Flightseeing over Denali
Experiencing Denali National Park from above is so incredibly different than experiencing it from the road.
You may be wondering why you’d even need to do a flightseeing tour in Denali if you’re already planning on exploring the park on a bus tour. Well, Alaska is full of backcountry, remote areas that you can only see by air. Plus, on an adventure down the Denali Park Road, you’ll only see the north side of Denali and the Alaska Range and at your closest, you’ll still be 33 miles away from Denali.
The best flightseeing tours to Denali National Park don’t actually leave from the park entrance. The best tours leave from Talkeetna, which is a quirky little town about 2.5 hours south of the Denali National Park Visitor Center. There are two awesome companies that I would recommend flying with - K2 Aviation and Talkeetna Air Taxi. These companies offer similar flight paths and both offer glacier landings, which are a must-add!
I chose to go with Talkeetna Air Taxi on their Mountain Voyager route + glacier landing. The weather wasn’t great that morning in Talkeetna, but the team has cameras closer to the mountain and they won’t send flights if the area is clouded over or if it’s unsafe to fly. We flew over thick clouds as we approached the Alaska Range and I was getting worried about what kind of views we would get.
The clouds mostly cleared as we made it to Denali. Our pilot took us through incredible valleys, past vertical walls of granite and over countless glaciers. We were lucky that the clouds cleared because glacier landings are all weather dependent, and most of the time they won’t know if they can land until they’re flying over the amphitheater. We spent about 15 minutes on the glacier until the pilot noticed thick clouds rolling into the amphitheater and he urged us to pack back up. One of the reasons I recommend booking your flightseeing tour in the morning, is because I was one of the only flights that was able to do a glacier landing that day. Other flights that afternoon had to cancel their landing, or their tour was cancelled altogether. If there had been inclement weather in the morning and my flight were cancelled, Talkeetna Air Taxi would have done everything to try to re-book me on the next flight out that day or any other day during my time in Talkeetna.
Tips for Flightseeing
Schedule your tour early in the morning. That way if the weather is poor, they have a good chance of rescheduling you.
Wear layers. The planes are heated, but even in the middle of summer, the glacier will be cold.
Bring your sunglasses. When the sun reflects off the bright white glacier, you’re going to wish you had them.
Bring your camera and a fresh SD card. My flight was about 2 hours long and I ended up taking 450 photos.
Flightseeing in Denali National Park is a must-do when traveling to Alaska.