Beluga Point, 28 November 2008
Rah rah! I finally made it out for a little photography tour! It feels like ages since I've been able to get out and do some photography, but at last, at last... I got out today. If but for a little while.
I headed down Turnagain Arm with Karen of From NY to NC to AK. Our plan was to head down to Portage Valley and take in the Trail of Blue Ice (one of my favorite spots in the region during the winter). As luck would have it, the further south we'd head, the warmer the air got (up to the lower forties)... and with the relative warmth came the rain. Freezing rain. It was an odd day for weather. Weather defined by odd contradictions.
So yeah, our planned hike didn't go quite as planned, but Turnagain Arm still presented a plethora of beautiful vistas, as always.
Our first spot for the day was Beluga Point. The sky was an ambient shade of gray and the wind was blasting from the east. The tide pulled vast chunks and shards of ice down the Arm, toward Cook Inlet and eventually toward the Gulf of Alaska (far, far to the west and south). Unlike in Florida, overcast skies actually make for some fine landscape shots in Alaska. The contrasts can be striking.
I never tire of looking across the Arm at the northern edge of the Kenai Peninsula. It still amazes me to live so near the Kenai, Turnagain Arm, and Portage Valley. The long and narrow stretch of road running the length of Turnagain Arm is a veritable festival of hiking and photographic opportunities. Chugach State Park eventually becomes the Chugach National Forest. Trails thread through and around the mountains, streams and glaciers to the north. Ice slowly drifts by to the south.
It's quite fantastic.
There would be much more to see over the next few hours, as we made our way west toward Portage Valley and then back to Anchorage. The weather turned several times over, the colors shifted, and the short day came and went.
A good day, despite the weather and the loss of our planned hike.
More, of course, to follow...
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