Air Flight Around Mount Denali in the Alaska Mountain Range
Alaska, August, 2012, Sondy Sloan
After 4 nights and days way beyond the frontier I left the Kantishna Roadhouse, nestled in a wooded valley next to the full and flowing Moose Creek. The property owned and operated by the Athebaskan Tribe of Denali Natives lies at mile 96, nearly to the end of the only road into Denali National Park, Alaska. A 6 ½ hour bus ride will get you in or out, but private cars are not allowed past mile 3. My wonderful son, Jake, decided that I might fly out....and what ensued was breathtaking and incredibly moving. Usually a 10-15 minute flight, the pilot from Kat Air spent an hour flying where no man can hike, drive, or even climb to. He knew the Alaskan Range like the back of his hand, and with his small plane, he maneuvered into tight places and near contact with the shapes that no longer towered above our heads. The wind was nonexistent, allowing closer contact to the range.
The flight begins with a few shoddy snapshots of the environment as we leave the runway and head towards the mountain range. We fly up towards the cornflower blue sky, past permafrost ponds and runoffs of glacial melt. We climb, at most, just below 13,000 feet and cruise above, in, and below the clouds toward the towering summits. Since I chose the copilots seat, taking pictures was no easy task, as the plane's nose and wings were often in the way. I finally decided to lift the camera above my head for unobstructed shots, no viewfinder, come what may. What follows the initial pictures are shots that I never anticipated to be so glorious. Postcard Perfect. Enjoy the slide show.
We climb to sheer faces and moving glaciers that appear to be wide white rivers. To one side of the plane the pinnacles are sharp and stark white, snow-covered majesty with shades of blue and purple; on the other side as the plane turns circles, we see stunning and colorful foothills covered in tundra. There are greens and purples and blues, yellows, grays, and sands.
We weave in and out of the peaks, viewing high altitude glaciers and basins, formidable pinnacles-in contrast to foothills softened by foliage and a soft yielding to the elements, unlike the seemingly immovable massive mountains. We see a permafrost pond at about 8,000 feet, solitary in a cradle of yellow green meadow. There are earth slides of diverse minerals, like copper and mica, running like forked creeks down the slopes.
We pass a meandering river with a distinct S carved in the countryside as we descend back toward land. A short, sufficient runway lies parallel to the Alaska Railway, so we are able to walk just a short hop, skip, and jump to board the train back to Anchorage.
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