It rained most of our first day in McCarthy and through the night. I was a little worried about the weather for our flight on Wednesday, but as the sun came up about 4:15 am, the sky kept getting bluer and brighter-yay!
The flight was scheduled for noon and being on east coast time, we were up and ready by 6am. We had a few hours to kill!
Our cabin was located a few hundred yards from Kennicott Glacier Lake so with calm water and clear skies, we went kayaking for a bit. My dad didn't want to go so he manned the camera and enjoyed the peace and quiet on shore. The lake is just about freezing, about 35 degrees, as it is the result of thr melting Kennicott and Root Glaciers. As Robert and I started paddling there was so much noise coming from the glaciers. Cracking, breaking, and mini-avalanches from the rocks and debris carried with the glacier happened every few minutes. It was so cool! We were a safe distance from the glaciers to see and hear without being in danger.
We kayaked for awhile and loaded back up so we were ready to meet our van on the other side of the footbridge for transportation to the air strip.
Wrangell Mountain Air is the area outfitter that gives flights in and out of McCarthy, does drop-off's for overnight raft trips, and flightsee tours. We went on a 70 minute flightsee over Wrangell -St Elias National Park and the Bagley Icefields. Amazing is an understatement!
Four major mountain ranges (Wrangell, Chugach, St. Elias, and Eastern part of the Alaska ranges) meet in the park and 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the country are in this area.
The park in size is equal to six Yellowstones and the second highest peak in the country, Mt. St. Elias at 18008 ft is located here. The ranges are volcanic in nature, Mt. Wrangell at 14,163 ft is one of the largest active volcano (last erupted in 1900, but has active steam vents now) in the North America.
Flying over peak after peak, and glacier after glacier was nothing short of spectacular!
The pictures just don't do justice, but you know me- I try to capture it anyways!
The pilot was a female, late 40's (yay- girl power!) that does this full-time, with at least four flights a day. She has teenage boys so she was great with Robert, the co-pilot. He felt a little nausea with some turbulence as the pilot tried to get over the top of one of the largest staircase glaciers. She grabbed 'the bag' and was ready for him just in case.....
I biked/hiked back to Kennicott and finished the day with a hike to the Root Glacier.
What a great day ❤️
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