Saturday, May 30, 2015

A Safe Bet You Have Never Been Here



The first time I was in Alaska, I took a float plane "flightseeing" tour from Anchorage to Denali National Part and Mt McKinney.  We flew the gorge of the Ruth glacier, I have some great pictures of that with the sheer cliff faces soaring high above the wings in both sides.  I want to go back, K-2 Aviation out of  Talkeetna does tours that land on the glacier on skis, I have to do that one day.

This trip was on Rusts Flying Service out of Anchorage. Time was tight (this was a one day add on to a work trip) and the only way I was going to see the mountain was to fly, and who can resits three hours on a plane that was older then I am.  There were two options for Denali, one was fly out and see the mountain and fly back, and for an extra $50 I think it was they add in a remote water landing on or near the mountain. Being a control freak, I wanted to know what lake for the landing and the answer was the best available on the day.  Grump, I took my chance on the option.  Oh am I glad I did.  The lake we landed on is a glacial melt lake on the side of the mountain.  The pilot said is is safe to land on just a few days each spring when the snow melt brings the level up high enough for the floats to clear the boulders in water.  It is a hard day's hike in and out and few - very few people are there, except for the few people lucky enough to be there on a day when the float planes can land every year.

It was amazing to be in a place to remote and so spectacular.

4 comments:

  1. "land on the glacier on skis, I have to do that one day" - now THERE is a goal to work towards each day as you do your therapy! GO PENGUIN!

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  2. AWESOME! Alaska is on my list of 6 states yet to see, now I know what to do when I get there!

    Peace <3
    Jay

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    1. It is worth the trip. There is a lot of WILD. We did an inside passage cruise in the fall of 2008, I'd do that again.

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