After a little bit of shopping in the same quaint main street we were in last night it was time for three of our party to venture forth on a scenic flight. Laura has never been fond of flying in small planes which left Sam, Keira & myself joining six others on a scenic flight to Mt McKinley.
The plane gave us a very smooth ride, having a surprisingly low take off and landing speed. The flight took us to and around the slopes of Mt McKinley - but not around the summit where the winds today were too strong and unpredictable (despite the fact that it was a nice clear day at lower elevations.)
We were given a good look at the knife edge ridges around the lower levels before making a perfect, smooth landing on a glacier at about 10,000ft. The surrounding scenery was amazing, with steep cliffs on all sides. Our pilot told us that the bottom of one cliff, which looked quite close, would actually take at least an hour and a half to walk to. The cliff itself was about 5,000ft high.
We stayed long enough to see two other planes land on the same glacier and pull up behind our plane. Then it was our turn to take off and return to Talkeetna, after a few more passes close to those same amazing ridges.
We had lunch in Talkeetna before hitting the road to Fairbanks, about five hours drive north. We stopped a couple of times for photo opportunities of Mt McKinley and once for fuel but otherwise made good time to Fairbanks.
Nevertheless it was nearly 7:00pm by the time we reached our hotel - expertly guided in by Sam - and I had three very hungry passengers by then. So as soon as I had checked in I asked for directions to the nearest eatery and we went straight there before we even took our gear up to our rooms.
After dinner the receptionist gave the the site of a web cam that provided a view of the night sky so that we could see if the northern light were out. There was a moderate chance of them being visible tonight so we decided to go to bed early and get up at 2:00am and drive out to a remote location along Murphy's Dome Road to get well away from the city lights.
So it came to pass that we found ourselves driving up a sometimes icy road with no clear idea of how far we should be going and trees on either side of the rode preventing much of a view of the sky. After about 20 miles we backtracked a little to turn onto a side road where a lack of road side trees allowed us to get a clear view of the northern sky. And there they were - a long faint green glow just above the horizon. Curiously, at first, they showed up better in a 30 seconds exposure on my camera than they did to the naked eye. The lights ebbed and faded over half an hour or more until we decided we were cold enough and ready to call it quits for the night. By the time we made it back down the mountain to our hotel it was a little after 4:00am and it was finally the end of days of spectacular sights.
The plane gave us a very smooth ride, having a surprisingly low take off and landing speed. The flight took us to and around the slopes of Mt McKinley - but not around the summit where the winds today were too strong and unpredictable (despite the fact that it was a nice clear day at lower elevations.)
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| One of the glaciers on the slopes of Mt McKinley |
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| Sam & Keira on the glacier |
We stayed long enough to see two other planes land on the same glacier and pull up behind our plane. Then it was our turn to take off and return to Talkeetna, after a few more passes close to those same amazing ridges.
We had lunch in Talkeetna before hitting the road to Fairbanks, about five hours drive north. We stopped a couple of times for photo opportunities of Mt McKinley and once for fuel but otherwise made good time to Fairbanks.
Nevertheless it was nearly 7:00pm by the time we reached our hotel - expertly guided in by Sam - and I had three very hungry passengers by then. So as soon as I had checked in I asked for directions to the nearest eatery and we went straight there before we even took our gear up to our rooms.
After dinner the receptionist gave the the site of a web cam that provided a view of the night sky so that we could see if the northern light were out. There was a moderate chance of them being visible tonight so we decided to go to bed early and get up at 2:00am and drive out to a remote location along Murphy's Dome Road to get well away from the city lights.
So it came to pass that we found ourselves driving up a sometimes icy road with no clear idea of how far we should be going and trees on either side of the rode preventing much of a view of the sky. After about 20 miles we backtracked a little to turn onto a side road where a lack of road side trees allowed us to get a clear view of the northern sky. And there they were - a long faint green glow just above the horizon. Curiously, at first, they showed up better in a 30 seconds exposure on my camera than they did to the naked eye. The lights ebbed and faded over half an hour or more until we decided we were cold enough and ready to call it quits for the night. By the time we made it back down the mountain to our hotel it was a little after 4:00am and it was finally the end of days of spectacular sights.
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| The Aurora Borealis in session. |
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