Alaskan Ice

OK, I've been sitting here bored and frustrated by the cold, both outside the front door, and the cold clinging to making my body as miserable as possible. I can't/won't try to get out with my camera and find something to shoot. But I can sit in a warm. cozy recliner digesting breakfast, and between coughing fits go through photos and pull out some to share. It's winter here, but I sure can find the same (kind of) thing from old summer shots from a long ago trip to Alaska(2007) with my youngest son and my granddaughter. These date back to my very first digital camera, the only reason I still have them. Actual paper photos had to be purged by the wastebasket-ful for the last move as all the colors had shifted and/or vanished.

You'll never get this photo again. It's Exit Glacier, then at its foot, showing that lovely blue of deep pressurized ice among the accumulations of dirt from age.  I saw a recent photo and it keeps living up to its name, exiting back up the mountain slope it used to descend from. Even on the hike in, wayyyy back in those days, we passed sign after sign as we left the parking lot showing to what point the glacier had covered back in which year. It was a long - but flat - hike back then. Now it climbs way past this point, and had almost vanished at the very top in that recent photo.

One of our adventures was rafting down a river to Turnagain Arm where chunks of old glacier were breaking off and floating with us. Our rafts each had a guide keeping us safe. I liked this one because the foreground ice looks like a long eared dog enjoying some sun. The blue in each piece indicates the thickness of the formerly glacial ice, much larger than our rafts, though the "dog" was just a bit larger, except for its flat surround, mostly hidden underwater, as floating ice is.

A boat trip out from Seward took us along the Kenai Fjords coast to see, among many other delights, a glacier actively calving. It did so often enough that eventually I caught one huge chunk just hitting the water with a  big splash. We stayed far enough back that our boat got a gentle rocking from the spreading wave. A couple smaller private boats were more stupid but apparently survived. Our captain would have had to react if they hadn't.There were many glaciers along the way that no longer reached the ocean, and I doubt this one still does, but it was well worth a very expensive side trip.

The glacier melt has to go somewhere, and when it's not directly into the ocean, it forms what are called "braided rivers".  This high viewpoint my granddaughter shot gives a better picture than from along the road. The grey land  was "recently" scraped of vegetation by the weight and movement of the glacier which sat on it.

Bush planes are a staple of Alaskan transportation. One can, on clear days, mostly in summer only very early in the mornings, get a great view of mountain near the ocean. If memory serves, knowing where we flew, Cook Inlet is on the back side of these from our perspective, and this kind of view is quickly smothered by clouds and fog. The flight, if one is willing to rise early enough for it, rewards you with this very rare summer view:

Mount Denali! No matter what somebody else calls it, this is Denali!  Out the airplane window of course, and over the wing, but for this you take them where you can get them. Ten minutes later we were in clouds and stayed there until we landed just outside the Park for a guided bus excursion. In two visits to the park, this is the only time I saw the mountain it was named for. Usually when you ask your guide where it is, they point to a cloud bank and say it's off in that direction... maybe. (I guess they tend to sleep in as late as they can in the mornings.)

Note: this is also my granddaughter's picture. I archived her Alaskan trip photos on my computer way back then, later giving her a thumb drive with all of hers. You can tell the difference at a glance because my camera shot rectangles and hers shot squares. She sat in front of the plane with the pilot and caught a much better view than I did.