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Man, I LOVE flying!! But the reality of guiding tours is that the free time needed to go flightseeing doesn't come very often, and it almost never comes when the weather is good enough to justify spending a few hundred dollars on the flight.
On August 27, 2002, though, everything lined up and while my group was out on the Tundra Wilderness Tour into the park, I drove down to Denali Air's gravel strip along the Parks Highway just south of the park gates.
The first photo was shot just after takeoff, at 10:55am.
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Once I reached Denali Air, it didn't take long to get everyone aboard N6620L, a twin-engined 1969 Piper PA-31-310 Navaho. It carries 7 passengers plus the pilot.
We began our flight by going southwest up Riley Creek into the wilderness to stay away from the Denali park road. A large and fairly detailed map on the NPS site will give you a good idea of what the route looks like.
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The Sanctuary River at 11:00am. Carrying a GPS, or better yet getting a camera with a GPS geo-tagging system, would sure be nice on a flight like this! Most of the photos that follow don't have the location noted because I unfortunately haven't figured it out, but I've noted the times they were shot so you can see how fast things changed. The detailed maps in the Alaska Atlas & Gazetteer helped me track much of the route, though.
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This photo of the East Fork of the Toklat River was shot at 11:01am.
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Passing the East Fork of the Toklat River at 11:02am.
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The main channel of the Toklat River at 11:04am.
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This photo was shot at 11:05am.
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This photo was shot at 11:10am.
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This photo was shot at 11:10am.
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This photo was shot at 11:11am.
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Mount McKinley, or Denali as she's known in Alaska, is a stunning sight. The tallest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet, she towers far above all the surrounding mountains and is visible from both Anchorage and Fairbanks on clear days. This photo was shot at 11:11am.
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This photo was shot at 11:14am.
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This photo was shot at 11:17am.
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The Muldrow Glacier, looking north at 11:18am.
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This photo was shot at 11:18am.
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This photo was shot at 11:18am.
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This photo was shot at 11:20am.
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This photo was shot at 11:20am.
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Getting in tight to Denali's cliffs like this, you really have to trust your pilot, even on a crystal-clear day like this. This photo was shot at 11:23am.
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This photo was shot at 11:23am.
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This photo was shot at 11:24am.
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This photo was shot at 11:26am.
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Several massive glaciers flow from the south slopes of the Alaska Range - see this topographical map. This photo shows the view looking down the 36-mile-long Kahiltna Glacier, at 11:27am.
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This photo was shot at 11:28am.
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This photo was shot at 11:30am.
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This photo was shot at 11:30am.
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At 11:31am, even the pilot was taking pictures.
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This photo was shot at 11:32am.
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This photo was shot at 11:36am.
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This photo was shot at 11:39am.
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Another plane can be seen far below us, just over the wing, at 11:41am.
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The park road can be seen here at Sable Pass at 11:41am.
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This photo was shot at 11:43am.
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This photo was shot at 11:44am.
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This photo was shot at 11:50am as we dropped back into the Nenana River valley.
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The Nenana River, the George Parks Highway and, directly above the wing, the airstrip, at 11:52.
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Looking north down the valley, with the George Parks Highway at the lower part of the photo, and the Alaska Railroad across the middle.
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The Nenana River twists around so much here that it runs parallel to itself in opposite directions for a few hundred yards. The lowest hotel complex in the photo is the McKinley Village, with Denali River Cabins and Cedars Lodge above that and Denali Grizzly Bear Resort on the other side of the highway.
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A final photo with the pilot, shot right at noon. It was only an hour, but a truly incredible hour!
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