Continued from the previous page.

Trent flew back and forth in a long semi-circle along the east, south, and west sides of the top of the massive mountain so passengers on both sides of the place could all see it up close:

 

He pointed out the north and south peaks (the south peak is 850 feet higher than the north peak):   

 

 

 

 

Trent told us a couple things to emphasize the massive size of this mountain.

At one point he said we were a mile from the south peak. To us, it looked much closer:

 

Another time he said the wall of snow and ice we could see above some rocks is 400 feet thick. It's at the end of the next series of photos.

It didn’t look like nearly that high to us in the plane, illustrating again the concept of perspective.

 

 

 

 Hard to believe that wall of ice and snow is 400 feet thick! Just shows the enormity of Denali.

Our speed seemed much slower than what the pilot reported, too.

Around the mountain he was going about 125 MPH. Going back he said he got up to 300 MPH. (After the clouds parted around the summit of Denali, he spent more time up there than usual.) The park and mountains are so large that I guess it just seemed like we were going much slower as we flew over them.

I felt like a bird searching the ground for big game and interesting geological features as we flew around. Here are some photos from the descent:

Smaller peaks in the Alaska Range that were peeking above the clouds at the end of our trip

Heading back down into the layer of clouds at about 12,000-14,000 feet

Able to see colorful smaller mountains on either side of the Toklak River again

We were in the air for about 90 minutes from take-off to landing. The flight was 99% smooth, which surprised me with all the clouds visible either above or below us, and the wind on the ground.

Despite some clouds we were able to see quite a bit and weren't disappointed in any way. Remember that if you have a trip scheduled on a particular day and it looks cloudy from the ground, it may be clear up at 20,000 feet.

We thoroughly enjoyed our flight and felt we got our money’s worth – and more. Jim tipped the pilot generously for the great narration, smooth flight, and letting him play “co-pilot” in the front seat. Trent was very knowledgeable and capable, professional without being stuffy.

Nenana Canyon and the Nenana River on the way back to Healy

Trent flew north of Healy, turned, and made a south approach to
the airport (in the distance). This is still the Nenana River.

After the flight another van driver took us back to the RV park where we parked our truck and we drove back to the Canyon. All this, and it wasn't even lunch time yet!

We're seriously considering another flight-seeing tour of Denali with this company in the future. We'd like to do one of the glacier landing tours next time. They cost about $100 more per person but we'd be in the air (and on the glacier) a total of about twice the time we were today. 

Next entry:  the rest of our third day in Denali National Park, featuring the park's sled dog kennel tour and demonstration

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the ultra Lab

Previous       Next

© 2012 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil