Flightseeing in Denali

August 26, my birthday, dawned bright and clear, so Sue and I decided to splurge on a flightseeing tour of Denali in order to see as much as possible in the time available to us.  That meant we circled Mt. McKinley in a 6-passenger plane; because the day was so sunny, we were able to get really close to the peaks and see things that even most flightseeing passengers don't - but I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Photography from a plane presents challenges I had not fully appreciated until now.  As with shooting from a bus, there's some window interference and the other passengers' heads, elbows, and other stray body parts to deal with, but where a bus will occasionally slow down for scenic locations, the airplane keeps whizzing on at high speed.  Not to mention the "holding the camera steady" problem when the pilot does a sharp U-turn so the passengers on the other side can see what you are trying to take a picture of.  And, of course, we had no time to fiddle with the camera settings for each shot, so the highlights are blown out on a lot of the snow.  Ah, well.  It was still a fabulous trip.

White dots on the lower right are Dall sheep

Group photo courtesy of our pilot

"Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price." ~Amelia Earhart