Road trip! Scenic Seward Highway and Portage Glacier

[Blue_In_AK]

There are only two highways out of Anchorage, the Glenn Highway to the northeast and the Seward Highway south. Today we drove 50 miles down the Seward Highway to Portage Glacier. The road runs alongside Turnagain Arm which is kind of a fjord with very high tides, over 20 feet at times. In the winter huge chunks of frozen mud are tossed around by the tide and left in jagged heaps.

Here is a lenticular cloud, which is my favorite kind. We see them only rarely here, more often up around Mt. McKinley. I think it looks like a flying saucer.


We encountered a bit of ice fog, which helped to block the blinding sun in our eyes. At this time of year, the sun barely rises above the horizon, so sun visors don't help much.
These shots were taken sometime between 11:00 a.m. and noon.


This is the Alaska Railroad track that runs alongside the highway.


We turn on the Portage Glacier Road and cross Portage Creek.


This is part of a new trail called the Trail of Blue Ice which we walked last fall. It was bright with color then. Not so much now.


This is Portage Glacier and lake. You can see the glacier on the right side just down from that pointed mountain. Back when I first moved up here, the glacier came way down into the middle of the lake and you could easily walk to it in the winter (although they advised against it). Plans were made for a beautiful visitor's center there called the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center in honor of Hale Boggs and Nick Begich whose plane disappeared up here in 1972, but by the time the construction was
finished, the glacier had receded so far it could barely be seen from the parking lot. Even with these cold, cold winters, the glacier hasn't come back.


A two-mile tunnel goes through the mountain just past this point and ends up in Whittier on Prince William Sound. Cars and the train take turns going through the tunnel on a strict schedule, coming and going. On this trip, we turned around here, and I took this picture.



I have a few more to share, but I'll do it tomorrow. I don't want to crash anybody's dial-up.

[Celebration]

1. These are all perfectly gorgeous

And educational. I'll be awaiting the ones you post tomorrow, and will probably look at these several times today.

We have neither snow (so far) nor mountains here.

[elleng]

2. Beautiful and informative; like that cloud, too. Thx, Blue.

[CC]

3. Oh finally, Not

Sarah Palin's AK. :evilgrin: You need to really kick it up on the posting side to help cleanse us of SP commercials. These are beautiful and have your style all over them.
I saw some other beautiful shots of AK on Flicker recently that though beautiful and nothing at all wrong with them did not have your style. It only reinforces how much of the beauty in your photos are you and not just the subject.


BTW this is the photo that led me to the Fairbanks photographer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/v-system/5269888781/in/pool-52241672304@N01/ I would love to capture the sun like that one day. Course would help it I were near mountains.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. That's a nice shot.

I've seen that phenomenon before, but I don't think I've ever photographed it. Now I'm inspired. :)

[Adsos Letter]

4. Gorgeous country; and excellent photos, as always!

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. The 4th photo seems quintessentially winter.

Very nicely captures the hushed, frozen, cold beauty of the far North.

What I like best about that cold?
admiring it from very very far away!!!!

[Mira]

7. Along with Dixiegrrrrl I am grateful to not be in proximity of such cold YET

what about this spectacular beauty, and your ability not only to tolerate the cold but to present us with the beauty in your photos!
These are a rhapsodic homage to your AK, thank you for posting them, and I look forward to the rest.

You will have quite the shock going from there to Costa Rica.
Which reminds me, I have not checked in on the other Blue's Blog, I want to see if she is physically faring a bit better. Must do that before I fall asleep at the keyboard.

edited to add:

I went and saw the movie of Aiman slinging mud at Lake Arenal. Now that is priceless for all posterity.
I also read that there it a 20 week solidly progressing pregnancy and Kristina is doing better, likes the doctor, and we don't yet know if it's a boy or a girl.
I'm relieved she is doing OK.

Lake Arenal is where I went kayaking last time I was there, about a year ago. It's where I have these dear friends with an apartment they rent but let me have for free because they think they owe me and they definitely love me.
It's beautiful, with full view of the volcano Arenal, the one that is active and grumbling.

The apartment is fully equipped, brand new, rents for 500 a month.
Anyone...

Also: Lake Arenal is a lake that was created artificially by flooding a huge valley with water from a distant lake creating a new huge lake. They emptied a town, Arenal, re-located all the people to a new one they built nearby, Nuevo Arenal, and then simply flooded over the entire valley, town and all. It was a very eerie feeling when I kayaked over it and on the shore found shards of pottery and remnants of older civilization.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. Thank you for your kind remarks about my photos,

and especially thank you for keeping up with my girl and her family down there in Costa Rica. We talked on the webcam today, and, yes, she is feeling much better except for a lingering cold. We are counting down the days now until our trip, and the excitement is building. This is my first trip out of the country (except for Canada and border Mexico), so a new experience for me. I'm really looking forward to it.

[alfredo]

9. Those are so beautiful.

The light is incredible.