Day 4 in Alaska!

     Our first stop is the Eklutna River Gorge. It is quite steep, a sheer drop of at least 300 feet. The camera could not do this gorge justice,but here are a couple photos I took. The cliff is so steep these look almost like aerial photos!

     Heading east along the river road we climb somewhat in elevation. Finally, temperatures which are more suitable for Alaska at this time of year - the mid 20's rather than the mid 30's. I have to say I prefer these temperatures to be out in more than I would twenty below, however with all the rain and warm temperatures, all the frost is gone from the trees. However, the mountains make up for it. I'm not sure which mountains these are, but I'm looking north toward Palmer and Twin Peaks.

     As we continue to climb in elevation, the frost returns to the trees. Yea! And at Eklutna lake the scene is almost overwhelming. This lake is HUGE. Not wide, but miles long. It is a major water source for the Anchorage area and drops as much as 40 feet over winter. This is replenished by the melting Eklutna Glacier which has now receded many miles up the valley.

     The temperature is still a nice warm 22 degrees with absolutely no wind. Not the slightest breeze. It's absolutely dead still, dead silent. The only sound we heard was an Eagle in the distance, two jets overhead and the erie low rumble of cracking ice of the lake, so low in pitch that at first we could not figure out what it was. Outside these few brief episodes of sound, the silence was almost deafening.

     The lake and frosted trees surrounded by mountains just catching a glimpse of sun was almost surreal. Light does not penetrate the valley bottoms this time of year. Even Tom's house does not receive any sunlight for months in winter. The low angle of the sun just can not top the mountains. It also causes everything to be a rich icy blue.

     Although sunlight only lasts a few hours in this part of Alaska this time of year, we ended up staying at the lake for well over an hour. I kept seeing new panoramas, new scenes, as the fog came in from the lake. My last photos of a few hardy plants remind me of some sort of alien desert sagebrush in a sea of blue sand.

     Even heading back to the car, I had to stop to take more photos. The setting sun on the mountains, blown free of much of their load of snow by the past few days of high winds and storms framed by frost covered trees was something I could not pass up.

     Finally, we are headed out to Palmer. In part, we needed to do some grocery shopping, but I also wanted to catch the remaining light of the day on the Mountains surrounding this town. It is a relatively open area with vast landscapes. I was looking for long chains of mountains bathed in alpenglow. I got more than I could have bargained for.

     Even on the drive north along the Glenn Highway, I could not resist opening my window as we sped along at 60mpg to photograph the landscape. I was able to get a pretty good photo of Twin Peaks, and of distant mountains partially covered in fog. The Glenn Highway goes over part of the Knik arm which in the winter is much warmer than the surrounding air. Ice fog is common here and even though it was relatively mild for this time of year, it was still quite cold enough for fog. The fog is so prevelant and so thick here in the winter, that they have special lights along the road which are deep yellow and are only a few feet above the ground. Normal street lighting at normal hight would be completely swamped by the type of fog they get here.

     The sun is setting low on the horizon, we are still driving towards Palmer, but I manage to get this one photo of the sunset which I'm quite pleased with. Talk about point and shoot! We did not even slow down!

     Finally, Palmer. It was only about 20 miles or so from the lake, but we were losing light fast. Somehow I managed to get just the right weather, and be just at the right place to capture the moon rising over the Talkeetna Mountains. Wow. There was a high wind. It was still quite warm, about 30 degrees which considering that it is usually below zero in Palmer this time of year, is a virtual heat wave! However I am just guessing, but I think the wind chill was probably -10 or more. It was cold on the scenic overlook along the highway. And what an overlook. It is one of my favorite places in the area. It is just north out of Palmer overlooking the Matanuska River and Matanuska Peak. Way cool spot. I took photos with my 300 mm lens, which ended up somewhat blurry with camera shake from the high winds, my 80-200 mm lens, 28-70 mm lens and 20 mm lenses - every lens I brought with me. In just a matter of 15 minutes I think I shot over 100 digital photos of the moon, the alpen glow on the mountains, the river. Everything I could think of as quickly as I could. These are just a few of all I took.

Finally, heading back to the car, I captured the last rays of sun for the day. A perfect ending for a perfect day.