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Flightseeing:
Alaska Begins When You Leave the
Ground
There is something humbling about
drifting on the wind hundreds of
miles from the nearest human settlement,
soaring above the shifting patterns of nature while
in the seat of a plane hardly bigger than a car. In
Alaska, this may be a common experience, as one in
every forty residents is equipped with an aircraft
license, but even "common" experiences in Alaska can
give grand perspectives.
Put
yourself on North America's rooftop
with our Virtual Mt. McKinley
Flightseeing Tour »
In a state one-fifth the size
of the Lower 48 with less than 10,000 miles of road,
flying is a way of life. Air taxis are to Alaska what
yellow cabs are to New York and water taxis are to
Venice. So much of Alaska is remote, that taking a
flight tour, or flightseeing, provides a view of the
state that is impossible to get while still on the
ground. Anchorage, the nerve center of Alaska with
its quarter-million residents, quickly disappears into
a sea of wilderness just minutes after take off, and
what at first seem like big mountains fast become gargantuan
pyramids of rock and snow. The adage, "Fly an hour
or walk a week" is never truer than when, minutes out
of town, you soar above the massive buttresses of Mt.
McKinley or glide over the iceberg-choked waters of
Columbia Glacier.
Experience the natural history below you as you watch
rivers run from valleys filled with melting glaciers,
and fly over young birch and aspen forests which fade
into ancient spruce bogs or endless rolling tundra.
Beauty takes on a new scale in the air, as you travel
not just to get from here to there, but to see every
living thing in between. Civilization fades into distant
memory as you float over jagged peaks that have never
felt the press of a human footprint or spot a bear
foraging in the wild.
Some small planes are equipped with floats to land
on mountain lakes, remote rivers, or ocean bays. Others
deploy skis to land on snowy glaciers. Most flights
offer all window seats, pilot narration, and individual
headsets. Operators offer set prices for seats on flightseeing
trips to popular destinations. You can also charter
by the hour for trips to remote wilderness destinations.
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