Alaska: The Literal Trip

“I have seen almost more beauty than I can bear…”
-Everett Ruess

I know I’ve been away from the blog forever, but I needed to get my legs underneath me again after a bit of a messed up summer. It was no spur of the moment running away, but came at a good time. My artwork and writing alike have been languishing over the past few months, drifting rather aimlessly. What is better than taking oneself out of the comfortable and routine. So I ran off to Alaska.

As I’ve said many times before, I’m no landscape photographer. I love it; lack of talent in this area doesn’t stop me from taking the picture. But prizewinning imagemaking of nature is not what this is about. And that’s a shame, because Alaska is so full of beauty, so vast and amazing that I began to feel keenly the limits of my abilities.

Here are just a few of the images that I took, really just scratching the surface…

I started my journey in the south cruising around the fjords at Kenai National Park.

My images around the fjords would have been wonderfully dramatic if there had been any clouds or weather. The tourist in me didn’t complain about the glorious sunshine.

Great granite spires and huge jagged rocks rise out of the water! Eagles and puffins, whales and otters all around! Me as a big giddy kid and me as photographer at odds…

Hiking and sailing around Kenai allows you to get up close and personal with tidewater glaciers.

It also provides a clear illustration of how much climate change has taken away from us. See them before they’re gone!

Or better yet, it’s time for all of us to get very serious about changes we can make personally, locally, and globally to reduce our impact on the environment.

When the ice breaks off it sounds like a shotgun blast in slow motion, terrifying in the stillness around you…

More mountains and rivers than my mind could fully take in. After seeing Denali from afar for a day or two, I was ready to get a little closer. The next part of my journey took me into Denali National Park for some hiking.

 

In my head, Alaska and Denali are snowy and icebound. Due to the season, it was very different from how I had always imagined it.

As exciting as the site of Ruth Glacier was, again, I was struck how dry and thin it seemed. By any stretch of the imagination, it’s still an impressive place.

After Denali, I treated myself to a trip on the Denali Star headed north through still more crazy beautiful scenery.

 

 

I took a trip up the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle and to see try to see the Aurora Borealis, possibly the most godforsaken 340 dusty unpaved miles I’ve ever ridden in pursuit of easily one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed.

Getting there is half the journey, right? I did get to see some of the most lovely scenery as the sun faded.

The lights were out for my last four days away. These aren’t the most brilliant images and they will never capture what it is to watch them in the darkness and emptiness of northern Alaska, but I’m pretty pleased to be able to capture a bit of the show.

There was no end to the scenery. I took around 1500 images in 10 days and these are just the tip of the iceberg (or glacier as the case may be).

National Geographic will not be pounding down my door anytime soon, but it did light a fire under me. Physicality and quiet in wonders of nature (and probably reindeer pie and beer, too) have given me a focus and direction I haven’t  had in months. While these were just a few tourist images, next time around I’ll be posting the results of that fire and inspiration. Until then…

“I’ll never stop wandering. And when the time comes to die, I’ll find the wildest, loneliest, most desolate spot there is.”
-Everett Ruess