Fall flight to McCarthy

Over the years, we’ve enjoyed many trips to McCarthy; in fact, Woodsen and I’s first trip together in the Super Cub was to the McCarthy area.

From what I can recall, our past trips together have always been in the spring and summer. This time we were heading to McCarthy in September, and at the peak of fall colors in our area.

Palmer happens to have the cheapest fuel in the state, so it’s a frequent pit stop as we head out on adventures in the airplane. We didn’t have to go far to experience fall beauty, leaving the valley was a spectacular sight.

A few days before we left we had spotted termination dust at the top of the mountains, now the snow had descended further down the terrain.

The snow contrasted the fall colors beautifully as we flew over the Matanuska river and headed East.

We passed Klutina Lake south of Glennallen, and as we climbed higher, trees with bright yellow foliage dotted the landscape.

As we approached Chitina, the landscapes brought new views of fall beauty.

We followed the McCarthy road as it paralleled the Chitina River, then eventually ducked behind the Crystalline Hills and followed the winding Lakina River.

We flew low over the Lakina and eventually met back up with the McCarthy road near its terminus.

The approach to land on the west side of the Kennicott River was a colorful finally.

After enjoying the fall colors from the air, I was excited to land and enjoy colors from the ground as well.

P.S.

The flight home was spectacular as well

Some were more interested in sleeping then taking in the views.