I woke up in Anchorage a few days ago to clear blue skies and decided on a whim "Let's fly to Denali". Drove to Merrill, fueled up the C-182B, sprayed some fluid on the wings to get rid of the frost and off we went.

We flew the Ship Creek departure across the inlet and headed up through the Big Lake area. I think we ended up coming in over the Ruth glacier, flew a bit east and traveled up the Kahiltna glacier to the area between Mt. Foraker and Denali. I think we got as close as 5-6 NM south of Denali at 11,500 ft before we turned around. Passenger nervousness came into play anytime there was a little bump

I tried to follow local CTAF procedures as closely as possible, calling out position on the Denali south CTAF every 5 minutes or so and listening for other aircraft. There didn't seem to be much activity, I only heard one other airplane on CTAF for the 45 minutes or so we loitered in the area. I'm sure it might have been more exciting to fly lower but I will admit to a bit of nervousness being unfamiliar with the area and its turbulence, downdraft potential, even on a nice day like this.

On the way back, dropped into Talkeetna for some fuel, walked into town for some pizza. A lot of fun, and my first trip in the "new to us" airplane, outside of touch and go practice/insurance checkouts.

Video flying up Kahiltna glacier:


Aproaching Denali from the south


Mouintains and snow/ice fields to the southwest of Denali facing west as we leave southbound. Maybe Mt. Russell, not sure.


Mt. Foraker just southwest of Denali.

Super, thanks for sharing!!!!!!

Great pictures and video on a crystal clear day. Thank you for sharing!

Now that you’ve seen it from the air next spring consider flying onto the Kahiltna or Ruth glacier with one of the Talkeetna outfits.