Day 58: Friday, July 12, 2013

We woke up to beautiful sunny skies. The weather forecast was sunny and warm all day. A perfect day for viewing Mt. McKinley.

We started the day by walking to beautiful downtown Talkeetna.

Welcome to beautiful downtown Talkeetna

Downtown Talkeetna.

House rules at the historic Fairview Inn

Stubbs, the Mayor of Talkeetna. He hangs around downtown.

I had a spinach bread for lunch. It’s kind of like a square pizza with spinach and cheese.

Next we stopped by Talkeetna Air Taxi at the airport to book a flight-seeing tour with a glacier landing. The first flight available was at 4:00 so we returned to the RV park to get the truck and drve to the Talkeetna overlook for a view of Mt. McKinley with no clouds.

Beth and Henry at the Talkeetna overlook

An Airplane flies over Mt. McKinley

At 3:30 a van picked us up to take us to the airport for our flight. There were six passengers on our plane – two guys and a gal from Norway, a man from Maryland, and us. Our pilot Alex was from Georgia.

The flight was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Seeing the mountains from the air and flying so close to the south face of Mt. McKinley was awe inspiring. It’s a day I will never forget.

Waiting to board

Mt. McKinley is in the upper left beneath the clouds

Shadow of our plane over the mountains

The Ruth Glacier is in the gorge between the mountains

We went really close to Mt. McKinley

View of McKinley through the front window

We were really close to the mountains

Really, really close to the mountain!

We were headed straight to this mountain

Really, really, really close!

Ours was the only plane on the glacier and we had plenty of time to enjoy the jaw dropping beauty around us.

We landed on the Ruth Glacier. Hard to believe it was warm enough to wear short sleeves.

The high round snow covered peak is the south peak of Mt. McKinley

Henry taking videos

Beth with the plane

Loving every minute of our time on Ruth glacier

We flew low over the glacier as we started our return trip to the airport.

Flying over the glacier

Beautiful scenery on our way back to the airport

What a glorious day it was! A day we will never forget. Perfect.