~~~
~~~
Anchorage, Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm
Click on the pictures to enlarge
 |
The plane ride into Anchorage is amazing (be sure to sit on the ABC side of the plane.) This is the Turnagain Arm by air. |
 |
Two glaciers in southern Alaska by air |
 |
The mountains of the southern Yukon Territories by air. |
 |
The midnight sun over Anchorage's Cook Inlet, mudflats, and a volcano in the background--yes, this picture was taken at midnight. Around the solstice, Alaska goes straight from twilight to dawn, meaning it never gets totally dark. (Click for another sunset image) |
 |
Anchorage's mudflats at low tide. Cook Inlet has the second-higest tidal range in North America (second only to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia). The mudflats are composed of silt from glaciers carried into the Inlet by rivers. On a clearer day, Mt. McKinley (131 miles away) would be visible in the far background. |
 |
Turnagain Arm, outside Anchorage. The arm was first visited by white people in Captain James Cook, who was seeking a so-called Northwest Passage to Britain. Because of the massive runoff of glacial silt, the arm is not navigable, and Cook kept having to "turn again." |
 |
The drive along the Seward Highway outside Anchorage is among the world's greatest drives, and here are two reasons why: two belugas surfacing in Turnagain Arm. Belugas (Russian for "white one") ride in with the tides while chasing schools of fish. |
 |
Another beluga surfaces. There were seven total, which caused headaches for anyone traveling the Seward Highway who wasn't interested in whales. |
 |
Lionel Hutz has moved to Anchorage and changed his name to "Jody Brion." As Lionel used to say: "I've appeared before every judge in town, often as a lawyer, and I advertise in the yellow pages and on public garbage cans." (Dang, these lawyers are getting desperate!) |
 |
A lake on Anchorage's Coastal Trail known as Westchester Lagoon...a popular picnic spot. When left via Anchorage a week later, most of the snow was melted off the mountains. |
