September 18, 2025
When I left Anchorage to make my first loop up to Fairbanks and back (covering several days) I had booked my first Airbnb in the little town of Talkeetna (pronounced tal-KEET-na). I drove past the turnoff when I made my impromptu trip up to see Mount Denali on a clear day yesterday. Talkeetna is actually about 14 miles off Hwy 3 on a roughly parallel road. Today I once again overshot the turnoff and went right to the various viewpoints I had visited the day before.
Before I left Anchorage I took this photo of a neon sign I saw on a tiny ice cream shop I drove past every day. For some reason I liked it’s simplicity:
As I drove north on Hwy 3 I saw this vehicle just off the highway to my right, in the little town of Houston AK.
It was promoting the “Grass Station,” a marijuana dispensary (of which there are many on Canada and Alaska).
Points for being clever.
I also passed an elementary school with this impressive (covered) outdoor recreation space for the kids to safely play away from the highway:
There was also a fenced in area on a grassy lawn on the other side of the building with the usual park-type playground equipment for kids.
Just up the road from the school was a company which apparently makes and/or markets seaplanes:
The plane on the roof was motorized to rotate slowly. There was a small lake behind this building with a few seaplanes docked, and I took a video of one taking off. I saw LOTS of seaplanes flying around while I was in Anchorage and will have photos later in the trip of a lake by the Anchorage International Airport which claims to have the highest concentration of seaplanes in the world.
When I finally made it to the South Viewpoint I had visited on a clear day yesterday, this is what I saw:
Exactly NONE of the big, snow covered Denali mountains. Only the shorter black mountains in front of them.
I really had nothing else to do so I just hung around and talked with other visitors. It was too far to drive up to the actual Denali National Park entrance, and I will be stopping there tomorrow on my way to Fairbanks.
After a while I headed back to Talkeetna to be there at my check-in time. It was a nice new house (bigger than a tiny house but not by much) and even had heated floors! What a concept. It had two levels (my part was at ground level) which is why I really didn’t think of it as a tiny house. The owners lived nearby but I never had a chance to meet them. The house was on a rough unpaved road and was in the woods. They told me I might see moose in the yard but I never did, though two walked across the road a short ways in front of me as I was leaving the next morning. It happened too quick for me to get photos.
I did come upon the Denali Brewing Company on my way to the Airbnb. I was surprised to find it near such a small town.
Oh, and I had seen this colorful display just off Hwy 3 as I drove south to Talkeetna from the Viewpoint.
It was across a large sandy area from the highway but the colors caught my eye so I parked and walked over to take a photo.
Tomorrow I will drive much further north to get to Denali National Park itself and will have a few hours there to get a sneak preview of the Park before continuing on to Fairbanks.
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