Denali Flightsee

After exploring Denali National Park, I climbed back in my truck and drove all the way to Hatcher Pass Bed and Breakfast in Palmer. I’ve stayed in B&Bs before and they’re not my scene. I don’t dig the frilly rooms and the meals with strangers. This place is WAY different. It’s actually a complex of several small log cabins. Each cabin has a mini-kitchen area stocked with breakfast supplies and you make whatever you want in the morning. The place is decorated with Alaskan artwork and decorations. I wish I had stayed here the entire trip! It was the nicest place I stayed, and one of the cheapest too! Unfortunately, I wasn’t there very long.

I was up early the next morning and I started driving up to Independence Mine State Park. The road is a narrow, switchback filled journey up the side of the mountain. Yesterday’s ice/fishtail incident still had me nervous and remember my motto for the trip was “I don’t want to spend the holidays dead.”

Denali Flightsee Trip

I soon pulled over and gave my friends at K2 Aviation a call. I talked to a guy named Chris and he said Denali was out when he drove in to work and it was a beautiful sunny day so he expected the flight to go up. Time for more driving.

Back to Talkeetna I went. As I was driving into town, Denali is unmistakeable. It’s no wonder she’s called The Great One.

When I got to K2 I discovered that Chris was my pilot and it was just the two of us and one couple for our flight. The bad news was we wouldn’t be able to do the glacier landing we had hoped for because off all the fresh snow. The good news was I got to sit in the co-pilot seat.

Words cannot describe the beauty I saw from above Denali National Park. Pictures won’t do it justice, but hopefully these will hold you over until you get a chance to go see it for yourself.

Ruth’s Glacier leading to Denali

The Great One: Denali

Mt Foraker, Mt Hunter, Denali

Denali’s Wickersham Wall

Denali was worth the wait. I’ve never seen anything so magnificent.