Summer Trip Reports: Volume 1 - Mountains, Glaciers and Coast

In mid-June, I led a private, week-long photo workshop for a pair of clients, which followed my Mountains, Glaciers, and Coast itinerary. The simple answer to the question “How was it?” is – fun! The three of us had a great trip starting in Fairbanks, followed by a couple of days in the eastern Alaska Range, before traveling on to Valdez, then to Seward, and finishing in Anchorage.

It’s a comfortably-paced itinerary with no epic travel days, and lots of time to explore on foot and by vehicle. By no coincidence at all, the route also carries us through some of the most dramatic, and wildlife-filled landscapes Alaska has to offer. Fun indeed.

Eastern Alaska Range

Basing from the wildly beautiful and comfortable Black Rapids Lodge, we explored the eastern Alaska Range along the Richardson and Denali Highways. Though road-accessible, it’s amazing how few tourists visit this part of our state. Denali, some 125 miles west gets all the attention, and leaves these mountains largely untravelled. I’ll take it.

We made a lot of photos during our time in the Alaska Range and were blessed with an extraordinary variety in weather. From blue skies, to overcast, rainbows, and scudding clouds, it’s hard to imagine what more could be added. Every time we stepped out the door, our images looked wildly different the session before.

Our third day, we continued south, making our way first through the Alaska Range, then across a sweeping expanse of boreal forest, climbed up again into the Chugach Mountains before descending Thompson Pass, and entering the coastal ecosystem of Prince William Sound.

Valdez

Valdez, Alaska is a fishing town located on the northeast corner of Prince William Sound. While the town itself has the usual array of restaurants and gift shops on the harbor, the real draw of the place of the glaciers, mountains, and marine life. Within a half hour of town lie alpine and valley glaciers, iceberg filled lakes, abundant waterfalls, and (after a boat ride) tidewater glaciers, whales, sea lions, and seabird colonies. Photographically speaking, it’s got a lot going for it.

We enjoyed three nights in Valdez. One full day was occupied with a boat tour to the Columbia Glacier, which is in catastrophic recession, having pulled back several miles up its fjord over the past decade. All that loss of ice however, means an active glacier, and lots of icebergs. Deep blue bergs, miles of brash ice, and the harsh terrain of recently exposed, glacially-carved rock, become a photographic playground.

Our final full day in Valdez, we ventured back up the road toward Thompson Pass where we hiked to the toe of the receding Worthington Glacier, spent time in Keystone Canyon photographing waterfalls, and laid down in the alpine meadows atop the pass to admire wildflowers.

Seward

Departing Valdez we boarded an Alaska State Ferry and spent the morning crossing the northern part of Prince William Sound to Whittier. After passing through the one-lane Whittier tunnel we turned south down the Seward Highway and on to the town itself.

Seward is unquestionably a tourist town. Located just two and a half hours of Anchorage, it’s a convenient location for locals and visitors alike to get their ocean fix. Cruise ships too frequently make Seward their final (or first) port of call and mega-ships stop in about every other day.

Now, all that aside, Seward is also beautiful. Just outside of town is Kenai Fjords National Park and Exit Glacier, one of the most accessible valley glaciers in Alaska. Too, Seward lies on Resurrection Bay, a fjord reaching north out of the Gulf of Alaska. It’s an amazingly rich water body where humpback, fin, and minke whales, orcas, seals, sea lions, sea otters, seabird colonies, and the rest of the marine ecosystem can be found. It’s one of the best locations I know of to photograph ocean life in Alaska.

And photograph we did! We took a morning whale watch and found no less than 7 humpbacks, some of which fluked repeatedly just a stone’s throw from our boat. And we got the opportunity to photograph Steller’s sea lions, otters, puffins, and the dramatic sea-cliffs of Resurrection Bay. Not a bad way to spend the morning.

It was the evening excursion, however, that took us all by surprise. After dinner, we boarded a flat-bottomed water taxi and spent a bumpy half hour working our way out through the chop of the bay. Once we got a couple miles south of the harbor, the water smoothed out and we were able to motor on toward our destination: Bear Glacier. Bear Glacier, like almost all glaciers in Alaska (and elsewhere in the world) is in recession. A few decades ago it was near the tidewater, but now it’s pulled back a few miles and its terminus is in a large lake. Last summer, a rare flood event caused the outflow creek to blow out, deepening the channel. And with the right boat (and the right captain) it’s possible to run up that stream in a motor boat and explore the clear blue water and giant icebergs of the lake itself.

And that’s what we did. For two hours, we motored slowly around glistening blue bergs that towered over the boat, and watched as they virtually glowed in the late evening light. With no wind, the reflections were truly epic, making the whole scene surreal and beautiful.

While I’m fortunate to experience many of Alaska’s wonders in the course of my work as a photographer, that couple of hours in Bear Glacier Lake is, even for me, unforgettable.

Interested in joining me next year? As of this writing (2 August, 2019) I still have a couple of spaces available for 2020. Sign up HERE.