Talkeetna’s success marked by toilet, parking shortage

TALKEETNA — It’s the No.1 tourist destination in the Mat-Su Valley.

“We have been able to be in a premium spot where we get the visitors,” says Jenny Krepel owner of Talkeetna Gifts and collectibles. This quaint little town draws mountain climbers because of its proximity to Mount McKinley, but that tourism trade has been eclipsed in recent years by Alaska’s thriving cruise ship industry that sends many passengers on land excursions via the Alaska Railroad, which stops in Talkeetna daily during the summer.

Twister Creek Restaurant manager Amanda Pedlow says business is booming in Talkeetna, but the community is experiencing growing pains from the large number of travelers using its scant public resources, such as restrooms.

“We are thriving and every business in town is thriving from what I understand,” Pedlow said.

Spend a few hours in Talkeetna and you will notice the ebb and flow of tourism, dependent on the arrival and departure of the cruise line passengers; most noticeable Princess Cruises, which brings an average of 1,000 tourists a day to the small Susitna Valley town.

“Princess McKinley have buses that drive every hour leaving Princess McKinley which is 45 minutes away…and picking then up from Talkeetna. They are constantly driving until 9 o’clock [p.m.]…They bring in the majority of our business during the tourist season,” Pedlow says.

Other cruise line buses, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and some Asian cruise ship lines can be seen, dropping into town, on their way to, or back from Denali. There are package deals for tourists to stop in places like Seward, Anchorage, Talkeetna, and Fairbanks. They fly out of Fairbanks when their land adventure is over. Travelers also can do the trip in reverse — do the land tour first before getting on the ship.

“Train day is when they are bringing everybody up from the cruises…we fill up completely by 1:30 to 4 p.m.” Pedlow said. “They come off the train, they want to walk around town and eat lunch. You will see hundreds of people walking into town. We call it train day, we make sure we are staffed appropriately for that.”

The impact on Talkeetna

The cruise ship industry is a recent phenomenon for Talkeetna, ramping up operations in the last 20 years or so. The impact on the town of Talkeetna has been tremendous.

“We have like a few residents entertaining thousands, thousands, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people,” said Beth Valentine, who is President of the Chamber of Commerce and owner of Denali Images and the Beadberry Patch.

Small business owners like Valentine may be delighted with the number of tourists who visit Talkeetna, but they are quick to point out some of the related infrastructure issues.

“We have thousands of people a day…we have problems with not having enough toilets,” Krepel said. “That is thousands of dollars in toilet paper alone. What we have done this year is paired up with the Denali Arts Council, the Don Sheldon performing Arts Center, it has good sized three- or four-stall restroom. The Chamber of Commerce has partnered to pay the expenses; maintenance and supplies.”

The Chamber of Commerce says also concerned about the streets downtown. “There is not parking places for employees. Our walkways are not even swept… Our walking path you can’t see the lines because it’s so dirty,” Valentine said. “It’s up to a business owner to stake out the pedestrian walk way. We have no entity to enforce it. So we have motor homes parked on the pedestrian walk way and the pedestrians are forced to walk in the middle of the street…”

Talkeetna swells from a community of 800 to almost 1,500 people during the summer months. These additional residents also are a boon to the economy, everyone seems to be benefitting, but the infrastructure hasn’t been fully developed to accommodate the changes happening in Talkeetna.

Things to do in Talkeetna

Many of the folks who come on the buses to Talkeetna, eat in the restaurants, shop at the gift shops, and walk to the river. Folks who stay more than an hour or two will come and take a flight seeing tour of Mt. McKinley and land on a glacier or some other planned excursion.

Denali National Park brings in a lot of tourists business, says Pedlow.

The ability to take a flight seeing tour in Talkeetna has been around since the early days of Alaska Aviation. Sheldon Air Service slogan says “Our family has been landing people on glaciers for 80 years!”

“A lot of them [cruisers] have booked excursions with Mahay’s [jet boat adventures], or flying, or river rafting, or sled dogs… When they come down to do their excursions they are mingling in the shops. Buying a hat, a T-shirt, or whatever,” Valentine said.

The Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Denali Arts Council Talkeetna sponsors Live at Five, from 5 to 7 p.m., Fridays which is a free summer concert series that plays in the centrally located in the town square park.

“We have a great artist community and we have the venue to sell that art,” Krepel said. “This is letting them [local artisans] make a living...there is opportunity.”

Suzy Kellard is a 59er. She came up the year of statehood with her parents and homesteaded near Talkeetna. She has an elder’s perspective on the changes that have occurred in Talkeetna. “We are getting multiple generations here [staying and getting jobs] which we never had in the past. After high school they were gone,” she said.

“We need help from the borough. I barely have enough money at the chamber to make a copy. Seriously, we don’t have our own copy machine,” Valentine said. She said she plans to ask the borough for help addressing the town’s infrastructure issues.