Category: Terrain
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Southeastern Alaska and the Inside Passage
August 1995 Southeast Alaska Travel Index We captured this image a long time ago on our initial trip to Alaska in 1995. We took a small-ship cruise through Glacier Bay and to Juneau and Sitka. Then we spent several days in Juneau where we did a lot of hiking, went to a nearby glacier and…
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Exit Glacier
Seward, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USA (July 2010) The vast preponderance of Kenai Fjords National Park is not accessible by automobile. It’s ruggedly inaccessible with the easiest ways to see it by air [see my Harding Icefield page] or by sea [see my Kenai Fjords page]. There is one notable exception: Exit Glacier. It’s not…
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Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel
Whittier, Alaska, USA (July 2010) I’d long wanted to traverse the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel heading to Whittier, Alaska and the Prince William Sound (map). The tiny town of Whittier holds a couple hundred people where nearly the entire population lives in a single building. You might wonder why the government built a tunnel nearly…
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Somewhere Between Juneau and Sitka
Inside Passage, Southeastern Alaska, USA (August 1995) One of the benefits of small-ship sailing was our ability to fit through tight spaces where ordinary cruise ships would never dare to venture. To prove the point our ship threaded a needle between a rocky island and the shoreline, barely wider than the boat. The wall on…
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“Out the Road”
The City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska, USA (August 1995) We drove straight out of Juneau about 40 miles until we ran out of road. Juneau is not an island. However, it’s wedged between the Gastineau Channel and the Coast Mountains that completely cut it off from the rest of mainland North America. The only…
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Mendenhall River Rafting
The City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska, USA (August 1995) We have a lot of experience with whitewater rafting so we were excited to hear about rafting in Juneau (map). There are indeed float trips down the Mendenhall River. They from the glacier with the same name down to the Gastineau Channel, and are available…
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Glacier Bay Scenery
Hoonah–Angoon Census Area Census Area of the Unorganized Borough, Alaska, USA (August 1995) Mt. Fairweather This grand view points down Johns Hopkins Inlet, the home of numerous impressive glaciers. It is framed at back by Mt. Fairweather (map), which is somewhat of a misnomer since the weather can be quite nasty. Mt. Fairweather towers more…
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Margerie Glacier
Glacier Bay: Hoonah–Angoon Census Area Census Area of the Unorganized Borough, Alaska, USA (August 1995) Margerie Glacier (map) is one of the most magnificent and dramatic ice flows into Glacier Bay National Park. It features sheer green and blue walls smudged by black debris carried down from the mountainside. The size is amazing. It is…
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Flattop Mountain
Chugach State Park, Anchorage, AK (July 2010) We didn’t plan to climb Flattop Mountain (map) that beautiful July morning. We had completely different plans, actually. The waiter during breakfast said we should go. The desk clerk at the hotel told us the same thing. The day was too perfect, too perfect!, to waste it on…
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Adventures on Kaua’i
Kaua’i, Hawaii, USA (October 1997) When my wife and I planned our trip to Australia we figured we might as well hit Hawaii since we’d be all the way out there anyway. On the leg from Los Angeles to Sydney a few days earlier we flew right over Hawaii; a thirty second view of Molokai…