Pictures from Alaska’s mountain ranges
Turnagain Arm in south central Alaska is a shallow inlet which drains at low tide to reveal an ever changing landscape of channels in the mud and silt. Surrounded by the Chugach mountains, there are many picturesque views along the rather busy Seward Highway, which borders the Arm. At sunrise one morning in September, I…
On a short excursion in Prince William Sound (courtesy of Discovery Voyages), a group of us basked in the sunshine on a tremendous hike through the lush and verdant hillsides of Western Prince William Sound and the Chugach National Forest. It was an area I longed to trek in given a clear day. The granite…
There are two summits on Denali, or Mt. McKinley, the north and the south. The South Summit is the higher one (20,320 ft), while the North Summit has an elevation of 19,470 feet. You can see the South Summit clearly in the view, taken from the McKinley overlook along the Parks highway (note the north summit…
This is shot is mostly luck mixed with a little bit of perseverance. First of all the mountain often clouds over as the day progresses and if it does not, it tends to be very hazy by this time of day. It was noon when I shot the frame, and thanks to the amazing clarity…
The monolithic mass of Denali, North America’s tallest mountain seems to have a million faces. I’ve photographed it hundreds of times, from many different locations, on the ground and from the air. It looks different from every view and the weather it generates surrounds it with an array of ever changing clouds. In early September…
I’ve been on a two week photo excursion across Alaska, (thus the absence of posts for a bit) attempting to capture in time, this brilliant but short autumn season, so indulgent in color and splendid light. Part of this trip included some time in Denali National Park. This year I missed my application deadline for…
My last post about the Brooks range reflected the common frustration of photographing in Alaska’s interior with summer forest fires. In early June, I had the chance to fly across the Brooks range through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge doing some aerial photography. This was before the smoke and fire season build up in the…
Near the confluence of the Nigu and Etivluk river, is Puvakrat mountain, a notable ridge with a rocky spine, great for hiking and splendid views. We began a day hike in rainy and cloudy conditions, but mixed blue skies and dramatic clouds and light spilled across the grand vista as evening progressed. The sky in…
I spent 10 days on a river trip in Alaska’s arctic, beginning on the Nigu river, which means “rainbow” in Inupiaq. The Nigu flows north out of the Brooks Range, with its headwaters located in the Gates of the Arctic National Park. It then flows through the National Petroleum Reserve, where it joins the Etivluk…
In the late 1700’s, the first recorded European to set foot on Alaska was George Steller, a naturalist on the Russian expedition led by Vitus Bering. Steller landed on a rugged prominence called Kayak Island, a 23 mile island directly exposed to the violent waters of the Gulf of Alaska. A great book on details…