Telkeetna and another view of Denali

Sunday, we left the TEK campground driving the 30 miles to the front of the park,  picked up my car at the visitor's center and made our journey to Telkeetna, a little town about 150 miles from Denali.

We arrived at Telkeetna Kamper Park and I went over to the laundry room to start a load of clothes.  On my way back, I noticed the pickup truck next to us had Texas plates and told Jim it looked like our neighbors were from Texas.

Before we crossed into Canada, Jim's sister called us to tell us their former neighbors who we had met, were on their way to Alaska too.  We both friended each other on Facebook and have been following each other's travels.  They went south when we went north and we never expected to see them.  However, as it so often happens in rving, they just happened to be our next door neighbors in Telkeetna!

We visited for awhile and told them we were planning to take the jet boat trip.  Jerry and Cynthia were able to get on the boat too, so we all went together.

It was another cloudy day.  On a clear day, you can see Denali here, but that wasn't the case today.

We stopped off for a little nature hike.

Jim just really enjoys these antlers. ;)

The four of us had a great time and got together again the next day.  We made some plans and we might be seeing them again in Texas.

Monday, Jim and I had a reservation at 8:30 for a plane ride with Telkeetna Air Taxi.  We arrived at 7:30 and were asked to come back at 11:00 as it was flyable, but they thought the mountain would be more visible then.

We got back and it was a go for takeoff.  The plane was full and the pilot said one of us would have to sit in the copilot's seat.  I just happened to be standing by the door, we got on first and Jim quickly took the copilot's seat.

We were off and the views did not disappoint. The mountains were out! (Warning: lots of pictures)

The view was spectacular! The river below was the one we had taken on the riverboat ride last night and we had crossed under the bridge below.

We got closer to the mountain.

And then the views began! This is Ruth Glacier winding below us.

Denali!

I felt like I was in an IMAX movie!

 
Next, we landed on this glacier.

Here we are on top of the world! That's Denli's peak behind us.

The view from the other side.

We weren't the only ones. That's another plane in the middle of the picture.

We spent about 15 minutes walking around and enjoying the views.

It was time to head back. Jim gave up his seat to another passenger, but our ride back was much shorter, but still had spectacular views.

The crazy thing about the weather is that when we landed, it was completely grey and cloudy again.  The ground crew said it had been that way for about an hour.  They said we definitely caught the window.  This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!