We awoke to rain but had to break camp anyway. It was a muddy drive back to the visitor center where we had parked the Jeep. We had to dump, fill up with water, try to locate a lost item, catch up on email, news etc, and by the time we did all that, it was lunchtime!
We are headed in the direction of Anchorage and since it is 4th of July weekend, we figure it will be hard to find a camping spot. We stopped at a couple of state park campgrounds to check them out and start looking for a nice turnout along the highway just in case we can't find a place to stay in Talkeetna. One stop is supposed to have a good view of Mt. McKinley but it is so cloudy and dreary that we can't see any of the mountains, let alone Mt. McKinley.
We did a little grocery shopping then headed down the spur road to Talkeetna. This is our lucky day! Someone cancelled their reservation at the only campground in town so we got their spot -- the last one! It's only a short walk into this touristy town. It reminds us of a larger version of Roachport with lots of shops, log cabins, cafes and pubs along with several adventure tour folks. After a delightful dinner on the Wildflower Cafe patio we went for a walk. The town is located on the Susitna River which is a very wide, shallow, fast moving river. From the river side beach we had a great view of the peak of Mt. McKinley! The sky here has cleared but between us and the mountain there is a layer of clouds so that all we can see is the Mt. McKinley peak and no other part of the mountain or surrounding mountains. It really puts into perspective how massively tall it is.
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