Today is a big day for us. We have booked a Denali Flightseeing tour. We did this 5 years ago and it was the highlight of the trip. This time we are taking a longer flight that also lands on a glacier. We can’t wait. There are two major tour providers, Talkeetna Air Taxi and K2. We chose Talkeetna Air Taxi again this time though both offer essentially the same tours for the same prices. This isn’t cheap at about $400 per person but it is well worth it.
First thing today we hung out at Talkeetna Alaska Lodge again. This morning the mountain views are amazing. The weather is totally clear and about 75F for the high today. Perfect for our tour. We ate lunch again at the West Rib. This time we split a burger because it looked better than our Fish and Chips we had yesterday. It was awesome. After lunch we walked the river with Maverick again and just bummed around until it was time to be at the airport for our tour.
We had booked a 3pm tour (several days ago) and needed to arrive at about 2:15. We checked in and weighed in then got our GoreTex snow boots that fit over your street shoes/boots. These snow boots make it easier to walk on the glacier snow and keep the snow from getting in your shoes. Our flight consisted of 10 people. The pilot asked if anyone wanted to sit in the co-pilot seat and I immediately raised my hand. I knew from before that the co-pilot seat was by-far the best seat in the house. I wasn’t disappointed. The flight was absolutely spectacular and landing on the glacier was crazy cool. I highly recommend taking this tour if you visit this area. There are about 4 tours available both with and without the glacier landing. This tour was the 2nd longest “Grand Denali” tour that circles the mountain and includes the glacier landing. 5 years ago we tried to conserve money and took the shorter tour without the landing. It is very much worth the price difference to go with the longer tour and glacier landing. All of the tours take you VERY close to the mountain, through many passes fairly narrow clearances, and over the many glaciers flowing down the mountain. Pictures do not do it justice, nor do they show just how close to the mountains you get. I could continue raving on for a long time but I think you get the idea. After the tour we took Maverick to some trails to burn off some steam and then ate at the Mountain High Pizza Pie.