Flightseeing Tongass National Forest
During a trip to Petersburg, Alaska recently, I had the opportunity to go flightseeing with Petersburg Flying Service. The floatplane company is owned and operated by Scott Newman, using floatplane travel to get clients to backcountry hunting and recreation spots and public cabins, delivering camera crews to the set of Nat Geo TV’s reality show “Port Protection”, and to take lucky flightseeing enthusiasts like myself over a nearby portion of scenic Tongass National Forest.
It had been raining for the last several days, so when Scott saw a break in the weather, he called me and I biked to the floatplane dock as quickly as I could with my camera gear. After a loop over the town of Petersburg, including the marinas and cannery facilities, it looked like the weather was holding further south, so we had a chance to head down to the beautiful LeConte Glacier.
LeConte Glacier is the southernmost tidewater glacier on the continent, and is part of the Stikine-LeConte Designated Wilderness, managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of Tongass National Forest. The glacier comes down from the massive Stikine Ice Field which straddles the international border between Alaska and British Columbia along the Coast Mountains. Combined with several other ice fields, this massive ice area covers the crest of these mountains nearly as far south as Ketchikan and as far north as the St Elias Mountain range.
Because of its unique status as the southernmost tidewater glacier, it’s been extensively studied by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Oregon and generations of high school students at Petersburg High School. High school students get to travel to the nearby glacier every year by boat or helicopter to survey it and take measurements.
“You can roll that window down if you want!” Scott pointed to the small window on the passenger side of the plane. Quite a luxury to be able to shoot photos without the hindrance of the extra layers of plastic between your lens and the landscape! But you better be sure I wrapped my camera strap multiple times around my arm before even thinking about sticking my lens out the window- the winds are notorious for just ripped cameras and phones out of people’s hands, haha.
Scott circled a few times over the LeConte to give me a few different views, including of the floating icebergs, and the view of the glacier where it originates from the Stikine Ice Field. Eventually, the evening light began to fade into pinks and oranges, signaling time to head back to Petersburg to put the plane to bed for night.
