Alaska Range flightseeing!!

[glacier_kitty]

Last year, I discovered a flightseeing company out of Delta Junction (about 1/2-2 hours south of Fairbanks) that did flights around the Alaska Range, including Black Rapids Glacier..I'd been wanting to fly over that glacier for years, and I said that on my birthday this year that's one thing I would do. My birthday week was cloudy, so I made a reservation for today, because the heat wave brought clearer weather. Unfortunately, the wind chose today to bring over smoke from fires burning in Canada..that's not nice!! Haha. Me and mom and her friend Sarah (they sew/craft a lot together) drove down anyway and met the pilot at the "airport" (literally a path of gravel through a field haha). He said the smoke might get better in the mountains, so we hopped on and took off. This was Sarah's first time in a small plane! The pilot was glad I had a specific location in mind, apparently other people are like "just take us anywhere" haha. It look a little time getting to the mountains (the smoke was somewhat better there), but once we did..wooow. There is SO much beauty and awesomeness you can't see from the road!! I loved how smooth the snow/ice looked on the mountains, like ice cream! It was VERY hard trying to take pictures though, so bright! Mom actually got a better view of Black Rapids from her side, but she thought she left her phone in the car, so she couldn't take any pictures! Ouch! (She saw it was in her purse when we landed!) That was kind of disappointing, but I still enjoyed the view of the tributary glaciers (I think the pilot said they're just considered the Black Rapids complex or something like that), the pretty meltponds, moraines, etc. We also saw the beginning of the Susitna Glacier. I wished we could have spent more time there, but that would have been insanely expensive, and those little planes only hold not a huge amount of fuel (it's never long enough for me when I'm around glaciers haha). When we were flying back, the pilot pointed to where he worked at his "real" job, and said he was on his lunch break..well that's pretty much the best lunch break ever haha. Unfortunately, not all of my pictures came out (especially with the wing strut thing in the way), but I still got some cool ones

After that we had buffalo burgers at a restaurant that I think is only open in the summer, went to a fabric store, and went to this grocery store that sells food from different countries, like Russia (their donuts looked good, but I was way too full from lunch to eat one lol). We have our road trip "musts": glaciers, food, fabric..works for me!! Haha. The smoke was a little better on the drive back, yay! Sarah thanked us for inviting her and said she had a good time..fun was had by all :D



Mom's birthday dinner from yesterday! I can't believe she's 70 now!

Sarah and mom on the plane!

Flying past either the Tanana or Delta river..they converge at some point. A lot of these pics will have plane parts in the pictures too, sorry!

A very glacial river



Lots of cool little ponds

The top of Donnelly Dome (none of the other pics I took of it came out, ugh), a pond, the Pipeline, and I think the Richardson Highway

The river looks SO cool!!! Interesting textures!

Sitting in the back seat probably would have been better..oh well :P

Yay mountains!

So pretty!

The start of Black Rapids Glacier, yay!!

Lots of moraine debris



I'm impressed any of my pictures came out, I kept taking my glasses off so I could see the screen better (transition lenses and phones are NOT a good combination lol), but even that didn't always work /firstworldproblems

So cooool!!


Sarah took this one of either Black Rapids or Susitna Glacier. Look at that icy paradise!! (Sarah called it my happy spot haha)

More moraines





This would have been perfect without the strut in the way! Still cool though (to the left of the strut are some meltwater ponds, pretty glacier blue!)

ICE CREAM AND CHOCOLATE SYRUP!!! Haha

Either the Susitna or looking back down Black Rapids

More chocolate syrup!

Look at that magnificent icefield :D

Going back down Black Rapids





Unsurprisingly, I got a chocolate sundae after this flight :P

Look at that cool moraine!





Niiiiceee

*drools*

Sarah took this one of a meltwater lake

Us by the plane! Fun adventure!


14. How do you exercise? I'm on my feet a lot at work, getting up on stools, bending down, etc. Mom said she'd give me her bike so I can exercise more like my doctor wants me to do lol

15. If you could fly, what would you do? Fly over lots of glaciers, visit friends/family, find more glaciers to see haha, etc

16. How do you need to improve? I should probably eat healthier and exercise more and be less lazy haha