A pop of red on a blue sky with character-clouds kind of day — Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage.

Sleeping Lady under the protective wing of this floatplane — Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage.

We've got the floats, but where is the plane? — Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage.

Floatplanes rimming the lake — Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage.

Lake Hood Seaplane Base

May 15, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

When Mui and I were in Anchorage in 2001, we visited Lake Hood, which was a-buzz with floatplanes taking off and landing. It is, after all, the world’s busiest seaplane base, handling nearly 200 floatplane flights per day. Not so much today … too early in the season ... pandemic-related cutbacks in service? The two or three floatplanes that landed while we were there all did so at a distance from us, so all we could do was watch them taxi to their “parking spots.”

Nonetheless, our timing was good to enjoy Lake Hood under blue skies and plenty of sunshine … as long as we didn’t turn around and look towards the Chugach Mountains.

We drove around in search of landing floatplanes. And in the process, came across a huge field of small planes … many sporting tundra tires. Obviously they do brisk business taking goods and flying people to all those Alaska communities that are off the road systems. It was funny to see signs that said airplanes had the right of way over vehicles and pedestrians.Read more