First thing I did after getting up was to look outside. Sigh - it was raining. My hubby ( Okay, I'll be referring him as Arnab henceforth because you see, that is his name.) called K2 Air to enquire if they were still planning to fly over Mt. McKinley. We had also booked for glacier landing. They confirmed that there will be no glacier landing for sure but asked us to call back once we get to Talkeetna spur ( as name suggests, this is the place where road to Denali forks off from main highway to go to Talkeetna). We decided to have a good breakfast - who knows with this weather - it can be our only highlight of day 4. Anyway, waitress was good enough to serve us food quick enough when we told her that we were in a hurry. Also, hotel shuttle driver dropped off to Airport out of his schedule, so that we could pick up our car and start our journey soon. We had mixed experience with people here - some were really good and some were really pain-in-the-ass. Also, vacation was going either really good or really bad. Same was with food so far - either it was too good or too bad. Is this state of extremes or what? Anyway, day 4 started off with set of good people and good breakfast.
Drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna ( Optimistic people that we are, we were still hoping that weather will improve and we will have flight-seeing.) was full of us saying "Ohh- hate this rain", "feel like going home" and "rain, rain - go away". Eventually nature listened to our prayers, it stopped raining. No, no - not a good news as it still continued to drizzle. This drive is famous for dramatic landscape and Mt. McKinley views. Well, we were getting nothing. As if it was less, there was road construction in progress on this two-lane highway, slowing the traffic considerably. Finally, we reached to Talkeetna spur and called K2 Air only to come to know that 1PM tour was cancelled but we could still come and try for 6PM. Our day 4 plan was perfect with only one imperfection. We had not kept any flexibility on weather conditions. Big mistake. If you think you are smart enough to plan an Alaska trip on our own, always account for mercurial Alaska weather. Giving up on rain, we decided to drive to Denali, do early check-in and simply retire for the day.
Drive from Talkeetna to Denali is also scenic and guess what, as we were reaching more and more closer to Denali, it was
getting more and more clearer. Thank you, GOD! Blue moods were not blue anymore. Glimpses of grandeur of interior Alaska were breathtaking. It completely stopped raining and we started flirting with idea of driving back to Talkeetna to catch 6PM tour. Excitedly I switched on my iPhone. Argh - no range. I said to myself "well - what do you expect? ATnT range in such remotely remote area? Your office is right in the heart of Down town and you don't get range there.". Luckily, we had passed by one lodge 15mins before. Going back and trying to call from lodge seemed a good idea at that time and we took a u-turn."This is a lodge, not a pee-stop. If you need to pee - go away!" greeted us on the front door. I don't know if we were being brave or desperate, we still went inside and this is how conversation went -
Arnab - Hi, can I have a coffee? ( Smart - you can not directly ask for a phone. )
Lodge Man - Around the corner. (Sitting comfortably sipping beer and watching TV)
Me - do you have a phone? ( I had to take over the conversation as I could sense Arnab wanting to get out this place as soon as possible. Young blood, you see - gets angry very easily. :) )
Lodge Man - No, I don't. Why do you need it?
Me - We want to call K2 Air to see if they are still planning to fly Mt. McKinley.
Lodge Man ( in angry tone ) - Have you seen outside? Even if they fly, what good will it be? I don't know - WHATEVER! ( One note - if some one asks for information, give them information (of course, if you have any!), don't start giving advices. People will call you "crazy". I will call you "crazy".)
Me - We still want to try.
Crazy Man - What will you do by seeing it? WHATEVER. ( and he walked off.)
Whatever to you, dude. What is your problem? Was he too lonely for too long? Was he as frustrated with weather as we were? Whatever. :P Sitting back in the car, we dropped off Talkeetna plan and started driving towards Denali again.
Getting lost in scenic vistas full of humongous mountains, blue lakes and wild-flower blooms, 'whatever' crazy man became a distant memory soon. Ever heard of people saying that the bliss of having a baby can only be realized after having a baby? Likewise, ethereal drive can only be experienced. We could not see Mt. McKinly from south vista point - another beautiful picnic spot famous for mountain view. Hell bent to see it - we browsed Frommer's Alaska 2010 again and found out about Denali Air. Denali Air is near park entrance which fly over national park on north side of the High One ( Mt. McKinley is known as Denali in native language which means The High One). While I fiddling to get their address, Arnab saw their sign-post on road side. Heading straight to the office - we booked ourselves for 6PM tour. Denali Air is an expensive option than Talkeetna one but you see, we were eager to see the High one. Like a dying lover eager to see his love for one last time. Okay - this is bit over-exaggerated but you got the point. Right?6PM tour meant we had one and half hour in hand - long enough to explore park entrance which was just 8miles away. After seeing 20-minute "Heartbeats of Denali" movie in Denali national park Visitor centre, we both got pretty excited about our next day "Grand Denali Tour". One of its kind, Denali NP is accessible only via shuttle or tour buses beyond 15th mile. If on shuttle, you can get down anywhere and explore the area and even camp in the wilderness(of course, you need to have a permit). We had booked shuttle till Wonder lake - 83rd mile on park highway. Upon ranger telling us that Eielson visitor center - 66th mile is a good stop for a day trip and chances of seeing wild-lfe beyond that point are bleak, we decided to make Eielson our stop.
Mt. McKinley flight-seeing was what can I say, wonderful experience. Earth surely does look majestic from up above. Aerial views gave us an idea of how grand and remote and diverse the land was.
Rivers tangling in plains, glaciers running from amazing Alaska range towards earth with arms wide open just like a kid running towards his mother, vampirish valleys and misty clouds. Simply superb. Flying just above thick cloud cover, our pilot told us that The Great one is right there on right hand side but not visible. Sigh! Sigh! Dear Denali - why are you doing this to us? What ill have we done? I looked up towards the sky to pray for one last time and Oh My God - there it was. His highness is really really high. I was searching it way below. His glittering snow cladded peak was so spectacular - is it because it is so close to heaven? May be. Awe-stuck - I did not even try to capture it in my camera. I was capturing it in my heart. I still get goose-bumps when I think about that moment. My day was made. I will not remember this day for rain, not for crazy man but for Denali - the High One! The Great One!Happy! Happy!! Time to have dinner. Denali Air personnel ( He looked a bit like Mccandles - "Into the Wild" guy ) suggested us 229th Mile - a famous fine diner. We could get 9.30PM reservation. Another one and half hour in hand. We headed back towards park entrance area (Nenana canyon)- to checkout on box-lunches for next day. There is no restaurant inside park - visitors need to bring food/drink for whole day. A sweet girl took our order and promised to keep our lunch-boxes ready at 6:15AM next day. Most of the locals looks like Chriss McCandless- unshaven beard. Denali fashion trend?
Back to 229th Mile restaurant, I ordered oysters. Totally ignoring organic cooking specialty of the diner. Oysters tasted real raw - I mean I tried a tiny bit and felt like puking. Nope - not gonna eat it. Mr. Sensitivity (read it as Arnab) thinking that if we won't eat even a single one - our waitress will feel bad, gulped down two oyster. Expression on his face - priceless. He kept one more in his plate hiding it below shells. It was very entertaining (well, for me) when waitress came to our place and instead of taking oyster plate back, saw oyster in Mr. Sensitivity's plate and said "Ohh - you have one more left there." and he had to eat it. Ouch.
It was already 11PM and we checked into our Nord Haven room in Healy. We loved this hotel - cute country lodging. And staff was great too. They packed us breakfast when they came to know that we will be checking out early in the morning. Sweet. Eager to see Denali in my dreams again, I slept off to dream away.....
Update : While I was soaking all of Denali's visible views in my heart, Arnab was capturing it in his camera.
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