This was our flight from Kotzebue to Gates of the Arctic National Park. We flew in two small bush-wheeled planes. One plane had three seats and one had four seats and that included the pilot’s seat. Andrew and April went in the three-seater and Vicky, Emilie (our guide), and I went in the four-seater, each of us with a pilot of course. We flew with the Golden Eagle Outfitters. I saw their logo at the hanger before we left – and hoped that we had made a good choice for our air taxi. (first photo)

Our flight took an hour and twenty minutes. We flew at 2,000 feet high most of the time but higher when we had to clear some mountains in the Brooks Range. We only had one major bump and drop on the trip, as we went through a mountain pass. Other than that it was pretty mundane until time to land, but that comes later.

I will include many photos of this flight as the scenery changed and we saw some remarkable sights on our flight. I was surprised by much of the topography. I thought that I would see more forests and I didn’t expect to see so much water.

These first photos are between Kotzebue and Kobuk Valley. We are not yet to the higher mountains of the Brooks Range. Other than that, I cant say too much about these photos.

We had some rain during the flight and hence some rainbows as well. In the next photo, you can see Andrew and April literally flying over the rainbow as we progress into the Brooks Range mountains.

The degree of fall color was also a surprise to me. As we progressed into the Brooks Range, the color was almost overwhelming at times, like in the next photo.

Scenery such as the next photo was fascinating though I am not sure about the technical classification, other than to guess it was mostly permafrost ground.

The rivers began to turn the colors of glacial melt and the trees began to distinguish themselves between evergreen and deciduous trees such as the next two photos.

The Brooks Range Mountains stretch across northern Alaska from west to east for about 700 miles and extend into Canada’s Yukon Territory. The Brooks Range is some 126 million years old so these mountains are not steep and sharp but more rounded and smooth. The highest peak is Mount Isto which is 8,976 feet high.

You can see some mountain photos in the first, second, and fourth photos below. The third photo below is a valley between some of these mountains.

The last photo is the Ambler River and our pilot is looking for a place to land our plane. While the scenery is beautiful, I was also curious about where we were going to land.