This is Mt. Redoubt – the one that erupted last year. I’m standing on a sand bar out int he bay off Homer, AK. Check out the link below to the other post on Mt. Redoubt.
Yes it’s June and I have on a jacket. Something’s wrong with this picture.
Drove South to Homer, AK. On the way we drove through the Kenai Peninsula again. It’s a beautiful area and breath taking photos around every turn.
Copper Landing Lake.
The water is really that color. This is glacial melt thus it contains no oxygen.
Another lake
Waiting for the kayakers to come through the shoot.
Another view of the shoot.
Another mountain.
More mountains.
Had enough mountains?
Alright, one more mountain.
Visited a couple of lodges out in the bay off Homer, AK. One lodge was owned by a friend of Janine’s and had a chef from Barcelona, helipad, full-time masseuse, Tai Chi classes, fine wine and about everything high-end you could imagine for being out in the middle no where.
A view of one of the lodges.
Main deck with helipad (they have their own helicopter).
15 – 20 foot tide here.
Dock.
Main lodge with lagoon.
Lodge with main deck.
Neighbor built a Viking house on an old crab boat. He crashed it up on the shore during the year’s highest tide. Neighbors called the troopers to stop him. As you can see it’s still teathered to a tree in case there is a major tide.
Still got the props.
Had a great trip to Homer, AK with Janine and hung with her friends out at a couple of lodges. Here are a few photos of things around Homer.
Down at the small boat harbor.
More small boats.
Our mode of transportation.
One of the weekly cruise liners.
Looking towards Homer and the cruise ship with Mt. Redoubt volcano on the left in the distance.
Crab fleet.
Weather has been miserable here for a long time. Showing, cold, windy, and generally nasty. After snowing the night before, I woke to a glorious deep blue sky with no clouds. I wanted to take a driving trip to the Kenai before Spring came. This was my opportunity since is became nasty the next day and for the foreseeable future. I shot a ton of shots between Anchorage and Moose Pass. The low sun made the shadows interesting and colored much of the landscape with blue tones. This is the most beautiful section of the Kenai (in my opinion). Check it out.
On the road out of Anchorage.
Turnagain Arm trying to melt.
Love a good avalanche.
Snow machine bowl. Four snowmachiners were killed two weeks ago from an avalanche on the mountain to the left.
Up on the left for the killer alavanche.
Portage Glacier Lake.
Took the gondola to the top of the Alyeska Resort. People were skiing down the face of this mountain.
From the top looking across the valley.
There is the resort.
Turnagain Arm from the ski mountain.
These skiers are nuts.
That one skier was yelling “shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.”
That’s the ski resort at the top of the mountain.
Yes it’s still winter in Alaska. Here are a few shots of the mountains and the beasts that trudge through the city.
This is why many people live here.
Jumped out of the bushes and scared the crap out of me.
That’s my snow mound.
Cool photo of snow hat on lamp.
Night snow.
The stand-off. Now what do we do???
Is Spring coming?
Another interloper.
Alaska sees a lot of different types of weather but Hoar Frost is one of the rare ones. This winter the temperature dropped in the teens and a heavy fog descended upon Anchorage. It left beautiful designs and shapes on most outdoor items. Here are a few.
Sunset
Anchorage can have some spectacular sunsets. Here are two views from the same deck looking west.
In the middle of winter.
A beautiful Fall night.
Winter is now on the way. This is the “termination dust” that is the harbinger of winter. This means that the old miners had six weeks to “terminate” their activities and prepare for winter.
Send up some warmth – PLEASE!!!
Visited Homer, AK which is five hours south of Anchorage. Here are a few shots of that visit.
View from the gorgeous house I stayed in.
Homer boat harbor
Leaving the harbor for a neighboring island.
Hiking on the island.
From the lodge looking out on the sound.
From the lodge looking out on the cove.
Back to where the last photo was taken.
Another view up the island coast.
While I was in Homer, AK I participated in the Save our Seas boat ensemble and photo shoot. The objective was to promote the problem that our seas are getting more acidic. This photo shoot featuring over one hundred boats in the shape of a giant SOS was supposed to go smoothly. The morning weather was perfect with blue skies and a few clouds. Five minutes before the shoot, a fog bank blew in and made the shoot quite difficult. The photographers were up in a helicopter trying to peek through the fog after the boats were in position. The “O” in SOS was easy. It was made up of kayaks tied together and anchored. The “S” on either side was made up of some very large fishing and crabbing boats that powered through the “S” for it’s shape. Each “S” had to begin at the same time, go the same speed, and turn in and around a couple of buoys to form the “S” in SOS. We had to do the maneuver six times until the helicopter could see the formation through the fog. As soon as the boats finished, the fog bank quickly left. Ain’t that the way it is.
This is the plan for the boats.
I’m in this boat.
Leaving the Homer harbor.
Boats lining up for the formation.
Boats forming the “O”
Foggy boat parade.
Small boats in the “O”
More small boats.
Alaska is one of the best fishing destinations in the world. I have been fishing a few times but have yet to catch a fish. I have gone with real pros and have all of the right gear, but I just don’t get it. I guess that’s why they call it fishing and not catching. I go now to enjoy the outdoors with friends.
Early morning hiking through the grass.
Low clouds and the mud flats.
I look like a fisherman.
Another view of the valley.
More valley.
Another river.
Still on another river.
On the mud flats on another river.
This is how people get stuck in the mud.
Went fishing and this was the most exciting thing we way that morning. Beluga whales were feeding in this cove. It was so quiet you could hear them breathing.
This is a beluga whale.
Each of those white dots is a whale.
There were about twenty in the pod.
My son Chris and I went on an Alaskan adventure vacation to have the glacier experience. We were going to take the ferry from Whittier, AK to Valdez. Our first stop was Whittier. This city was created by the Army during WWII as an ice-free port that was kept secret from the Japanese. A two-mile tunnel had to be constructed through the mountains to access this small sliver of land. It initially had a railroad spur whereby the Army could unload supplies for the war effort in Alaska. It is a creepy little isolated town with a reputation for housing residents who want to be left alone – if you get my drift. I can hear the banjos playing off in the distance. Much of the city is an abandoned Army depot with a huge government building that can’t be demolished because it has asbestos and would all have to be trucked out through the tunnel at an amazing cost. So it stands calling to tourists and thrill seekers who want the scariest experience of their life if they have the courage to enter the facility at night.
The Alaska Marine Highway System begins many of their journeys from this port.
Waiting to enter the tunnel. One trip in each direction every half hour.
Inside the one-lane 2-mile tunnel.
Our ferry backing it in.
Leaving the dock.
Want to be scared? Go in there at night.
Cruising on the ferry from Whittier, AK to Valdez went through many islands and channels. It was raining most of the time so the visibility of wildlife was poor.
Cruising the channel.
More cruising.
Valdez oil facility. This is the end of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline and where the Exxon/Valdez oil spill began eighteen years ago.
On-board the ferry.
Who dat?
Scenic views.
Local cruise ship.
Totem in Valdez.
Kayaking on the Columbia Glacier was an amazing experience. It rained all night but cleared up to be a wonderful day of paddling through the glacier waters. Check out the videos of paddling and then of the glacier areas.
Paddling the Columbia Glacier
Hiking the Columbia Glacier
Does it get anymore amazing then this? YES!
Relaxing on an iceberg.
Notice who is doing the paddling.
On the boat to the glacier.
Blowing the rape whistle to keep him away.
Those two guys again but from another angle.
Our gang – and they all spoke French.
Found my chaise lounge.
Columbia Glacier is over forty miles long.
Looking out on to the ice flow. Next photo we will be on that point on the right.
That’s us waving from the ice flow.
I used to date this woman.
As we paddled from the glacier to check out salmon runs we encountered these gorgeous islands and shore.
I have never seen clouds like this. This was in Kenny Lake, AK on the way to McCarthy.
Did we hike down this trail – HELL YES!!!
We don’t need no stinkin’ badges.
Shear cliff on one side with a 200 foot drop-off into the fast-moving river.
My son Chris and I went on an all-day glacier hike. It just happened that we were the only ones on this tour so we had our own private guide – Kate. We hiked a couple hours into the glacier to the big stuff – crevasses, ice caverns, water falls, ice flows, huge ice valleys and mountains and little did we know – dangerous conditions. Check out our journey.
Don’t fall in there!
Don’t swim in there!
That’s all ice in those cone shapes.
More cones.
We walked across this peak without ropes. Scared the shit out of me.
Chris and Kate.
Don’t fall in there.
During the hike in – that’s all ice over 1,000 feet thick.
Ice boys.
Kate and Scott.
This was really steep! It looks deceiving.
Gonna take a dive to never never land.
River disappearing into a big frozen place a thousand feet into the glacier.
Don’t slip there!
Can’t see the bottom.
The new style – coolots on a glacier. Had to jack up my pants because the crampons kept grabbing my pants and trying to trip me at – always in inappropriate time – like when we were on a steep cliff of traversing a crevasse.
Drinking thousand year old pure water.
As the annual glacier rings are formed the ice can roll and turn over creating these flat trails between ice blocks.
Really steep. Don’t want to fall here.
After my ankle incident, I couldn’t go ice climbing so I went on a short air cruise into the numerous glaciers in the area. It was a little smoky because of the recent forest fires in the area. Here are the amazing photos.
Circular view of the mountains from the McCarthy airport.
Looking from the airport towards the glaciers.
That’s the Kennecott mine in the distance.
Kennecott mine in the distance. What looks like tailings is rock covered glacier.
That’s all glacier. The rocks on the top are 1” to 6’ thick with the ice up to 1,000’ thick underneath.
Camped there.
Ever changing sand barges in one of the surrounding glacier rivers.
This is a rock glacier = 80% rock 20% ice.
These are huge glacier blocks hundreds of feet thick. The white ones recently flipped over to show their clean bottom. When they flip in a small lake like this it can make a wave like a huge tsunami.
Going into that glacier.
This ice fall is 7,000 feet tall.
Heading into the glacier.
Each one of those blocks is 300 feet high.
Ice blocks are 200 – 400 feet high.
Each ring is the annual growth push of the glacier – just like tree rings.
Heading into another glacier.
Melted glacier water pools are blue because they are so dense that only the blue spectrum of the sun can’t penetrate the oxygen free water and ice and is reflected.
Low on the deck flying down the glacier flow.
More blue pools.
Each crevasse is several hundred feet deep.
Each block hundreds of feet high.
This was a lake last year until it finally broke through the ice wall and flooded creating I was told an amazing wall of water flowing over the ice.
One of the copper mines perched on a cliff overlooking the glacier. You would think how in the world did they get the copper to market? This mine was connected in the back with over 70 miles of tunnels to the main Kennecott mines miles away. It’s amazing to think they drilled this rabbit warren of tunnels throughout this mountain in search of copper to feed the need to electrically wire the east coast during 1911 – 38.
This riever eventually disappeared into a hole in the ice.
The hole.
All ice up to 1,000 feet thick.
Kennicott production facility. Mine is five miles up the mountain.
Flying with Bill in a Cessna 172.
A few photos on the way home from our glacier adventure.
Remaining forest fire smoke and the setting sun.
Train bridge coming from the Kennicott Mines.
Shack in the middle of a field. The sign caught our attention.
The retards arrested me.
We were on the other side of these mountains.
Went paragliding at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, AK. It’s the big ski resort during the winter with a great mountain. Paragliding has been on my goal list for twenty years and I figured why not. Here are some photos and a movie of the adventure.
Run like the cops are after you.
Almost there.
Into the air.
Just taking off with my man Will.
Check out the video of the ride.
High above the resort.
Afraid of heights?
More heights.
Forest.
Skie area in background.
Into the sunset.
Let’s go again.
Is it over?
Went to the big ski resort about 45 minutes south of Anchorage to go for a little hike and to check out the top of the mountain. Here are some photos of the trip.
Gets your ticket and takes your ride.
Won’t find James Bond on this one. Hit this link to see why.
James Bond
That’s where I’m going.
Overlooking the ski bowl.
Out on to the sound – Turnagain Arm.
Love good land mines on a hike. It reminds me or the Nam.
There’s the resort and from which I came.
Went fishing on the Kenai River about three hours south of Anchorage. The drive was beautiful so I took it slow and easy, stopping whenever there was a great photo spot.
One of the many canyons.
Copper Lake with a little overcast.
Copper Lake the other way.
Combat fishing on the Russian River.
Still snow around here.
Roadside lagoon