Coming Home

I spent Sunday and Monday nights in Anchorage and took these on the drive home this evening.


At the head of Turnagain Arm, looking across at the entrance of Turnagain Pass.


Looking across the waters of Turnagain Arm to the Placer River Valley...


Rain showers drifting down from Portage Glacier.



Up in Turnagain Pass...


Looking back toward the north...


Looking south toward home...


Click on any of the images for a larger version.

Evening Over Kachemak Bay

I took another photo from here a few months ago.

The evening was so lovely, I just had to capture it.

July Roadside

Cow parsnip and goats-beard blooming along our road. These photos were taken about ten-thirty on my way home from work.

Just after sunset--about eleven pm--I went out into our yard and looked up.

At Midnight

I stepped outside last night at midnight and took this view looking northwest.

On Kachemak Drive

I drive past this view going to work every day. I stopped after work yesterday to take this photo.

Just across the road is a field of lupine--in full bloom at the peak of the summer.

The Rains of July

Caribou Hills Fire

We drove up to the Caribou Hills burn this afternoon. It's been about two weeks after the fire started. The State pulled most of the fire-fighters off the last night, though we saw several groups of yellow-shirted fire-fighters still mopping up small smoldering areas.





About 55,000 acres burned--most of it state land but the estimate is that about 80 recreational cabins were destroyed. All we saw from the road were the cabins (and the word is a misnomer as some of those were two- or three-storey house with fantastic views) that survived. It was apparent that many survived only because some one was there and fighting the fire themselves--everything burned up on all sides and just the house left standing. There's a large parking area where the road ends and I am sure many of the cabins that were destroyed are off-road and accessable only by four-wheelers in the summer or snow-machines in the winter.




There were some plants already shooting up through the blackened soil in some areas that burned off just a week ago. Other areas fire moved through so quickly that it only burned the lower grasses and scorched the lower leaves of the shrubs, leaving the tops still green. Also--what was interesting to see was the random, spotty nature of wild fire. It didn't just march in a straight line across the landscape, but would follow drainages and hilltops, leaving areas of undisturbed greenery.

Twilight Over Lower Cook Inlet