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The sun seems to hover for hours over mountains surrounding the Eagle River part of the Chugach State Park north of Anchorage, Alaska. Actually it does hover for hours in October 2006 when this image was captured. Bears were said to be abundant in the vicinity, though I didn’t encounter wildlife more dangerous than freshwater salmon.
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Driving south on the Seward Highway through rain…still the most beautiful two-hour drive ever.
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Arrival on Saturday, October 8th, 2006 at Seward, and the rain was relentless. By Sunday everything to the side of this road was flooded and the road itself was closed.
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Captain Paul starred in his own show aboard our boat. He explained that he comes to Seward every summer for work driving these boats out of Seward.
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A view from the front deck of our boat The Viewfinder, outward bound on the Seward Alaska Marine Highway. Rain was relentless but I refused to let it spoil the adventure.
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A view from the deck of this hardy boat. These things have to be built tough to withstand the waters and the weather here. Captain Paul explained they have never yet lost a passenger, but if you do fall in please keep your boarding pass handy for rescue.
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A small settlement nestled between the bay and the mountains across from Seward, taken from the boat.
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The rain never stopped while I was on the boat tour, but made for nice gray contrasts with mountains, forest, and sky.
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These canvas huts could be your headquarters to a close encounter with a large amount of wilderness and weather. Taken from the boat tour from Seward, Alaska.
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Across the water you can see part of the glaciers to the southwest of Seward. These are, alas, melting fast.
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After about 2 hours the water began getting rough, with rolling waves hitting the boat pretty hard. Captain Paul rode us through a bit of this before deciding it wasn’t smart to continue.
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This is the kind of rock you do not want to get smashed into.
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To the relief of some passengers, the water became calm as we returned to the dock in Seward.
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Exit Glacier just outside of Seward, Alaska offers an easy hike right up to the edge of the ice.
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An easy trail leads to very close views of Exit Glacier.
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Exit Glacier has remained here for many thousands of years.
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Although Exit Glacier has been known to many generations of humans, ours may be the last ever to see it.
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Although the constant rain that day was having some effect on the amount of water on the ground, most of this is caused by the rapid melting of Exit Glacier.
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This is literally the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Exit Glacier is melting at an increasing rate, and receding rapidly from this spot. The cause is widely considered to be increasing average temperatures due to human-induced climate change.
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This channel was carved by water exiting Exit Glacier as it melts.
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Take one large glacier, add atmospheric heat, and the result is a large amount of water pouring off the glacier.
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Exit Glacier is melting so fast it’s creating several large streams.
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Streams of water from parts of Exit Glacier converge to become a river.
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The melt from Exit Glacier has created a large area that can only be described as a floodplain.
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A view of water, mountains, and clouds on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage in October 2006.
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A moderate hike brought me an elevation where wind gusts of 80 plus mph tore off my hat and sent me tumbling. Fortunately I captured this shot of the Turnagain Arm before I got blown off the mountain.
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This looked to me like a wise old tree.
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Below you can see the Seward Highway wind along the Turnagain Arm. This shot was taken just before a wind gust knocked me back down the trail.
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The Seward Highway stretches from Anchorage to Seward, about 120 miles to the south. The highway is in excellent condition, but is two lanes wide most of the way. It is the most scenic highway I’ve ever driven.
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We see the tracks of the Alaska Railroad, which run here between the Turnagain Arm and the Seward Highway.
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An early part of the long and strenuous hike to the top of Flattop above Anchorage. This part was easy.
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The scale and dimensions of the mountains and land are given perspective by this shot of people and a dog I encountered on the way to Flattop.
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Here we begin to get a few more data points about what’s ahead. Here we are nowhere near the top.
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High up as this may seem, it’s less than half-way to Flattop. Yet the view of Anchorage below is amazing.
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The trail to Flattop winds around, up, and down. But mostly up.
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The trail afford many impressive views like this of Anchorage, north-west of this point.
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The late-afternoon sun found a portal through the clouds, illuminating what seemed like heaven except to my aching quads.
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We begin to get more perspective on the length of the trail, and how high we have climbed, as we look back at Anchorage far below.
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Climbing Flattop is a true adventure. Despite the length of the trail and the open spaces it traverses, there are many surprises. Alas, as I approached the top I stopped thinking about capturing images. Not falling off became my top priority.
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This image was captured almost at the top of the Flattop Trail
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Flattop Mountain rises 3,510 feet above Anchorage. The road leading to Flattop Trail, which we can see clearly in this image, takes you only one-third the way there. More info at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattop_Mountain_(Anchorage,_Alaska)
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The pole marks the destination of our hike up Flattop. On this day the wind was gusting to about 80 mph. You could jump straight up in the air, and be taken about 10 feet. Near the edge this was not advisable. Getting down was something else.
