Flying Over Glaciers to McCarthy Alaska (Day 3)

Our first goal on the trip north was to get up to Alaska in time to go Halibut fishing with friends. We padded the schedule with a day but we burned that day stuck in Williams Lake because of weather. So the first thing in the morning we flew from Teslin to Northway in order to go through US customs, then a stop in Tok Junction for fuel.

To McCarthy: The long easy way, or the shorter glacier route?

Then it was decision time. From Tok there are three main choices. Northwest to Fairbanks, west following the highway to Gulkana where more choices await, or take a rugged glacier-studded scenic flight in the Wrangell St. Elias National Park, the largest ntional park in the country to the very cool old mining town of McCarthy.

You can get to McCarthy the long low way, by Gulkana to the Copper River, then down the Copper river valley then up the Chitna River until McCarthy is calling to you off to the left.

The Glacier Tour

Or you can get to McCarthy by going straight over Nabesna Glacier and down the other side of the Wrangell mountains. This is a great tour, the last half is pretty much what you get when you pay for a premium flightseeing tour at McCarthy. Fly up the glacier to a massive amphitheater. My strategy for off-airport landing sites for glacier flights is when down low look for smooth(ish) gravel bars off to the sides of the glaciers. The middle of the glacier is usually riddled with crevices and is much too rough for any kind of landing. Up higher it’s smooth. Ish. On this particular flight I stayed to the right then traversed along the amphitheater from right to left while climbing. 

Head for the notch just to the left of Mount Blackburn (the tallest thing around). I think I hit that at about 11,000 feet, maybe less. Once through the pass you can pull the power and just float down the Kennicott glacier to the airfield at McCarthy. Check out and take photos of the Kennicott millsite as you pass it. 

There are several airfields in the area, so make sure you land at the right one!