Look…In the Sky! It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, No Wait! It’s Russ in a Floatplane!

The floatplane!

As many of you may know, Russ is an aviator.  He has flown in and has flown many types of aircraft, but he confessed to me that he had never been in a floatplane.  So up he went for a glacier and wildlife tour and a landing/takeoff on a wilderness lake. I declined to go, as I’ve been up on a small plane that landed on a glacier in New Zealand and that pretty much maxed out my thrill factor.

Lake Hood is the world’s largest floatplane airport.  The lake is surrounded with floatplane docking areas and there is a waiting list to get one.  Russ chose to fly on Rust’s Service which has been around a while (so we figured it was pretty safe.) 

On approach to the "landing strip"

It was a beautiful clear day, just perfect for flightseeing. The pilot had a degree in geology and gave some great information on why the glaciers look the way they do. And while they did see alot of glaciers, no wildlife!  I think they are all on vacation on the "Outside".

The black lines are not rivers, they represent the debris boundaries of the various glaciers as the glaciers blended together.

The glacier lake the plane landed on.

Alot of ice in the lake. The pilot got out on the floats and snagged a small piece to bring back to the airport.

A hanging glacier.  These do not flow into a river. 

The Knik River.

To finish off the tour, Russ and I drove up to Eagle RiverNature Center and saw some of the same glaciers he toured on his floatplane trip.  For Russ, this floatplane adventure was a highlight of our Alaska trip! If the weather is good while we are in Denali, he is planning on taking another flightseeing trip to see Mt. McKinley up close and personal.

A view of some of the mountains that Russ toured on his floatplane trip. 
This picture was taken at the Eagle River Nature Center.

The happy travelers!