As a hopeless romantic, I live for real-life movie moments. My last day in Skagway did not disappoint. I thought we were heading out for the boat tour we had to miss at the beginning of the trip, but when we pulled up next to the airport without a dock in sight, I began to wonder. I still wasn’t clued in when I saw the bright red helicopters all lined up. It wasn’t until we got out of the car and I realized we were walking to the building closest to the choppers that I squealed, “ARE WE GOING FOR A HELICOPTER RIDE?”
But what’s better than a helicopter tour of Alaska? A HELICOPTER GLACIER TOUR! Sorry for all the caps, but I honestly couldn’t stop making this face all day:
Our adventure guides: Temsco Helicopters. Our destination: Meade Glacier. It felt like it was hundred of miles long, but it’s hard to tell where a glacier begins and ends in Alaska because there are so many and many of them come together. They just become rolling glaciers one mountain peak after another.
According to our pilot, the weather was perfect. It cleared just enough for us to be able to travel over the mountains and through the river valleys. She mentioned that of all the flights she’s done, only 20% of them are able to see and experience what we did.
The statement didn’t seem in vain either. It wasn’t until you were above all the peaks that you could really feel like you were in the wild. The expanse is so vast, it was almost impossible to comprehend it all because there wasn’t anything around to place everything into perspective. It wasn’t until our return trip when I saw the other helicopter I could see everything to scale. See if you can spot it below:
Our glacier trek included 40 minutes of ice exploration. It was just enough time to get some photos in and appreciate the amazing surroundings. At first I thought I wanted to be out there longer, but realized I would either freeze or continue to walk on flat for hours before I got anywhere.
We did get a taste of some great glacier water…Chris even brought empty bottles so he could bring some home.
It was an amazing morning. It was hard to believe I was back before 11 a.m. and had the rest of the day ahead of me…but it was the best way to spend my last day in Alaska! Can’t wait to be back to explore more of it!
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