Rock and Ice

Our weather has not been very conducive to photography lately or even to spending much time outdoors, but there were a few good periods of rainless weather recently so I will share a few photos of a few things in the area.

These are two of the tallest peaks in our piece of southeast Alaska and are landmarks separating the U.S. from Canada.  The border between our two countries runs over the top of both of these peaks.  The rocky peak in the foreground that looks like a castle (or Batman's helmet) is Castle Mountain which I have mentioned in previous posts.  It reaches an elevation of 7333 feet and is as well defended by natural features as any castle built by humans.  The peak behind Castle looming higher and snowier, is Kate's Needle.  At 10,016 feet, it is one of the rare 10,000 footers along this stretch of the Coast Mountains.  This mountain is even more remote than Castle requiring a true expedition to reach its summit.

These were just a few photos from a recent trip to LeConte Glacier near Wrangell.  A pretty spectacular place!

A rare but lovely sunset from the summer of 2017.  The kayaker is in a fishing kayak which is propelled using foot pedals so your hands are free for dealing with fishing rods and tackle and for fighting fish.  The weather and water temperatures of SEAK are not often the best for kayak fishing unfortunately but when it is, it can be a blast.

A mountain high on my list to explore is this one, Mt. Calder on the NW end of Prince of Wales Island.  It isn't a particularly high one at 3370 feet but as you can see there is a lot of country above treeline and this mountain is very close to the open ocean so the view has to be pretty spectacular.  This area has a lot of limestone as well which is the primary rock making this mountain so there are probably some interesting caves and rock formations as well.  El Capitan cave is not too far away from Mt Calder.