July 10, Friday: Parks Highway to Talkeetna

 We woke to clear skies and got a bit of earlier start than usual, driving south on the Parks highway before the clouds build in the afternoon.  

Driving South on Parks Highway toward Anchorage

We stopped at Denali STATE Park with a southern view of Mt. McKinley and lucky us - the mountain summit did appear above the clouds long enough for some photos.  We had given up hope of seeing the mountain and we felt fortunate to be able to enjoy the view with other folks, all talking in hushed tones - The Mountain is that awe-inspiring.

The white blob on the right contains Mt. McKinley

See the brighter white among the clouds in center?  That is The Mountain

The tallest mountain is Denali, about 80 miles away and is twice the height of the mountains in the foreground

We continued south, then turned east and north to the funky little tourist town of Talkeetna.  Although a small village, it is important for its role as the primary staging area for Denali summit climbers and other adventuresome types that want to be 'on' the mountain for hiking, skiing, whatever.  The town is also where three rivers come together, all prime salmon fishing rivers.  The little downtown was packed with cars, RVs and tourists all wandering through the gift shops and small cafes.

Jack decided he wanted to do a flight-seeing tour of Denali with a glacier landing.  Checked out a few of the vendors and decided on a small family operation that actually had 5 acres of land smack in the middle of Denali National Park that is grandfathered.

We drove to a nice campground right on one of the rivers, got our campsite, and the woman from the air service picked us up and brought us over to their hanger.  After some confusion with some of the other passengers about the optional landing/not landing on the glacier, we finally took off about 5:30 with a couple from California in a dilapidated old plane.

Jack as co-pilot was told not to touch anything.....

The first 15 minutes was over the valley and braided rivers in the area before finally arriving near the base of the mountain and then flying up through a mile-deep canyon with a massive glacier below, feeling like our wings could touch either side.

Our shadow flying over the river

It feels like we can touch the canyon walls

Beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, glaciers and finally the summit of Mt. McKinley as the clouds opened up around the summit.

Mt. McKinley (or Denali) is almost 21,000 feet high and second only in the world to Mt. Everest, which is over 29,000 feet.  BUT, the base of Mt. Everest is much higher, so Mt. McKinley appears higher if they were put side by side.

Landing on the glacier

We landed on a glacier gliding uphill using the hydraulic skis that lower around the wheels.  There was about 5 inches of wet snow underfoot, and we were glad to have the giant overboots the air service provided.  The sun was bright, the skies were intensely blue with a few clouds that came and went around The Mountain.

All concepts of distance and space are lost here in the vastness and it feels like we are on another planet!  We were speechless - just taking in the views and experiencing the silence, beauty and other-worldliness of this sacred place.

Lots of photo taking before climbing back aboard and flying down through the canyon, following the path of the glacier from its origins high in the mountains, flowing down to the valley and ending with the rocky moraine and finally the glacier silt river.

The crevasses on the glacier below are hundreds of feet deep

The black line is where two glaciers are colliding further up in the mountain forming a central moraine.  Love the glacier blue pond

Back at our campsite, watching the river that was running from the glacier we had seen about 50 miles away, we tried to describe our experience to our RV neighbors from Australia, just as I am trying to do here.  It just is not possible to convey the sense of awe we felt on the mountain, so hope the photos do justice.  What an incredible day.