Remote Travel Ideas: Best Small-Plane Adventures

Life is a highway? Not with these fantastic airborne adventures. You see, the sound of silence is just a quick plane ride away. And in these cases, big trips come by way of small aircrafts. See our favorite small-plane adventures for those seeking solitude.

 

 

Best Small-Plane Adventures Across North America

Middle Fork Salmon River, Idaho

To reach the best of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, you need to fly. From a put-in at Indian Creek, whitewater paddlers ride 100 rapids in as many miles during a week floating one of the most remote areas in the Lower 48. The finale features 3,000-foot granite cliffs in Impassable Canyon. Middle Fork River Expeditions gets you there in a Cessna 205.

[From $2,499; idahorivers.com]

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Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska

Many Alaska destinations involve picking across glaciers or bushwhacking—the Talkeetnas demand neither. Hikers here cruise across open tundra surrounded by toothy peaks, forging a trail-less route through rivers and berry bogs where grizzlies graze. After a week in this treeless place, roads seem foreign. Chulengo Expeditions accesses it in a Cessna 185.

[From $2,200; chulengo.org]

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Brassua Lake, Maine

In forested northern Maine, Birches Resort flies paddlers to Brassua Lake, a remote, 9,454-acre paradise reached with owner John Willard’s 1947 Piper Super Cruiser PA 12. Day-trippers use kayaks and canoes he has hidden along the shoreline to explore open water framed by the Canadian Appalachians and plumb narrow tributaries where deer, moose and bear roam.

[From $200; birches.com]

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