Talkeetna Alaska

The gateway to Denali National Park

Few other places are blessed with such incredible geography as Talkeetna, Alaska. Talkeetna offers breathtaking views of Denali and the Alaska Range and looks out over a broad valley where the Chulitna, Susitna and Talkeetna rivers meet. Described as charming and possessing an innate charisma, Talkeetna is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts a highly creative citizenry, original saloons and roadhouses still in operation, imaginative shops and businesses in renovated trapper and miner cabins and the mystique of the mountain-climbing community.

Denali:

Talkeetna is the staging area for approximately 1,000 climbers each year who attempt to reach the summit of Mt. McKinley. Not a mountain climber? Talkeetna has many other activities to choose from including flightseeing the Alaska Range, sportfishing the Talkeetna, Susitna and Chulitna Rivers, river rafting and jet boat tours, camping, dog mushing and cross country skiing. The Talkeetna Historical Society Museum, originally a one-room schoolhouse build in 1936, features a scale model of Mt. McKinley and the new Mountaineering Center/Ranger Station features dramatic photographs of North America’s tallest mountain.

Here’s the National Park Service’s Denali National Park website.

Cool video of Denali National Park

Denali Flightseeing:

The nearest town to Mt. McKinley, Talkeetna offers stunning scenery, colorful people and healthy salmon runs with the accompanying bears! The town has traditionally been the gathering place for mountain climbers, gold miners and wilderness seekers for over 100 years.

Location:

Talkeetna is 115 miles north of Anchorage off the Parks Highway on the Talkeetna Spur Road. The paved spur road runs 14 miles from the highway to Talkeetna.

Access:

Road access via the Parks Highway from Anchorage. Daily railroad service in summer, air taxi, custom and package tour bus. Shuttle service from Anchorage.

Accommodations:

5 hotels/motels/resorts, a hostel, several bed and breakfasts, 5 lodges/cabins/chalets. Other accommodations in outlying areas. 9 restaurants/cafes/snackbars.