Talkeetna–Hurricane, Alaska Flag Stop Train Ride

Today we took the flag stop train from Talkeetna to Hurricane and back.  We’re waiting at the station as our train arrives.

Our engineer is Chuck who has just returned to work after having had surgery.  He looks very happy to be back to work.  Being retired, we don’t understand that feeling!

The train follows the Susitna River for most of the trip.

This is the railroad’s first yard in Curry, Alaska.

Continuing on up the track, this building is signed as the City Hall.

Turning a corner.

This is one of the flag stops where passengers who have a cabin somewhere off the track are either loading or unloading their stuff from the train.

The photo didn’t turn out too well, but there are a couple of red blips in this shot of king salmon on their way up the river to spawn.

Going around another turn.

Shannon Cartwright illustrates children’s books which are sold in various locations in Alaska.  Her home is along the flag stop between Talkeetna and Hurricane and the train stops there for passengers who wish to purchase her books and have them autographed.

In addition to the inventory of her books on the train, she packed in several others and did quite well in her sales.

Our last stop was Hurricane where we had an opportunity to get off the train and take photos.

Here it looks like Ken is holding up the ceiling of the train.

Ken took this photo of me standing by the train.

Once a southbound train has passed, we continue north another 3 miles and stop on the bridge 300’ over the Hurricane Creek.

Heading back south, we saw this family of swans.  They were pretty elusive earlier in the day.

We got so many more photos today, but I decided to stick with just a few for the blog and hope you enjoy them.  When we returned to Talkeetna, we had dinner with Ashley, Ian’s good friend and co-worker.

The weather all day was beautiful and the scenery along the route was fantastic.  Tomorrow will be a quieter day for us to catch up on laundry and cleaning things in the RV.  Thanks for stopping by.