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The Knik Glacier Tour is our most popular flight. See five Alaskan glaciers from above, unbelievable ice formations and amazing rivers of ice. Before landing for an adventure most people won’t experience in their lifetime. Walking opertunities across an amazing 28 glacial miles! Priced at $595 per person, with a two-person minimum, this 60-minute helicopter ride also includes a 30-minute knik glacier landing in one of our Robinson R44 helicopters. The glaciers you’ll fly over on this helicopter tour near Anchorage are, Eklutna, Whiteout, Lake George, Colony, and Knik. Complete your trip to Alaska with this amazing experience.
As you fly through valleys and along the Little Susitna River, you’ll spot the area’s sharp mountain peaks. Keep an eye out for amazing local wildlife viewing opportunities like black bears, moose, Dall sheep, mountain goats, and sometimes caribou. As the area with its scenic vistas is their natural habitat.
Want to know more about Knik helicopter tours with Heli Alaska? Learn about our unique blue glacier landings and Chugach State Park. We’ll share many glaciers you’ll see on this glacier tour near Anchorage, featuring glacier walk. Below we talk about opportunities for taking photos of sights such as the glacier fed river and icy landscapes. Our Knik glacier flight tour is the one for you.
When we land, your pilot will help you put crampons on your shoes blue ice field exploration. You’ll then have lots of time to take photos or videos. Explore the Knik Glacier ice sheet, glacial melt pools, and enjoy the views. If you’re brave, you can take a dip in the glacial melt pools – it’s a chilly experience like no other! Remember to bring dry clothes or a towel if you plan to jump in. If you’re not up for a dip but still want to have fun, try a glacial mud mask. People often pay over $35 for an Alaskan mud mask in a jar. But here, you can have the real experience right on the glacier!
Video from AlaskaStateParks: Chugach State Park borders Alaska’s largest city, the Municipality of Anchorage, and is a 495,000-acre dream-come-true for outdoor enthusiasts. Once you’ve visited Chugach State Park, you will understand why Alaskans rarely leave The Last Frontier State in summer.
Our Knik Glacier Helicopter ride takes you southeast of Wasilla and Anchorage, through Chugach State Park. This park is massive! It covers over 495,204 acres in the coastal region of South-central Alaska. This means lots of fun for locals and visitors alike. The park was created in 1970 to protect the stunning Chugach Mountains, to secure water for Anchorage, and to offer plenty of recreational activities. The Chugach Mountains are known for their untouched forests.
Alaska State Parks looks after Chugach State Park. It’s the third-largest state park in the U.S., just behind California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Alaska’s Wood-Tikchik State Park. To give you an idea of its size, Chugach State Park could fit New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago within its boundaries!
Within Chugach State Park and the Chugach Mountains, you’ll find the Eklutna Glacier. It’s located west of the Lake George Glacier. Also known by its Dena’ina name, Idlu Bena Li’a, this glacier feeds into Lake Eklutna. Stretching seven miles and vital for Anchorage. It supplies the city’s drinking water and powers the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project . This project provides electricity to over 24,000 homes and is the most cost-effective renewable energy provider in south-central Alaska.
Just like all of Alaska’s glaciers, Eklutna is shrinking due to climate change. It’s losing more ice each summer than winter snowfall can replace. This affects Eklutna Lake, which is Anchorage’s main water source.
After the Eklutna Glacier, you’ll fly over large ice fields and rivers of ice before moving over Whiteout Glacier. There are stunning aerial views our water crossings en route.
Did you know both the Whiteout and Eklutna Glaciers were military training sites in the 1950s to mid-1970s? Soldiers trained here for arctic warfare, learning skills like cross-country skiing and glacier-travel safety. This training prepared them for potential conflicts in Northern Europe and other areas during the Cold War.
The Mountaineering Club of Alaska built a cabin, later named Hans Hut, on Whiteout Glacier. You can read notes from travelers who stayed in the cabin over nearly three decades at the Alaska Digital Archive.
In 1963, the Mountaineering Club of Alaska named the glacier after the nearby Whiteout Peak. At 6818 feet high, the peak is a challenging climb. The glacier hike itself can be tricky to cross due to frequent storms and crevasses. Many adventurers have taken shelter in the glacier cabin during storms.
As you move away from Whiteout Glacier, you’ll get your first look at Lake George Glacier. Historically each spring and summer, as the glacier started to melt, it would fills up North America’s largest glacier-dammed lake. The Knik Glacier’s advance closed off the glacier lake as it came into contact with the mountain slope to the west. For almost 49 years until 1967, the lake would fill up each spring. In the summer, the dam would break, sending a flood of water down the Knik River glacial carved valley. Because of this annual flood, bridges on the highway and railroad about 20 miles away had to be reinforced.
South of Lake George, you’ll find Colony Glacier. Also known as Diltishi Bena Li’a, it sits at an elevation of 1037 ft or 316 m. Each year, it calves into the lake. Over to the east of Colony Glacier, the majestic Mount Gilbert stands tall at 9638 ft or 2938 m. The glacier mountain is named after Grove Karl Gilbert, a member of the 1899 US Geological Survey Harriman Expedition. They were tasked with exploring this area. If you’re interested, you can find more about Mount Gilbert and Karl here.
The area around Colony Glacier is stunning. With waterfalls, blue ice formations, and green slopes. The glacier terminates into Lake George, and sometimes you can see it calving at the toe. The glacier’s toe reaches into the lake and cascades down a high face. All that’s left of the larger Lake George we talked about earlier is Inner Lake George. In 1967, Lake George was named a National Natural Landscape. On our Knik helicopter tours, you’ll often see mountain goats around the Colony Glacier area.
This short film from the Alaska Film Archives shows how Lake George breaks through the Knik Glacier. But keep in mind, this natural event, which used to happen every year, hasn’t occurred since 1967. The film is a silent, color, super 8mm clip from the Stewart’s Photo Shop collection at the Alaska Film Archives. If you’d like to know more, please visit the Alaska Film Archives.
As the Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour’s namesake and one of the largest glaciers in south-central Alaska, the grand Knik Glacier is overall 50 miles East of Anchorage on the northern edge of the Chugach Mountains. This ice field averages over 25 miles or 40 km in length and in addition is over 5 miles or 8 km in width making it perfect for a glacier walk. Most impressively, it’s about 400 ft or 120 m thick, in reality that’s over 28 stories of ice! That’s a wall of ice 2.5 times taller than the Statue of Liberty.
The Knik Glacier itself seen on the tour is inaccessible by road. Typically it’s reached via helicopters, planes, or jetboats. However, some intrepid hikers or in addition fat bike riders, can make the 8-mile journey. Unlike helicopters, however, no other methods can access the glacial walk. The 5-mile-long face of the blue glacier fronts into the Knik River, subsequently breaking apart or calving and falling into the glacier fed river. The western part of the face is the area that used to block Lake George during the winter months. Witness this all from above during your tour. To find out more about the grand Knik Glacier, visit www.alaska.org.
Imagine flying over not just one, but five glaciers. It’s a dream come true for many photographers and adds a unique birds eye perspective. Join us on a Knik glacier helicopter ride to experience the beauty from a new angle. Glaciers and blue ice formations are truly a wonder of nature. They’re huge and simply amazing to see. Sometimes, you might even see giant chunks of ice falling into the lakes. While we can’t promise this will happen, we can suggest the best times for photography flights. Book your tour with Heli Alaska, Inc. to see this breathtaking icy landscape, full of glaciers, mountains, and lakes in a way you’ll never forget.
If you need tips for photography, or if there’s something specific you want to see on your tour, talk to Robert from our team. He’s not just an experienced pilot but also a great photographer. You can send us a message on our contact page if you want to know more.
You can start your tour from our partner locations in the Mat-Su Valley. We can pick you up from the dock at Mat-Su Resort or the back lawn at Lake Lucille Inn. Visit our contact page for details on how to find us and how to get in touch.
On the Anchorage helicopter tour, you’ll fly through Chugach State Park in one of Heli Alaska’s R44 helicopters. Our local pilots know all about the area, plants, and animals, and they’ll guide you on your trip. Don’t worry if the weather looks cloudy. Sometimes, the best views can be on cloudy days. Of course, we love a sunny day too! But seeing glacier mountain peaks through a layer of clouds or fog in the glacial carved valley can be really beautiful.
Alaska has bigger and wilder wilderness areas than Chugach State Park, but none are as close to a big city or as full of wildlife. The park is easy to access and offers activities for all skill levels. It has 16 trailheads leading to 280 miles of trails. You can do so many different things here: hiking, biking, horseback riding, glacier exploration, helicopter tours, hunting, fishing, camping, gold-panning, ATV riding, snowmobiling, Anchorage glacier tour viewing, photography, and animal viewing, to name a few.
If you love nature and landscape photography, you’ll love this park. It’s a popular spot for photographers because of its diverse wildlife and the rugged beauty of the Chugach Mountains including water crossings and glaciers. The park is home to over 45 different mammal species. That includes nearly every species found in Alaska. The park’s 495,000 acres are estimated to be home to over 1,000 moose, 80 black bears, 40 brown bears, 2,000 Dall sheep, a wolf pack, and populations of lynx, beavers, river otters, foxes, and mountain goats.
Does the Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour sound like the right one for you? If so, it’s easy to or over the phone. Our automated booking system lets you pick your date and number of passengers with your phone or desktop computer. However, if you have any issues or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Are you thinking about booking the Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour? As one of Alaska’s premier tour companies, we make it easy for you to book online or by phone. Our booking system lets you choose your date and the number of passengers using your phone or computer. We consider ourselves to be one of the friendliest tour companies in Alaska so, if you have any problems or questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!
If you are nervous about flying for any reason, we will be happy to walk you through the process or make arrangements to make the experience better for you. Again, please feel free to get in contact using the contact page. Our pilots love our tours and think you will too. Above all, though, we understand that everybody’s needs are different. One of us will be happy to assist you wherever possible.
Do you feel the Hatcher Pass Helicopter tour is not quite what you want? If you’d like to discuss customizing your tour, call us, and we’d be happy to accommodate your needs.
See availability and choose a time for your tour. Or read on to find out more about the Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Heli Alaska, Inc.
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