Glaciers of Alaska

We had planned on going to the glacier on Sunday afternoon, but the weather on Saturday was clear, so went while the going was good.

The sun came out to illuminate the beautifully rugged Alaskan panorama.

On our way we saw these two brown bear cubs on the side of the road. Minutes later they followed their mom across the road. When we passed we saw one cub that was marooned on a little mound, while water swirled around him (it was on a flooded plain.) It was crying and whining so woefully. We hope his mom found him later.
The sun came out to show off the lovely fall colors.

We had a picnic and started a campfire. We had the cookies, graham crackers, and everything but we forgot the marshmallows. Dang! Ian roasted red licorice anyway.

After our little lunch we went over to Childs Glacier.

We spied an ice shark patrolling the frigid shore.

Here I am with my dad, who is a great tour guide and ambassador for Alaska.

The ice in a glacier gets compacted so dense that it reflects this beautiful bluish color.

We spent quite a while at the glacier and we would hear a periodic boom from the calving of the glacier. Big chunks of the glacier fall off and make an impressively loud thundering sound. It's quite impressive to see the ice crashing down into the river as well.

We passed over the infamous "Million Dollar Bridge" which was completed in 1917 for the transport of copper. A section of it collapsed in an earthquake in 1964. Just a couple of years ago they repaired the bridge. It is truly a bridge to nowhere. Two miles after passing the bridge the road just ends.

If you look closely you can see the new black section of the bridge isn't even aligned with the main bridge, necessitating the use of the yellow arrow signs.

This is a photo of Sheridan Glacier which we passed by as well. You can see the top of the ice flow in this picture.
Here is Miles Glacier. It was named after U.S. Army Major General Nelson A. Miles, but we don't know who he is, so we dubbed it Miles Glacier in honor of our very own Miles.

Skiing with an ocean view

We had an e-mail server problem at work on Tuesday. Luckily they have a decent Internet connection here so I could connect remotely and fix he problem. I was able to run a repair on our e-mail database, but it took a long time so I was stuck in the house most of the day. It was raining outside, but I just had to get out and take a walk.

The city of Cordova is very picturesque has a lot of steep hills so it's a great place to walk and get some good exercise (as long as you don't mind doing it in the rain.) I followed the street signs and walked up to the the ski area.

Cordova Alaska has a population of only about 2,300 people yet they still have their own ski area, Mt. Eyak Ski Area. I don't think you could call it a 'destination ski resort' since there are no amenities at all.

The ski lift is an old one-seater that they got used from Sun Valley.

The mountain is very beautiful, though. I don't know if there are any other ski resorts that have an ocean view.

The ski area has variable hours, usually meaning weekends when conditions are good.

This is one place I will probably never end up skiing, so I'll just have to imagine how sweet it would be

Room with a view

This is the view from the large picture window in the living room in my parent's home in Cordova, Alaska.

Here's a zoomed in shot with a fishing boat coming into the harbor. In the distance is the mountains above Orca Bay.

We took all the kids down to the docks to get a close-up view of the harbor. Here are some fishermen repairing their nets.

Most of the boats in the harbor are working fishing boats, with a few scattered sailboats and even one yacht.

Over the side of the dock we saw many different varieties of jellyfish of different shapes and sizes.

Saffy loved it! We tried hard to make sure she didn't fall overboard.

This is Hawkins Island which is right across the way from Cordova's harbor.
Ian likes the moss that grows everywhere.

Here is a lone specimen of fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) growing near the harbor. This is probably Alaska's best known wildflower; it grows almost everywhere around here. It is breathtakingly beautiful. As if the landscape wasn't amazing enough already, these flowers make sure it always is.