Mt. McKinley, by air!

Yesterday Mom and I went out to Talkeetna. Apparently, it is the base camp for all the people who want to go and climb Mt. McKinley. Ok, so mom can’t climb Mt. McKinley, and I’m not going to climb it without her. So we walked around the town. It was a really quaint little town. Lots of Alaskan products. I bought the GNO girls some roses made out of rabbit fur. You know, there is a lot of fur to be purchased in Alaska. Not really sure how I feel about that.

Anyway, in the morning, it was kinda dreary. By, the time we had lunch in Talkeetna, the sky was starting to clear. Mom and I started to talk about doing a flight seeing tour. We went down to K2aviation and asked if they were flying. They said, as long as things keep clearing up like this, we are flying. I asked if they were landing on the glacier… They weren’t sure. If they could, they were going to. We asked about Mom going up with her back in it’s current condition. They said she should be able to get in the plane.

Mom and I then decided to think on it. It was $145 just for the flight, and then $60 more for the glacier landing. I wasn’t sure about paying all that money, and Mom wasn’t sure that she could get in the plane.

By 3, my mom had me convinced that we should go. By 3:15, we were convinced that she shouldn’t go, and I should go on the more expensive tour.

At 5, I went up. It was incredible. I really can’t describe it. We went up, and the first glacier we saw as the Ruth glacier. Then we we saw the Tokositna Glacier and the Kanikula Glacier. Mt. McKinley was incredible, and I took a ton of pictures. Mount Foraker and Mount Hunter were also incredible. We went through this section they called Little Switerland… It was very ragged. Incredibly beautiful.

We landed on the Ruth Glacier at the end. It was bumpy, but breath-taking. I’ve not played in snow since I was a kid, and that’s all I wanted to do, run and play in it. A guy taking mountain rescue class was up there camping with 7 others. Ok, so that was weird. I couldn’t believe they were camped out there. 10 days they were going to be up there. They had cross country skis and tents. That looked like it. And yes Snidge, the guy was cute. He needed to shave, but he was cute.

On the way back, we saw where the gold mines are. It was so pretty. I feel so lucky that I had the opportunity to take that trip. I will be putting pictures up shortly. There are only about 150 of them… Every one is beautiful. Even the ones I took through the propeller. smile

Comments

  1. That looks great!  Wish I were there!

  2. It sounds like you’re having a really great time. Yay! It’s great you got to take that flight. It must have been beautiful and peaceful up there.