17 Jaw-Dropping Alaska Airport Runways That Will Have You On The Edge Of Your Seat
Remote Alaska Airport Runways
By: Courtney Dowd-Stanley
If you're looking for a wild adventure, visit any of these isolated Alaska airport locations. Some of the landings can be amazing, others might make you cringe. Alaska is arguably the least-connected state in America in terms of a viable road system. Aviation touches nearly all aspects of life in the Last Frontier, as it is estimated approximately 90% of the state is not served by roads. With only a small fraction of the state being accessible via personal vehicle, it only makes sense that flying would be a major part of The Alaska Life. In fact, Alaska has roughly six times as many pilots per capita and 16 times more aircrafts per capita, in comparison to the rest of the United States. To add, the Alaska Airports Association reports that Alaska has 287 total public use land-based airports, 44 heliports, and approximately 735 recorded landing areas throughout the state. When you visit an Alaska airport or runway in the middle of nowhere you’re sure to see some amazing scenery. But, the scenic sights also come with a plethora of risk factors. When Alaska's infamous storm systems roll in off the mountains or the sea, you'll look at those tiny slivers of runway in a whole new (terrifying) light and cringe. But as the saying goes, "To experience the real Alaska, you've gotta get off the road system first." Check out some of the most wickedly wild runways in the Last Frontier, and be sure to hold onto your seat...
1 – Sitka, Alaska Airport


2 – Kotzebue, Alaska Airport


3 – Dutch Harbor (Unalaska), Alaska Airport


4 – Ketchikan, Alaska Airport


5 – Adak, Alaska Airport


6 – Valdez, Alaska Airport


7 – Nome, Alaska Airport


8 – Cordova, Alaska Airport

9 – Kodiak, Alaska

10 – Yakutat, Alaska

11 – Homer, Alaska

12 – Bethel, Alaska

13 – Seward, Alaska

14 – Nunapitchuk, Alaska

15 – Kasigluk, Alaska

16 – Akun, Alaska

17 – Ambler, Alaska

Looking for more where that came from? If you are intrigued by Alaska's flying culture, be sure to check out this wonderful article; The Master Pilot - Surviving Against The Odds. While you're at it, enjoy this lighter read that will have you bursting at the seams with laughter; Alaska Tourist Quotes - 12 Quotes From The Last Frontier.
Be sure to let us know in the comments below if we left any of your favorite jaw-dropping Alaska airport locations off the list. If you're a pilot or an avid traveler who frequently flies to Alaska's many remote airports to enjoy the beauty that The Alaska Life has to offer, we want to live vicariously through you! Share your favorite Alaska flying moments with us on our Facebook page by clicking HERE, and they might just end up being featured in one of our next blog posts.
Written by Courtney Dowd-Stanley
57 comments
Me, too. My father was senior VP for Enstar, and he once told me that if both he and the president needed to fly to Juneau they’d go on different flights. Just in case.
Are there any sources (maps) for remote air strips? I was trying to find Kavik River Camp, 100 miles SSE of Deadhorse, AK, site of Sue Aiken’s remote airstrip (portrayed in National Geographic’s LIFE BELOW ZERO). It’s gravel but takes big planes too. GPS was 69.4 N by 146.54 W, but I don’t even know if I wrote those correctly.
How about the 400’ gravel runway on Fire Island? Just a couple of miles out from Anchorage in Cook Inlet. Runway narrowed into a squirrel trail that ran up a cottonwood tree at the upper end. Landed there in 1973 in back seat of a SuperCub.
Cape Newenham LRRS was sister station to Romanzof. Runway ran uphill into what looked like an ancient blown-out volcano shell. Like Sparrevohn, either land properly or crash…no room for fly-around. Downhill take-off was easy…a 100’ drop-off at the end of the runway.
At Sparrevohn I seem to remember a crash where they flew up an adjacent dead-end canyon in fog. Think that was 1970. Haven’t been able to locate record of that crash on internet, but I think I recall that we lost an electrician in that crash. But perhaps I just imagined it. Otherwise FAA would have a record. In any case, I landed on both EHM and SVW on same day in February 1972 (as passenger, NOT pilot). My company was White Alice contractor.
I worked with a Rick Sparrevohn at Raytheon in SoCal, says that site was named for his grandfather
ABSOLUTELY THE BEST EVER!!!!✈️✈️
Me too. I remember my first time landing in Juneau. I thought we were going to clip the mountain with the wing. Very scary.
How about the runway at Kako, near Russian Mission? It runs UP the side of a mountain, and is bow-shaped. Exciting.
It has been beautiful and sunny these past few weeks here in Fairbanks. Trees haven’t greened out yet but people are wearing summer clothes and there’s still canoe on the ground. Mosquitos are out already.
Homer is an international airport compared to Seldovia or Port Graham!
You forgot the trickiest landing in Nanwalek, Alaska!!!
I was surprised that Gambell airport wasn’t included.
I returned to Eek, Alaska with my adult sons in early June 2013 in celebration of my retirement from 40 years of teaching. Their dad and I taught in Eek in 1977-1981. I remember how frightening the extremely short runway was back then for this rural Minnesota girl. I was very impressed with the new runway and so glad my sons could experience a day in the village and meet many of my Eek family.
When I was a little kid in the late 70’s, my mom and I and a bunch of women who worked for the Lower Yukon School District were flying back to Hooper Bay on SW Alaska Bering Sea Coast in middle of winter when weather turned for the worse. We had make a landing at the now closed Cape Romanzof LRRS, a cold war radar station on the side of Towak Mountain in the Askinuk Mountains off of the Bering Sea. Normally, the airstrip was low and close to sea level. The airstrip was icy. And a winter ice strip was plowed on the side of the mountain because it was closer to base. We touched down rough and careened to a stop after slip-sliding down the runway and almost sliding OFF the side of the mountain. The whole plane was screaming. Once we deplaned and we all were hurrying into the small airstrip building to wait out the blizzard on the ground, the pilot, a well seasoned bush pilot who frequently flew and made miraculous landings in the Bering Sea inclement weather…shakily walked a little ways off to throw up. When he secured the door and took off his trapper hat inside what was basically a shack where we were huddling together to wait, his hands were shaking so bad and his hair was plastered to his forehead because he had sweat so much. Scariest landing I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve flown a lot in small planes in Rural Alaska.
I have landed at both!
How about Tatalina LLR radar site and Indian mountain radar site !!
Can you get us a photo of Yakutat??
Me too! I’ve flown to a lot towns in Alaska and my Grandfather had an Airline based out of Nome in the 1930’s. The scariest landing ever was in Juneau!
Thank you for the wonderful pictures and the many memories!
My husband Chuck Yates worked for National Weather Service we were in Cold Bay Ak King Salmon and Yakutat and back to Cold Bay a second time loved Alaska and miss Cold Bay
Enjoyed the “flight”. One comment, the airport at Ketchikan is on an island across from the city and you have to take a ferry across to get to the town. Ketchikan is not connected to the airport. Hence the need for “the bridge to no where”. If you lived there you would understand.
Anaktuvuk Pass! Extreme landing!
Having worked for Alaska Airlines for 32 years,I flew in n out of about everyone of yhese airports.You left out Wrangel,Petersburg and Juneau,also very challenging.Sitka was always my favorite as I sweat at 50 feet,you think youre going into the drink!!Then runway border appearsThey Alaska Airline pilots are the BEST!!
Been in and out of most of those sites. A crazy runway exists at Indian Mountain radar Site (runs up hill) and the one at Tin City Radar Site can be a little testy.
I would really like to see what Fairbanks airstrip looks like. Flew in there last July in the middle of a horrific storm, couldn’t see a thing other than clouds and rain before touch down.. Scariest landing ever.
You missed the banana-shaped strip at Nunwalek/English Bay. It’s been a few years, perhaps they finally fixed it. There’s always a wind and there’s no room for error, jutting right into the bay. Crabbing in sideways to a curving runway can be a bit hairy, to say the least. My hat is off to all the skilled pilots who fly remote.