(The immensity of Alaska prevents me from thinking about anything other than the immensity of Alaska. My musings on Alaska this week will be brief, since magazines do not accept published archived blog posts as submissions. Thanks for your patience this week).
I was digging through a small bowl of stickers in an quirky little souvenir shop in Talkeetna, Alaska, and I had five stickers in my hand to buy. All the stickers announced the greatness of Talkeetna, Denali, the wild, or Alaska. I came to the bottom of this big white bowl and picked up a small white sticker. I turned it over, and hand to God, as I stood in this obscure little shop in a town that voted a cat in as their mayor, in my hand was a sticker of a lifeguard boat and the words “Ocean City, New Jersey.”
I traveled 5,000 miles. I boarded four planes, two cars, one shuttle, a boat and a bus to get here. And there was OC, staring me in the face. You can’t make this stuff up.
You can read about Talkeetna, but if you want to understand it, you have to go there. It has one of the best views of Denali in the area. It’s a “grab a beer” spot for serious mountaineers returning from “the high one.” You can spot these dudes easily, they’re the really tan intense-looking ones. No trip to Alaska is complete without a visit to Talkeetna. Here are five highlights:
- Nagley’s Store. Novelties, toiletries. It’s iconic, and a must-see.
- Shirley’s Homemade Ice Cream. Toasted Coconut. Two scoops.
- Denali view. Walk to the end of Main Street, look to the right, and if it’s clear enough, there will be Denali Mountain in all its glory.
- Talkeetna Gifts and Collectibles. Three floors of everything your heart desires. We spent an hour in there.
- Denali Brewpub. We had blueberry mojitos and the best fish and chips ever. Great deck to sit and bask in the sun and watch the mountaineers, guides and climbers come down from the mountain and the rivers.