Fam Tour I

When my tour director (TD) training initially started about a month ago, all we did was paperwork. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Then we moved on to about a gazillion vendor presentations. Then we got to go on what we call our "Fam Tour." Fam is short for familiarization and tour is short for, well, tour. On this tour we visited each of the hotels our guests stay at and participated in several of the optional excursions that our guests can purchase.

The first place we stayed at was the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge in Talkeetna, Alaska. This lodge is my favorite place that we stay and Talkeetna is pretty much my favorite town so far in Alaska. (Here goes my TD commentary!) There are roughly 800 year round residents in Talkeetna and you could say they are lost in the 70's-or-so. During the summer it is a prime spot for fishing and it is also where most of the climbers for Mt. McKinley begin. Anyone climbing the mountain can either start on the Denali side and hike to the base or they can begin on the Talkeetna side and be flown to the base camp. As I said before, most people are flown to the base camp (Don Sheldon's Ampitheater) at 7,200 feet.

Talkeetna residents literally elected a cat for their mayor. He hangs out all over town, but I found him at his home in the local general store.


The Talkeetna Alaska Lodge is amazing! The rooms, the lobby, the food, the view. This is the view from their back porch. I took this at about 5:45 am, so it is still kind of dark outside, and it is about time for a new camera, but the view is spectacular. From the deck at the lodge, you can See Mt. McKinley on the far right, Mt. Hunter just to the left, and Mt. Foraker is the flat one to the left of Mt. Hunter. Mt. McKinley only comes out about 30% of the time, BUT, so far this year she (I guess mountains are women?) has been out every time I have been in Talkeetna!. I promise I will get a better picture up soon!

On our Fam Tour we were able to fly up near McKinley and over many glaciers. Unfortunately, it was a very cloudy day and we were not able to see the top nor were we able to land. My pictures don't even do justice for this experience, so I'm not going to show them to you right now! (Plus this computer is rather slow. The internet sucks up here). Anyway, it is incredible! I have not met a SINGLE person who has been dissappointed in their flight, regardless of the weather. It costs about $300 on average to fly up around McKinley and land on a glacier, but every single person says it was the best money they have ever spent! SO, if any of ya'll come up here, we're going to Talkeetna!