Day 10

Impossible to believe that we got married 50 years ago today. Where has the time gone? Sitting here in a restaurant where a couple just became engaged. From one end of the spectrum to the other. 

Where we stayed last night. 

Sunrise from our window

Lunch in Talkeetna. I’ll let you guess who had what 🤣

This is the company we used to fly around Denali

Our plane

Booted up for the glacier 

Kim got to sit in the co-pilot seat. What a treat!

I was with in the economy section 🤣

Taking off

So there are going to be tons of pics but I just couldn’t choose which ones to cull so just scroll through if you get bored. 

All I could say was WOW, WOW, WOW!!!

And I know the pics can’t possibly do justice to the actual experience of being there on that bumpy plane feeling like you could actually reach out and touch the mountains. Incredible!!! Our pilot was great and has actually made it to the summit of Mt McKinley (Denali). After getting up close and personal, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to attempt that climb. 

The  first pics are really hazy because of smoke from forest fires but the higher and closer we get, the clearer they become. 

These are alpine Glaciers. The dark areas are called supraglacial moraines. It is caused by all the rocks and debris picked up by the glacier as it moves down the mountain. 

This glacier is 2 miles wide and about 40 miles long and 3800’ feet deep. They drill ice cores to determine the depth. 

Getting closer

This is a cirque (French for circle) glacier named for it’s shape. 

If you can see in the middle of the front edge of the glacier where it has calved, there is a dark line. It is caused by an earthquake several hundred years ago. That edge is about 300’ thick. 

Unfortunately, Denali had a cloud cap today so we weren’t able to fly over it at 21,000’. We topped out at about 14,000’. The clouds also kept us from seeing the top of the mountain. 🙁

Some interesting geological facts for anyone who’s interested: Denali is a granitic pluton, mostly pink quartz monzonite, lifted by tectonic pressure from the subduction of the pacific plate beneath the North American plate, at the same time the sedimentary material above and around the mountain was stripped away by erosion. The forces that lifted Denali also caused many deep earthquakes in Alaska. Denali has a summit elevation of 20,310 making it the highest peak in North America. 

These hanging glaciers, named for their calving properties are 300-400’ thick. 

These bright turquoise pools are liquid ice melt. Blue is the color of pure glacier ice. It is compacted with few air bubbles since the air is squeezed out from the weight of the ice. Pure ice has the properties of minerals. Like sapphires, glacial ice reflects the blue colors of the light spectrum forming this beautiful blue-green color. 

Landing on the glacier

The glacier ice here is about 1500’ thick. 

We are actually about 2 miles away from the mountain in front. It seems like it is only a few hundred feet. 

Standing on the glacier in front of “cloud covered” Denali. 

Our pilot next to Kim. 

For all the plane buffs out there, our plane was an Otter. 

The glacier ice was little round beads. The friction of moving shaves off all the sharp edges. 

This was another plane taking off from the glacier. It looks like it’s going to fly right into that mountain but remember that’s two miles away. Notice how small it looks when it comes up out of the dip. 

We had to wear masks while on the plane

More moraine covered glacier

It feels like the wing is going to touch the mountain. The pilot said it’s a quarter mile away. I’m not so sure. 

Hanging glaciers. 

Leaving the mountain range and heading back through the valleys created by glaciers. U-shaped valleys are created by glaciers. V-shaped valleys are created by rivers. However, there is typically a river left by a glacier when it’s fully melted. 

These are black spruce trees that have been destroyed by the spruce beetle. It has nearly wiped out all the black spruce trees in this area attacking over 900,000 acres. The beetle is only about 1/4” long and a female can lay up to 150 eggs. 

So sad. 

We’re staying at the McKinley Chalet Resort for our last two nights in Alaska. 

It’s very nice. 

Sun setting over the mountains. 

Only it didn’t really set. It’s almost midnight here but still daylight outside.

Some interesting conglomerate rock for rock hound Kody 😁

And with that I’ll sign off for tonight and post this tomorrow.