The Talkeetna mountains are located northeast of Anchorage. The easiest access point is the Hatcher Pass area (yellow diamond on the map).

Our plan was to follow the Reed Lakes trail past the lakes, then if there was time, we would scramble up the ridge beyond the second lake for a northern view of the Talkeetnas.

Linda scrambles across a boulder field. The trail is very nice for running in most places, but there are a few sections like this.

More rocks as we follow the creek upstream.

Here we have just passed the first lake and are heading towards the waterfall and the second lake.

Me, with the first Reed Lake behind me.

Me, sitting by the second lake and admiring the view. We had lunch by the lake and then decided to try scrambling up to the ridge. We headed up to the left (not in picture) which was not as gnarly as the stuff in this picture.

A view of the valley we had just hiked up. Going up on this side (west) of the lake was much easier than it looked from below. It was almost all tundra walking for the first 2/3 of the ascent.

When we reached the end of the tundra, we had run out of time so we decided to turn around. At the same time, we heard a very loud rock slide on the opposite side of the ridge (it sounded like a huge thunderstorm or a jet taking off), which kind of kille

Getting ready to pick our way down through the tundra and the rocks.

A panoramic view of the second Reed Lake and surrounding peaks.

On the way down we saw this marmot, who sat there and whistled at us for a minute or two before ducking down in his hole.