This is Day 5 of a 14 day trip from Seattle to Alaska and back. Click here for the prior and next entries.
Today was Thursday. Over breakfast at the hostel, we checked the weather; clouds and rain were forecast Fri-Sun. On Sat, we wouldn’t be able to fly to King Salmon to visit Katmai Park and Brooks Camp as we planned. Time for a change in plans.
We called the hotel (Antlers Inn) and Float Plane to Katmai Park from King Salmon. Ideal would be push 2 days to Mon and visit Katmai Park on Tue. But the float plane was full all day Tue, couldn’t take us to the park until Wed. So we pushed it 3 days out, to depart Talkeetna on Tue.
The day was clear, but for a scattered to broken layer at 7,500′ obscuring Mt. Denali. We walked to the airport and took off for a 2 hour tour around Mt. Denali. This turned out to be the most scenic flight I’ve ever done. As we flew NW toward the E side of Denali, the moment we popped up through the cloud layer the peaks of the entire range came into view.
Denali and the range it dominates is so huge the scale throws off one’s sense of distance. Check the photo album for all the pictures, but they cannot do justice to the awe it inspires. This was the most incredible 2 hours I have spent in my airplane, well worth the entire trip.
We flew toward the E side of the Denali range, turned L and approached Denali, flying high (12,000′) and slow. We made a big slow circle, then continued W close to the mountain. It was dead calm and clear; winds at 12,000′ were only 3 kts. In our final pass heading W, we turned S to follow the Kahiltna Glacier out.
Flight time: H 74.9 – 76.8 = 1.9 hrs
Flight tracks:
https://hangar.naviatorapp.com/20255/patk-to-33ak
https://hangar.naviatorapp.com/20256/33ak-to-patk
During this flight, the Alaska Aviator Handbook came in handy, showing frequencies, reporting points and routes to minimize potential traffic.
When we returned to Talkeetna, we fueled up again at Sheldon’s and they gave us a tie-down spot on the asphalt right next to the fuel pumps. We burned 14 gallons in 1.9 hours, for 7.37 gph.
We walked to town for lunch at the Denali pub. Walked to the river, met some ladies from Oregon. On the way back I signed up to go zip-lining the next day.
At the hostel that evening, we met Danny and Laxmi, the other guests sharing the house.
