Our
trip to McLaren Lodge was long, just over 90 miles. We
passed through some great country with awesome views. Our
plan for the day was to go up the Gulkana Glacier on the south
face of the Alaska Range.
The photos below are what we saw.
Northern
lights were churning and Roberto got a reasonable photo of the
activity.
I had to do quite a
bit of after-the-fact processing to get these results.
If doing this again, I would increase the ISO quite a
bit. This was a 30 second exposure and you can tell that
due to the "slurring" of the stars (rather than being a
point). The location of the lights moved over
time. This shot was looking east from Dan's cabin.
Later in the evening, it started to get overcast and we were
concerned that the weather might impact our riding the next
day.
The next
morning dawned with only some high clouds and plenty of sun so
we headed out to Gulkana Glacier. We headed north from the
cabin into the valley at the base of the glacier. The
valley is visible just right of center in the photo above.
Our plan was to follow the glacier to the very end to an
altitude of just over 6000'. The Gulkana Glacier is one of
many glaciers in the Alaska Range.
As we
headed into the valley, the canyon walls got steep in a
hurry. The canyon was filled with virgin snow.
The path
up the glacier was actually quite easy and culminated at a steep
cliff overlooking the next glacier. The lip was dangerous
and a few extra steps would result in a one-way several thousand
foot fall to the lower glacier.
Looking
to the northwest from the overlook was an awesome view.
Looking
to the east provided an equally impressive view.
Across the canyon
there were massive cliffs.
There
were large ice falls on the opposing canyon walls.
We traveled
a short distance to the west that provided a higher overlook
point.
We were
approaching 7,000' of altitude at our second viewpoint.
The
higher viewpoint provided an opportunity for vanity photos
The
group descended from the upper viewpoint back into main valley.
On the
east wall of the valley were massive cliffs with huge hanging
walls of ice. Note the cracks near the upper cornice that
indicate that an avalanche will happen in the near future.
Note the lenticular clouds in the distance
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2014, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.