June 18 Flying Denali

Today is another bright clear day. 

We reported to the airport at 8:00 am for our 2 hour flight to and around Denali and guess what we saw -- they were waiting for us at the airport.  How foolish of us to be looking for them out in the wilderness.

There is no way to explain the trip with pictures.  We flew so close that at times the mountains were above the plane.  But here they are.

One of the glaciers - 40 miles long

Denali

Denali up close

If you enlarge this photo and look closely you can see
the trail the climbers use to approach from this side



ON RUTH GLACIER

The air was as smooth as glass. Hardly a bump. Gary was sitting in the right seat on the way up.
I took this picture out the cockpit window as we approached the glacier for landing.



See the skis on the plane. They drop down hydraulicly.

The rock wall behind us is 2500 ft. high - straight up.



They gave us boots to put over our shoes--
that's why my feet look so funny.

Some people are traveling another way.

This afternoon we're going to check out a camground about 15 miles down the road.  If it's nice we'll move to there tomorrow because Montana Creek, which is adjacent, is supposed to be good fishing. If we do anything else exciting today I'll report tomorrow.