Archive for the ‘Springtime’ Category
Monday, August 16th, 2010
The Copper river and Mt Drum, from Simpson Hill Overlook. View of the Copper River basin and Wrangell Mountains, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image thumbnail to view a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks,
OK, enough with the waterfalls already! Here’s another image from my spring trip earlier this year, from Simpson Hill Overlook, off the Richardson Highway, near Glennallen, Alaska. This is a scene I’ll never tire of; looking down the Copper River, with the Wrangell Mountains in glorious sunshine. The mountains you can see in this image are Mt. Drum on the left and Mt. Wrangell the broader, dome-shaped mountain on the right in the background.
Just out of sight to the left of the frame is Mt. Sanford, and Mt. Blackburn to the right. How many vantage points do you know of in North America where you might choose to exclude from your photo two mountains both of which stand over 16 000′ high? That speaks volumes, in my opinion, about how amazing this viewpoint is. The 5th (Blackburn) and 6th tallest peaks (Sanford) in the US and they don’t make the photo? Craziness!
The Copper River is pretty grand too. Not to get bogged down by meaningless numbers and superlatives, but the Copper River is 300 miles long, and the 10th largest river, by volume, in the US. The Copper River is also the north and western boundaries of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, coolest park in all the world! It’s perhaps best known, however, for its nearly infamous Red Salmon run, usually over 2 million spawning salmon, loaded with fatty Omega-3 oils that make for some delicious supper.
I was really hoping for some sweet delicious alpenglow on this particular evening …. but ….. alas, such wasn’t to be my fortune. The light faded soon after I shot this – the boreal forest in the foreground grew dark, and the mountain light ebbed and dwindled; distant dim clouds low on the northwestern horizon thwarted my efforts at capturing some rich color on the snow-capped peaks, as seems to be the case all too often.
This scene is one of the very few ‘roadside‘ vantage points from which to photograph some of the big mountains in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Willow Lake is another. The views on a clear day from these places rival anything I’ve seen anywhere else. The problem, I guess, for photographers is that the clear days are few and far between. Enjoy ‘em when ya can! 
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, boreal forest, Copper River, Copper River basin, Glennallen, Landscape features, Mt Drum, Mt Wrangell, Richardson Highway, scenics, vistas, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell Mountains, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Forests, Landscape features, Mountains, Rivers, Springtime, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Backcountry cross country skiing (XC skiing), Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click the image to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey folks,
In honor of my ambitious plan to go skiing tomorrow, tuesday, I thought I’d post this scene from last spring – cross country skiing in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. It seemed like every day for the entire month of April was like this last year, and this is pretty much how I spent each morning – gliding over a nice crust of snow, surrounded by snow-covered mountain ranges, wide open spaces, blue skies and wildness.
I’m enjoying my time in Anchorage this year, but am OH SO wishing I were over in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park again. There is no place quite like it. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Carl Donohue, cross country, horizontals, Mountains, skier, Skiing, Skolai Images, snow, sports, spring, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias, XC skiing
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Landscape features, Mountains, Musings, Skiing, Springtime, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | No Comments »
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Hey Folks,
Here’s a photo I took last spring, just at start of the season Alaskans call “breakup”. This photo is taken from the roadside overlook just south of Glennallen, at Simpson Hill. Simpson Hill is rapidly disappearing, as the Copper River (in the foreground) erodes and cuts away at its base. Soon enough the spot may be known as “Simpson Mound”. This is probably one of the very few (maybe 2) iconic viewspots for Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, the largest (and way coolest) National Park in the US. There are certainly many other grand views to be had, and amazing sites, but few that are so frequently photographed from.
The mountains, viewed from this spot, are simply awesome. From left to right, the mountains are (more…)
Tags: AK, Alaska, alpenglow, breakup, Carl Donohue, Copper River, images, Landscape features, Mountains, Mt Drum, Mt Sanford, Mt Wrangell, Mt Zanetti, photos, scenics, Simpson Hill, spring, sunset, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Forests, Landscape features, Mountains, Rivers, Springtime, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Hey Folks,
Here’s a quick one while I’m hiking. I saw this bull moose a few times this spring, feeding on the aquatic plants that grow on the lake bed this time of year. Quite a rack for early June. He’ll be quite a sought after moose come this fall when the subsistence hunters look around Wrangell – St. Elias National Park for their winter meat. As much as I like for my friends to eat well, I hope nobody gets this guy.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: AK, Alaska, Alces alces, Bull Moose, Carl Donohue, Moose, photos, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Moose, Springtime, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Hey Folks,
Cross Country skiing this spring along the Kennecott River. This is why they call this time of year (April) “breakup”. This spring was probably some of the funnest times I’ve had in a long time. What a great time and place!
You might notice my hip new Karhu 10th Mountain XCD backcountry skis. All I can say about ‘em is these skis ROCK!!! (more…)
Tags: adventure, Alaska, Alaskans, breakup, Carl Donohue, cross country, cross country skiing, Kennecott, Kennecott River, kennicot, Kennicott River, McCarthy, outdoors, People, photos, recreation, Rivers, Skiing, snow, spring, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias, xc, XC skiing
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Landscape features, Mountains, Rivers, Skiing, Springtime, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 Comments »
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Hey Folks,
I had to show this image from my most recent skiing outing. Here I take the last in a run of drops that started with the mountain in the background behind me (Bonanza Ridge) – with all that descent, I’d gathered a lot of speed, probably several hundred miles per hour. I was lucky enough to pick my line well in advance, and come right by my tripod. I’ve included the last in this series here below, without me in the image, to show you what an immaculate line I took, right between the boulders, and what a carve. I mean, does it get any sweeter?
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, cross country, Skiing, spring, tracks, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Skiing, Springtime, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
Hey folks,
Truth be told, I haven’t been shooting too much these last few weeks. I’m back in McCarthy, at the Shaq, and though the weather has been pretty nice, I just haven’t found much to photograph. It’s the end of winter, in that season known locally as ‘breakup’, a kind of pre-spring interim. The snow is melting, quickly, which means limited mobility – after about midday, its just slushy goo. however, when we get a nice clear sky, at night, the temperature drops dramatically (it’s been comfortably warm in the daytime), and the snow cover re-freezes .. so skiing in the morning is awesome. (more…)
Tags: Adventures, Alaska, backcountry, cross country, outdoors, recreation, Skiing, snow, sports, spring, Springtime, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, XC skiing
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, People, Skiing, Springtime, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
hey Folks,
While I’d never look down on anything as beautiful as a flower, I thought this perspective was pretty cool. Here’s a lupine from right near my camp in Icy Bay, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Alaska, Flowers, Springtime, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 3 Comments »
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
hey Folks,
I told ya you’d see some more lupines. Aren’t they gorgeous flowers? This one in the foreground was not quite in full bloom yet, but I thought the scene worked well. Plus, I do love me some lupine, so I took a bunch of photos of different ones.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Alaska, Flowers, Springtime, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Hey Folks,
I’m out in the field again, so I’ll pre-post a few more images from my last trip here, scheduled for every other day or so while I’m away. I’ll be gone 2 weeks, so we’ll see how it goes.
Beth asked ‘did I get close enough for any images with the bears’ in a recent thread. Well, this particular evening, I was shooting Lesser Scaups (ducks) on a small pond in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, and had been waiting for about an hour for the ducks to come close enough. They’re pretty savvy, for relatively small creatures. They know how far they have to remain from me to avoid getting their pictures taken, depending on what lens I have on my camera. So, after a while, I look in my rear vision mirror, and here’s a grizzly, about 30′ behind my truck. I like ducks and all, but I’ll take a grizzly photo over a duck, any day. Particularly when the ducks are too far for a decent photo. So I hopped out of the truck to get a better angle, and took a couple of images before this young fella wandered into the brush nearby.
Grizzly bear, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Springtime, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 4 Comments »
