In the moments leading up to our boarding call, there’s much debate between SK, JB and me on whether Alaska Seaplanes flight 507 to Skagway is in fact a seaplane. It turns out not to be. This, despite Juneau International having a seaplane port parallel to its main runway. Regardless, the short 25-minute flight along Alaska’s Inside Passage is spectacular, and not one of us is lamenting the lack of pontoons on our craft.
The snowcapped Chugach Mountains recede, as does any semblance of a clear sky, the dipping sun eventually blocked out by cloud cover thats getting progressively thick. Down below on the Kenai Peninsula, what I took to be low clouds, are in fact wildfires, still burning. The air quality index marks Anchorage as “Very Unhealthy”, and that unmistakably putrid odor is everywhere. The gloominess hardly helps. We haven’t had rain since June, the Uber driver informs me, and the smoke’s been billowing over from the peninsula for days on end.
Continue reading “The Denali Star through Alaska”
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