invitation

boreal forest

Eagle River, just east of Anchorage in the Chugach State Park, carries glacial flour, making the water look grey (often called glacial milk). This finely ground rock is the result of the erosion a glacier does of its bed.

The fog is obscuring the views of the mountains.

the big one

The mountain top, from the air. 20,320 feet high, the highest peak in North America.


The bottom of the mountain is somewhere in the clouds, here in the Alaska Range. Treeline is at about 2000 feet elevation.

Arctic Ocean

Looking north. That is sea ice out there, mostly fresh water ice made as the salts are squeezed out when the ocean water is freezing.

The water was cold. The air was at about 40°F. The sun was out all day, up there somewhere and everywhere.

the pipeline

Tundra is a treeless plain, one where trees cannot grow, not just where they aren't growing. The permafrost here is up to 2100 feet deep. It is early spring now; the surface is thawing, water is everywhere and cannot percolate into the permafrost so it pools and flows. Daylight is 24 hours long; there is no darkness until winter when there is no light. Plants are growing now, but not enough yet to turn the ground green. About 70°N, 148°W. And in the midst of this is the Alaska Oil Pipeline, that diagonal line running from lower middle left to middle right.