How Big is the Ruth Gorge?

So just how big is the Ruth Gorge? Imagine flying through the jagged mountains above and landing in an isolated snow covered amphitheater surrounded by sheer rock walls 1,000 feet high. Specifically, let's say you landed in the amphitheater pictured below. The cliffs on the left side of the snowy basin tower 1,000 feet over the glacier. You'd probably think it was fantastic, and would feel lucky to be in such a pristine mountain environment.

Imagine your surprise, then, when you found out this amphitheater was just a tiny part of a structure so big it rivals all the mountains on Earth. If you were to walk across the basin and peek over the foreground ridge you would be staring into an abyss 3,000 feet down to the Ruth Glacier. Looking across the gorge to the northwest you would see Mt. Dickey rising in sheer granite cliffs a mile high over the ice. Those granite cliffs are one of the largest rock faces on earth. Even so, the cliff continues downward beneath the ice. In 1983 the ice was measured to be 3,800 feet thick. Add that to the mile high granite face above the ice.

Looking north you could see the Moose's Tooth, rising even higher than Dickey but not all at once, and 15 miles beyond that Mt. McKinley would recline back into the sky twice as high as everything else. The Ruth Glacier is 40 miles long. It averages one mile wide.

Looking downstream in the Ruth Gorge. That amphitheater previously mentioned, with it's 1,000 foot cliffs is just poking into the picture on the far left. Under the clouds on that side you can see some little yellow cliffs leading down to a patch of snow, followed by darker snow dusted cliffs. That snow patch between the two colors of rock is the snowy basin. The yellow cliffs are the ones on the right side of the previous photo. You can match up the snow chutes.

The first time i saw the Ruth Gorge i was flying to base camp on Mt. McKinley, just for the sights. I was amazed at how close to the the pilot was flying to the cliffs, which were absolutely huge, filling up the entire window. Then i spotted some color on the cliffs, which i thought must be a climber.

I told my friend Patrick just in case he was missing it. At that moment both our jaws hit the floor as we were kicked in the head by reality. We weren't looking at a human climbing the wall, we were looking at another AIRPLANE flying in between us and the cliffs, the same cliffs i thought we were dangerously close too! In other words, we had just been proven to be stupid animals that didn't even understand what we were looking at.

Taking off from Talkeetna, which is in the middle of flatlands, you fly over the vast semi-marshlands called muskeg. I think the one above is the Tokositna River.

A visit from my friend Jimmy was a good excuse to do the trip again. I hadn't been back since the days i used film (I need to go on more flight tours)! This time i took the Wickersham Wall flight (an even bigger wall of rock than what you can see in the Gorge). Unfortunately, the weather was typically unpredictable and in the time it took the pilot to get fuel some storms had moved into the mountains, sealing off the north side of the range. There was plenty to see on the south side, and i was delighted to get to land in a new spot on the way back.

On these flight tours you always take a megaton of pictures. The only thing i don't like about it is how obstructed the view is and how incredibly scratched up the windows always are. I've narrowed these down from about 85 and tried to locate them on google earth.

Flying over the Tokosha Mountains. The Ruth Glacier meanders in the background. The Tokosha are a little group of cool looking mountains about 4,000 feet in height, reaching up to 6,000 feet above sea level. The are highly visible from the Parks Highway. 

Flying across the lower reaches of the Ruth Glacier. I could have had a great time if they could have dropped me off here for some exploration.

Looks like a satellite image.

A beautiful ice-dammed lake on the side of the Tokositna Glacier. Looks like the water level has dropped. These things come and go.

The impressive upper reaches of the Tokositna Glacier are a  textbook study of lateral and medial moraines.

Looking back downvalley at the the Tokositna.

For a while the pilot was flying in confusing directions as he tried to find a way through the snowstorms, and i lost track of where we were. We were in a thick cloud and without warning burst out of it directly in front of Mt. Foraker.

Jimmy was having a good time in the back of the plane with two windows to look through.

We veered right as to not smash into Foraker and flew towards Denali base camp across the massive upper reaches of the Kahiltna Glacier. The Kahiltna relieves the slopes of both McKinley and Foraker.

Very large crevasses on the Kahiltna.
Lakes scattered in a maze of ice mesas.
Looks like something under an electron microsope. I assure you it is quite large.

Water far below pools up and tries to find a way down before winter returns.

Base camp wasn't very pleasant so we headed east. This is the back, or west side of what i think is called Mt. Wake in the center.

Giant fins of granite on the side of Mt. Bradley.

Mt. Bradley and the Great Gorge in the background. The south face of Mt. Dickey was on the other side of the aircraft, and is so large i couldn't get any meaningful image from across the pilot's lap.

The massive granite complex of The Moose's Tooth.

Things started to get abstract as we flew over parallel walls of granite with neatly rectangular canyons between each toe.

Another view of the walls with a surreal  Antarctic icescape in the background.

Finally the pilot decided to give us a break and land. This is looking down the Ruth Gorge. The mile high cliffs of Mt. Dickey are on the right. A bit of Mt. Barrille on the far right.

Outside at last! The sunlight was scorching around here. Our Dehavilland at the base of what i think is called the Gargoyle.

Looking into one of the valleys across from where we landed.

Here's a labelled panoramic of the high peaks on the west side of the Amphitheater. Mt. McKinley is just peaking out above the clouds. It's worth pointing out that "the Roosters Comb" is a mountain feature far in front of Mt. Huntington but the contrast here makes it look like the same mountain.

The impressive view to the north.

Above all those mountains were the lower flanks of Mt. McKinley.

A peak through the clouds at some of the upper flanks of McKinley.

We took off again and headed down the gorge. Mt. Barrille is the first on the right. Not pictured (because i didn't spot it) and just off to the right is a cool hut you can stay in called Mountain House. Mt. Dickey is the next mountain, and the tallest. Mt. Dickey is just so big that i couldn't get a picture of it except from a long distance.

All the mountains on this side of the gorge burst out of the ice like giant teeth. This one is Mt. Bradley, followed by the north and east face of Mt. Wake (pictured previously from the west face).

On the east side of the Ruth Gorge stands The Broken Tooth (on the left), and a surprisingly accessible looking valley beneath it.

We followed the Ruth Glacier downstream until we returned to a part of the world that could support life.

The rivers up here are always changing course. Here you can see traces of the old river course where now stands forest. At the top you can see where it flowed more recently, suggesting that it now is cutting back into the trees. It's a well known fact, but people always seemed completely surprised when the river swallows their house that they build so close to the edge.