Jewels of the Wrangells

When you want to see a place that is 13.2 million acres in size — bigger than Switzerland ... six times the size of Yellowstone National Park — you have to think outside the box. Especially if there are no roads you can drive around ... just wilderness in every direction.

Thus, we decided to see Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve from the air. A great decision as it turns out. Our flightseeing with Wrangell Mountain Air definitely falls into the category of “amazing ... spectacular ... beyond breathtaking.” This park just begs to be seen from the air.

WMA offers flight options ranging from 50 minutes to 120 minutes. We chose the latter and booked it with a discount thanks to an Alaska TourSaver coupon. This option took us all the way south to see St Elias and Mount Logan, as well as University Peak and Mount Churchill. We flew over amazing rivers of ice and the Bagley Icefield, which is the second largest non-polar icefield in North America ... over 125 miles long, 6 miles wide, and 3,000 feet thick. It was incredible.

Words cannot describe our experience and what our eyes beheld. All I can say is that it was worth every single penny, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

(There’s no way I can pick just a few photos out of the many I took during the flight. So, the ones here are just random selections.)Read more