This post was written by travel blogger, photographer, cancer survivor, and lover of national parks - Alec Sills - Trausch - who recently flew our 50-minute flightsee. He takes terrific photos, so be sure to check out his website for visual AK inspiration and travel tips!

Bigger than nine states in the union and many countries, Wrangell St. Elias National Park is a massive 13.2M acres in size. As the largest National Park and one nestled in a remote corner of Alaska, it’s near impossible to get a true sense of the park’s vastness. Even the most gung-ho adventurer wouldn’t be able to see all of Wrangell St. Elias in their lifetime. This is why flightseeing in Wrangell is the go-to move if you want to see the scenery.

To see the vast and stunning landscape, I turned to Wrangell Mountain Air.

After looking up how amazing the views were from this flight, I knew I had to get on board. While we didn’t get the epic views I’d hoped for due to low cloud cover, it was still an incredible experience. Luckily, our pilot knew everything about everything which made the trip even more enjoyable.

The Flight

From the start, Wrangell Mountain Air was amazing. Our original flight day was cloudy so they moved us to the next day with no hesitation. On flight day, we met at their office, hopped onto the shuttle, and were at the runway eight minutes later. Yeah, that’s small-town Alaska for you!

With the other couple on the flight, we met our pilot. After going through safety protocols, we piled into the smallest plane I’ve ever been in. Six seats – including the pilot’s. That was all.

Once we took off, the staggering sights of Wrangell St. Elias National Park came into view. Due to the weather, our route was slightly altered, but that was okay. Insane views are insane views.

We headed south-southwest into the snowy mountains. All along the way, our pilot was giving us factoids about the area and pointing out where they did backcountry drop-offs (something I’d love to do one day). After a while, our wings tilted to the left and we began heading east towards the Bagley Icefield – the second-largest nonpolar icefield in North America. At 127-miles and six miles wide, it’s enormous. This field of white was mesmerizing. With the recent snow still lingering, the glacier textures were less noticeable. However, it did allow the bright blue pools to shine through. Those were one of my favorite things about flightseeing in Wrangell.

As we neared the end, we flew over McCarthy and Kennicott and above the Root Glacier which we had walked on the day prior. Getting to see the tiny towns and massive glacier from above really put things into perspective and allowed you to see how truly big the landscape is.