McKinley, and I got some amazing photos:

 

[Grammyluvs]

Not sure how much time you have, but Talkeetna is really a good place for booking white water rafting and/or taking a flight to see Mt. McKinley. Other than that, the town is basically one street long with numerous gift shops. If you go, I recommend the West Rib for lunch. Burgers are great and huge! Don't know if you watched or remember the tv show, Northern Exposure; supposedly the town in the show was inspired by Talkeetna.

[napunani]

We were there in early June 2012...

Stop by the Ranger Station to view the climber board which gives status of who is on Mt McKinley.

There was a small (12-15 vendors) arts/craft group on another side street where I found the most unique necklace made from Porcupine quills.

We had a good lunch at Talkeetna Roadhouse.

Also, if you have anything to mail home, there is a US post office close by where the lodge buses drop off.

[RSF Cruiser]

Just outside of town (a block or two) is the cemetery. Interesting place - gives a glimpse of the people who lived there, or dies going up the mountain. There's a memorial for climbers from around the world who have lost their lives climbing Mt. McKinley.

 

You should also search the Alaska Board for Talkeetna information. It's a funky little town. We were there for two days and could have stayed longer. We loved it. Walked around, visited the shops, ate at the Roadhouse, went to the cemetery, and took a plane ride into the mountains. Due to weather we weren't able to land on the Ruth Glacier, but the ride was still fascinating.

[caribill]

Here is a map of Talkeetna

 

[mek]

Be sure to have lunch at the Wildflower Café - I had the most delicious pan fried halibut there and it was probably one of the best meals I have ever had on any trip anywhere. Just a cute little place , very small, nothing fancy but really, really good food.