Alaska Review! Day 3--Talkeetna to Denali (Healy)

The day dawned overcast and foggy.  I will be honest--although I knew full well that weather is luck and Alaska can be rainy for days on end, I had been hoping that we'd get clear skies today.  We had a flight seeing adventure booked with N2 Alaska, which flies float planes out of Christiansen Lake over places like Ruth Glacier, and it wasn't looking good.   I had been up for awhile (like around 4 AM, although I did go back to bed after sitting on our porch for awhile, willing the fog to lift.

As we made our way over to the main house for our continental breakfast (hard boiled eggs, cereal, toast, English muffins, yogurt) we received a call from David Hicks, asking us if we could postpone our trip.  He wanted us to wait until three, which would push our arrival in Denali too late for my liking.  Unfortunately, he had people booked solid from 12:30 until then, so our other option was to try around 11, which we opted to do, as we didn't want to miss out completely, especially if it was supposed to clear later in the morning.

We hung out at the cabin and the kids explored after breakfast.  Slowly, the fog started to lift.  By the time we made it to Christiansen Lake, it was sunny, although the skies weren't really fully clear.

In the photo below, you can see what I mean.

In this next photo, you can see that the kids have shadows (so yay for the sun), but it's still cloudy.

 We spoke for a bit with David, and we decided that since we were at the lake and it was our only chance, we'd go for it.  Remember, Chretien really likes planes and the kids had never flown in such a small plane, so even if we couldn't see Denali, we'd still have fun.

So we were seated pretty much how I expected.  Boys in the back, Trust and I in the middle and Chretien up front.

Imp, of course, loved the headset.  He used it a lot during our flight.  😁

Just waiting for David and Chretien now.

And off we go!

 Hi folks in the canoe!  They almost don't look real to me.

 The landscape was lovely, but you can still see the haze.

Aerial shot of the Parks Highway.  We would be traveling that road soon.

As we headed toward Ruth Glacier, we knew we wouldn't be seeing Denali, which was a bummer.  We didn't get to see a lot of the glacier, either, but we did see some of the toe.

 Of course, these photos don't give you any sort of perspective as to how big an area this is.  Also, we were surprised with how "dirty" the glacier was.

David then decided that since we weren't really getting the whole experience, he'd try to find some wildlife for us.  

And we were successful!  Two moose here in the photo above.

I don't think there is anything here to see, but I liked the trees with the clearing.

Another view of the Parks Highway...and a bird in flight on the left.

By now I was actually starting to feel a bit nauseous.  I didn't expect that, because I'd traveled in a small plane before as well as a helicopter.  Chretien thought afterward that maybe it was because I was watching a lot of this trip through my camera, and he did say that the second half was a lot more turning than the first.  I slowed down with the photos and just sat quietly, and I was fine. 

Our flight was about an hour long, give or take.   Here we are at the end of our flight.

All in all, it was a good experience.  

By the time we were ready to leave David and the lake, it was 12:15.  It was July 4, and Talkeetna has a parade which starts at noon.  We thought about it a bit and while it might have been fun to experience, we would have had to drive 10 minutes back to town and park outside of it, and by then, we thought the parade would have been over where we'd have been standing.  So we made the decision to just move on.