Alaska 2017|Small Plane-Big Views

I agreed to do a flight seeing with Steve during our visit to Talkeetna-when he first suggested it I was verrrrrry hesitant!  We booked through K-2 Aviation, and I have to say I'm glad I did this.  Visit the website to if you'd like to see what the flightseeing tour involved.  This post is going to be more photo heavy, and I have no idea what I was taking pictures of except that we were somewhere between Talkeenta and Mt. Denali.  Originally our flight was supposed to be 2 hours with a glacier landing.  The weather, which by Alaska standards was great, was still not good enough for a glacier landing due to crevices on the glacier the company is permitted to use for landing.  Also, the low cloud cover kept us from seeing the top of Mt. Denali.   It was still pretty cool, and it literally felt like we were gliding through the air.

Here's our plane and pilot- we flew in a Otter- which holds 9 passengers.  Our pilot has been flying for about 20 + years, and has been around small planes all his life. He's an engineer and winters in Arizona.  Apparently, in Alaska there are more people that have pilots licenses than driver's licenses. When he explained the 2 features of the plane that would help find us if necessary, and that there were emergency provision such as blankets, food and water, I wasn't sure whether to be scared or confident that we were prepared.

 Ready for take off-we all had headsets and could hear the pilot speak to the flight tower- no SOS's were secretly communicated to the tower!  Our pilot also did a great job of narrating the tour.  As with the other excursions we did, this one was very informative.

Ground control to Major Tom.

Truly stunning views- the terrain is so diverse and it goes from green marsh-y lands to heavy snow capped mountains.

It was truly an awesome experience, but I have to say when we landed I was pretty glad to be back.  We wrapped up our day at Talkeetna with another stop at the Denali Brewing Company before heading back to the train for the return trip to Anchorage.

Talkeenta is definitely a place I'd like to visit again.

Alaska 2017- Peeps

Any great trip requires the best company, and we had that in spades. Thanks to Mary for this group photo taken one night before dinner during the cruise.  There were 6 of us on this adventure: my mother in law- Polly, sisters in law Mary and Karen, my husband and Karen's husband Ron.  On the cruise Mary and Polly had a cabin together and the rest of us were a couple decks below and side by side.  Ron and Karen were the perfect neighbors.  I can't say enough good things about Silversea Cruise Lines, I've been on a couple other cruises, but this one was just amazing.    The food, staff, accommodations, etc., absolutely no complaints, well except one-no bourbon-whaaat?!  We rocked it at team trivia, and came sooooo close to finishing in first place.

There was plenty of laughs through out the trip, and a couple times we had to hold each other up when the boat was really swaying, and there's a reason why those hand rails are along the hall ways on a cruise ship.

We encountered so many wonderful people both on the ship and in the cities where we stopped.  I'm sure the people and the surprisingly wonderful weather were what contributed to an overall excellent experience.  Now a few photos, Mary and I did a photo safari with the Gastineau Guiding Company which included whale watching and a short hike to Mendenhall glacier in Juneau.  Our tour guide was Skip and Jen captained our boat-both did a fantastic job.  Skip is native to Juneau and seasoned photographer.  He took the time to give advice and help everyone who need to reset their cameras to get the best photos and maximize their camera's capability.  He also knew ALOT about the city and state.  I have to say Jen certainly knows how to handle a boat-it was waaaaay smaller than I thought it would be.  For the trip I rented a 55mm-300mm telephoto lens.  It took some great photos and was also pretty heavy, but I think was totally worth it.

FYI- whales do not pose for photos and they are quick!

Mendenhall Glacier in the Tongass National Forest.

I was so surprised at how green Alaska was and that there is such a thing as a temperate rain-forest-who knew?!.  We learned about the eating habits of bears, the life cycle of salmon and how glaciers are formed-so much science!  And this was just the beginning. . . .

Alaska 2017- a brief overview

We've been back from our trip for a week now, and I finally feel like I'm caught up.  Catching up at work was easy compared to recovering from jet lag, laundry, house cleaning, errands, etc.  I'm going to do several posts about our trip.  It was fantastic on so many levels and for so many reasons.  For now I'll leave you with a few photos.

A glacier-not sure which one it is, but we saw so many both from a distance and surprisingly up close.

Spectacular views and so many water falls- it was easy to see the path the water cuts through the glacier/mountain.  I had no idea that Alaska was sooooo green!

There was some wildlife-in case you were wondering; whales do not pose for photos!

Views from above-yea, I boarded a 9 seater Otter and spent an hour literally gliding through the mountains near Mt. Denali.  We weren't able to land on Ruby Glacier because of the crevices, and the cloud cover prevented us from being able to see all of Mt. Denali.  Even though it was a shorter trip, and we didn't get the full experience it's one I won't forget.

On the return trip of our final train ride that went to Grandview I played around with my camera and I got some pretty good photos of the sunset.

Something I never expected to see was all the flowers and color- more of that to come.  Below is a native plant/flower- fire weed.

I hope you enjoy this glimpse into Alaska.  Stay tuned  . . .