Alaska is so vast, that flying is a practical means of transportation. A much higher % of the population in Alaska knows how to fly than the lower states. Our flightseeing tour included an air taxi tour of glaciers around Denali National Park, and then a landing on the glaciers. Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level. It used to be remembered as Mckinley, now renamed with the indigenous term.
At check-in, we were disappointed that the weather was not good enough to get to Denali ranges nor glacier landing, they offered us a shorter flightseeing, a refund or a rebook. We had a busy itinerary, and picked the shorter flightseeing and fair enough, they refunded half of the tour cost. This was not the only time that the weather affected our flightseeing plan.
The air taxi was a very small plane, to accommodate 8 travellers. Each seat was a window seat, equipped with a heavy head-phone for the pilot to communicate with us in the one hour of flight. The lady in front of me did not seem to quite enjoy it, and her hand was holding tightly onto the window sill throughout. Her husband went ahead to sit next to the pilot, busy talking to the pilot, leaving his wife sitting by herself. Behind us was a family of four, the two kids seemed to enjoy the few bumps during the ride, more so than the unparallelled beauty of nature. The pilot did a good job throughout for a pretty stable ride, so the kids were only excited a few times.
We first saw a myriad of narrow rivers down there, like some picasso impressions. The river is muddy, due to the glacial till, aka the erosion of materials as the ice moved. We saw forests of purple and green spruces, and we came to know later the purple was actually black spruces, killed by spruce beetles.
Some 15 minutes into the air, we were surrounded by glaciers and mountains so close to us that we could see the waterfalls, the glacier tracks, the water amidst the glaciers (moving ices) that just looked like bluish crystals among the ices of pure white. We also saw a few tents down there. It felt like we were back to the ice ages. Even though we missed the glacier landing, I ran out of words to describe the beauty and the power of the glaciers. This one-hour flightseeing features the most beautiful scenery and humbling experience I have ever experienced on a plane. If this is the only thing we did in Alaska, it would be a good trip by itself. It is better to let the photos speak about the scenery.
After the flightseeing, we got some delicious Spinach bread from a food truck on the main street, and got some Birch syrup as a souvenir before leaving Talkeetna. From Talkeetna to Denali, it was 2 and a half hours drive on a well-paved highway, with spruces lining the highway, and often a 360 degree view of mountain ranges. It was mostly wilderness, until we got close to Denali. We checked in to the Denali Park village, which was an upgrade from the Talkeetna inn the day before.
Sitting in the Denali Park Village restaurant, enjoying food, chatting with the waitresses coming from afar to do a summer job, and some live music, life felt very good.
Denali National Park awaited us (Day 3)
oliviatamccue 
[…] Mother’s Day – South Lake Tahoe Alaska Flightseeing – Ice Age? (Day 2) » Aug […]