AK on the GO

Here I go again. Home from Homer, then back on the road to Salt Lake City in the early a.m. I’m off to visit Big AK Kid who is anxiously awaiting a return to Alaska where he’ll make tracks to Fairbanks and his senior year of high school, god willing. So, mom makes her own tracks for a wrap-up visit (it helps, too, to see temperatures in that fair city soaring to a roasty, toasty 90+ degress; ahhhh!).

Today’s Alaska Travelgram Show was a plethora of information about our favorite glacier-landing-Denali-flightseeing-fishing-airline, K2 Aviation/Rust’s Flying Service. For over 50 years, the good folks of Rusts and K2 have been ferrying visitors and locals to their favorite viewpoints of southcentral Alaska. Find the podcast HERE and check out the special deal just for Travelgram listeners. Yes, 25% off their new Ultimate Denali NP Hike/Flightseeing trip, where you and the fam can be whisked up to Moraine Lake for a wonderful afternoon of hiking and/or relaxing, complete with wine, cheese, and smoked salmon. Sign me up!

K2 also has specials on their website; fun ones guaranteed to give everybody a discount of some sort if one only pays attention. Take the Triple Trivia Discount: get three out of three trivia questions correct and you’ll win $50 off your flightseeing trip. Hey, better than a poke in the eye with an ice axe, eh? Or, for Alaskans, how about that awesome Birthday Special, where one receives the percentage off equal to age in the birthday month! So, let’s say Scott was going on a trip near his birthday; hey, he’d get more than 50% off! Whoa.

Speaking of Scott, don’t forget to sign up for my intrepid co-host’s regular airfare deals on the Alaska Travelgram website. Scott McMurren has air travel down to a science, and judging by his deals today, I’m thinking everybody should pay attention. Remember, when airlines are mad at each other we all win.

Take a look at our latest post for Kids These Days! Radio, also heard each Tuesday at 2 p.m. on 91.1 fm KSKA in Anchorage, repeating at 7 p.m. KTD is winning all sorts of awards for their powerful and inspiring content, and AKontheGO is proud to be a part of it. This week we’re talking about AK Fam’s relaxing trip to the lovely village of Seldovia, across Kachemak Bay from Homer. Everybody needs a time out, even on a busy family vacation, and Seldovia fit with our plans perfectly, especially that hike along the Otterbahn trail to Outside Beach. Check it out HERE.

I’m off to dreamland, friends. Keep up with my latest journey via our Facebook page, Twitter feed, or just by logging on to this website, where we’ll keep you up-to-date and informed about the latest and greatest in Alaskan family travel.

EK

I live in Alaska, and like many Alaskan residents, I assumed I knew what my state looked like. Trees, mountains, rivers, and lakes; to my one-dimensional way of thinking the 49th state is indeed a colorful montage of untamed beauty. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could match what I see from the ground on a daily basis, fortunate as I am to travel often the highways and byways of Alaska. Then I went high. Up, that is.

When K2 Aviation’s Talkeetna crew offered AK Fam the chance to take a late-afternoon ride toward North America’s highest peak, we said ‘yes’ with little hesitation. In business since the 1960′s when Hank Rust founded the inaugural flying outfit that expanded in the 1990′s to the current service we know and love today, K2′s staff and pilots know their stuff. Experienced, knowledgable, and incredibly patient with all sorts of incoming passengers, some of whom have never set foot upon snow, K2 seems to provide only the best of the best, and it shows.

Offering four flightseeing tours with the option of glacier landings on three of those, K2 transports guests into the private and pristine world of “The High One”, Denali (or Mt. McKinley, depending upon who you talk to). From short one-hour flights (“McKinley Experience”) that provide a sweeping view of the six million-acre wilderness of Denali National Park and Denali herself to the “Denali Grand Tour” with added glacier landing, every flighsee takes visitors to a world unseen from the ground and unknown to most; Alaskans included.

Glacier boots keep the tootsies warm and dry!

Our trip began on the front porch of K2′s Talkeetna office, where a very important check-in for weight and gear is mandatory, especially for lugs like us carrying camera equipment and a kid. For those opting for a glacier landing, a swing by the huge locker filled with glacier boots awaits, and AK Kid found the big, clumsy overshoes to be quite entertaining. Suggested clothing included jackets, hats, and gloves, welcome on our flight day as intermittent drizzle threatened. Oh yes, and the office? It had a playground on the grassy lawn. Bonus!

With a fleet of aircraft well-suited to Alaskan flightseeing and icy landing situations, K2 operates Cessnas, Pipers, and famous deHavilland Beavers and Otters, well-known for their throaty noise as they depart for points wild. Ten passengers in all sat in our Otter’s window-seated aircraft, as our pilot, with moi in the co-pilot ‘s seat (no way, yes; I was the co-pilot) taxied to the end of Talkeetna’s tiny airport. With a caution to be “fastened in our seatbelts real good”, the tail of our Otter rose, the propellor spun, and we were off into the blue yonder of interior Alaska.

Allowing an hour to fly around the many glaciers and peaks surrounding Denali, both named and unnamed, the reverence of such stark beauty seemed to strike each and every one of us. People don’t walk or hike or ski here. They don’t live here; if they are lucky they might achieve minor fame by climbing a rocky face or icy slope, but the mountains don’t care. They just are. And we were but a tiny dot in their landscape. Humbling, that’s what it was.

I sat with my mouth hanging open, snapping photos now and again as we neared such landmarks as Kahiltna Glacier, Sheldon Ampitheater, and our destination, Ruth Glacier. Coy as ever, Denali peeked out now and again from between the grayish clouds but always ducked back behind them as if a shy child unwilling to meet strangers.

Our pilot swung south and announced his arrival on the radio with a quiet “Anybody coming out?” gently putting the Otter down on the deep snow and ice of Ruth Glacier with nary a bump. Shutting down the engines and opening the doors, we all carefully climbed out of the plane and stood, awkwardly for a moment, upon a pile of ice and snow that descended for thousands of feet below our own boots. Our breath was frosty and damp in the late-afternoon air, our eyes squinted against the snowy backdrop as we trod every so carefully around the plane, looking at the massive monoliths of rock that make up the Alaska Range. Even the always-exuberant AK Kid was quiet for a moment.

Some people took Christmas card photos, some thew snowballs, and others, like us, just stood amazed. It’s that kind of place, Denali is, and it takes the breath away.

Twenty minutes later, we were back in the air, ducking and weaving as a weather system moved in from the north and rain began to fall. Arriving back at the Talkeetna airport, we touched our feet upon the blacktop, noting the strangeness of its surface and the green trees surrounding us, thinking back to this other world from which we had just arrived.

K2 offers trips all year round, for all ages. Kids two and under fly for free, and youngsters 12 and under fly for $50 off any tour. The Alaska TourSaver also offers a two-for-one deal for the McKinley Flyer tour. In addition, Costco also carries discount coupons at its check-out kiosks.

Average cost for a tour is around $250. Is it worth it? Yes, if for no other reason than to show your children the true depth and breadth and scope of our Alaskan landscape. It is miles and miles of raw wilderness that for many children is something they will never see again. At what price, this?

Go.

Find K2 Aviation online at www.flyk2.com or by calling 800-764-2291; local number is 907-733-2291.