Knik Glacier, Alaska Flight

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Anchorage, Alaska Glacier Flight

Photographs by Carol Shaffer

On July 23, 2003, I went on Rust's Air Service's Knik Glacier flightseeing trip out of Anchorage, Alaska, following a 7-day cruise up the coast on the Carnival Spirit. Here are a few of the pictures I took on that flight. You probably know that there are a lot of glaciers in Alaska, but I think you'll be surprised at how many this Web site has information on!
For you airplane enthusiasts, my friend Murray tells me that the plane we flew in, N68083, is a classic Alaska bush plane, a 1958 Dehavilland DHC-2 Beaver Mark 1, powered by a 450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-985 series rotary engine.

The Knik Glacier, feeding the Knik River. One of the salmon spawning rivers.

The glaciers pick up so much gravel that it's sometimes hard to tell where the glacier is anymore.

Magnificent rivers of ice flowing out of the Chugach Mountains!
A beautiful example of a pair of medial moraines, formed by the gravel from 3 glaciers meeting.

The meltwater ponds trapped among the peaks and crevasses on the glacier show you the color of the water. The vegetation line above the terminal moraine of this glacier shows how much it has receded in recent years.