LODGING
We stayed at the
Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge. We booked a mountain view room which meant amazing views of the Alaska Range including Mount Foraker, Denali, and Moose's Tooth. There's a large room in the east wing where you can either sit and enjoy the view or play board games or put together puzzles (provided) on the scattered low tables. This was our childrens' favorite part!
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ACTIVITIES
Day one we drove the short distance into Talkeetna (the lodge also has a free shuttle back and forth) to walk around town. There were some gift shops open and we did a little souvenir shopping for friends Outside. The Heritage of Alaska Gift Shop has a small, wood-carved downtown Talkeetna scene which is a fun thing to check out. We also walked to the end of the street to look at views of Denali from the currently frozen over Susitna River.
Day two we drove the opposite direction to Talkeetna Lakes Park for some cross-country skiing. There's a day use fee parking lot (the Comsat trailhead) where we started out from. There's a map of the groomed trails at the trailhead (or you can see one
here), we started on the Mink trail but found our way to Talkeetna Lake where we skied on a groomed trail over the ice. There was some bonus views of Denali peeking over the trees from there too.
FOOD
There were two places we ate at which we LOVED. First was Twister Creek for dinner, which is
Denali Brewing Company's brewpub. The atmosphere was great, very "old Alaska" and the food was yummy, too. The girls and I shared a pitcher of their root beer while Andrew tried some of the beers.
We stopped at the Flying Squirrel Bakery - Cafe after skiing for some drinks and a snack. We were so excited to see that they had several pastries which were gluten and dairy free, and more importantly they tasted GREAT. They also had vegan options for those with other dietary restrictions. I had the rhubarb ade which I highly recommend and the girls had dairy-free steamers which came in mugs that made them feel
very fancy. Next time we're in Talkeetna we're going back to try their pizza, they have a wood-fired pizza oven and it smelled like heaven in there.
