Our Weekend Trip- Talkeetna and Denali

This past weekend we went to Talkeetna, a small town south of Fairbanks, to take a jet boat tour through Mahay's Riverboat Service. We took a 2 hour jet boat excursion on the Susitna, Chulitna, and Talkeetna rivers. Notice all the "na's" at the end of the names of the rivers. "Na" means river in the Athabaskan language (the Indians of interior Alaska). During the jet boat tour we went ashore and our guide talked about the Natives of the area and their lifestyle. Just to explain a few of the pictures...the big mountain is Denali (or Mt. McKinley). Denali means "Great One" in the Athabaskan tongue. Alaskans tend to use "Denali" instead of Mt. McKinley. The row of three mountains are Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter and Denali in that order. You will notice that while on land our guide was carrying a shotgun. There is always a danger of meeting a bear so she carried it for our protection. Fortunately, we didn't see one! You will also see a tree with an eagle's nest. This nest is about 7 feet in diameter! There is also a picture of Titan...this was his first official camping trip with us...he was a great traveler!