Climbing in the Brooks Range, Alaska

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Climbing on the Pipeline, Brooks Mountain Range, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I just got back from a trip to Skolai Pass, in Wrangell-St. Elias, and we got SLAMMED by the weather. It was so ugly, I couldn’t help but feel bad for the people on the trip. I didn’t even take my camera out of the backpack the whole week. So I don’t have any images from this trip. That’s a first for me. Instead, I’ll post some more images from previous trips, including this one from our highly vaunted ANWR Drilling Trip earlier this month. I’m not going to say that this climbing around was my idea – and far be it for me to snitch, but I think you can tell from the looks of the 2 people with me that it was their responsibility – they literally forced me onto this pipeline for the photo. 🙂 🙂

Erika and Bob were great folks, and we had an excellent trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Cheers

Carl

Flute on the coastal plain, ANWR, Alaska

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Hiker playing a traditional Native American Indian Flute on the coastal plain of ANWR, Alaska

Hey Folks,

One evening I set out from camp to find a nice place to play the flute. This little pond was really cool, there weren’t too many bugs, and it had a peaceful reverie about it that I enjoyed. I ended up playing for an hour or more here. See what I mean – this coastal plain isn’t all as ugly and revolting as some people would have us believe.

Cheers

Carl

Coastal Plain, ANWR, Alaska

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Cotton Grass, Arctic Coastal Plain, ANWR, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Another image of cotton grass in bloom on the arctic coastal plain, ANWR, Alaska. This is right by the shores of the Beaufort Sea.

I’d been hoping to renew my memerbship in the Polar Bear Club, by swimming in the arctic ocean, but a cold wind blowing off the sea ice was a little more than I was interested in dealing with.

One of the people on the trip, Bob, did get himself wet, as you’ll see later.

Cheers

Carl

Arctic Coastal Plain, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska

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Arctic Coastal plain and Alaska Cotton grass, Arctic national Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

We all hear about how barren and ugly the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is. The coastal plain is a desolate wasteland, we’re told. Well, I don’t agree with that. I think it’s a beautiful place, and well worth our respect. Here is a field of Alaska Cotton Grass in full bloom along the coastal plain, east of the Canning River, in Section 1002, the section proposed to be opened for oil drilling. Trust me – the photos you see posted across websites and emails doing the rounds that suggest the place is ‘ugly’ are simply bad photos.
Continue reading →

The Golden Oil of ANWR – it’s over!

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oil in ANWR

Hey Folks,

By now, you’ve all heard the rumors, I’m sure. How the massive oil fields, despoiling the pristine earth lying deep beneath the frozen, barren tundra of the lonely coastal plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (known by its acronym ANWR), could save our planet. How, if only those whacko enviro-freaks, who are bent on ruining the lives of countless hard-working patriotic Americans, have consistently and ruthlessly undertaken to bully the American Congress and the oil industry into submission, and not allow the oil and natural gas that is currently being wasted underground to be extracted and delivered to gas stations across America.

I’m sure you’ve read the facts, and seen how, if the estimated 10 billion barrels of ANWR oil could be drilled and refined, gasoline prices at the pump would plummet; but not just the gas prices, Continue reading →

Bull MuskOx photo, arctic coastal plain, Alaska

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Bull MuskOx, arctic coastal plain, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

So I just got back in from a nice long trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I drove up to Fairbanks, picked up Bob and Erika, a lovely couple from Florida, and we headed on up the Dalton Highway, almost to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay, where we met our pilot, picked up a raft, and flew in to the headwaters of the Upper Marsh Fork of the Canning River.

It was quite an adventure, an their first time in the Refuge, so we all had a great time. I’ll tell you some more about it over the next week. Before we flew in though, we were told about a small herd of MuskOx just north of us, on the Sag river. With some time to kill, and gigabytes on the memory cards, we figured we’d go take some pictures. Continue reading →

Long-Tailed Jaeger, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

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Long-tailed Jaeger, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

hey Folks,

I just got back in from a long and really cool trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – awesome place! This is a photo of a Long-tailed Jaeger, sitting on a small mound on the coastal plain, taken around 1:00am; gotta love that summer arctic thing!

I’ve got about a million things to do, so this is just a quick short post – but do stay tuned. I have some ground-breaking stuff here, new, never before taken photos from the Refuge, and some discussion that will likely amaze a number of readers – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a topical place right now, with the oil prices, and all, and I’m sure you’ll find some of my findings very interesting, maybe a little disturbing (or disturbed), and even surprising.

Cheers

Carl

Hubbard Glacier calving photos, Gilbert Point, Russell Fjord, Alaska

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The Hubbard Glacier calving, Gilbert Point, Russell Fjord, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Mark knows his stuff. I’d never have got this photo of the Hubbard Glacier calving without his knowledge. He looked at the wall and said ‘that’s gunna go, soon’ .. so we waited. And sure enough, a few small pieces of ice started to fall. I shot a bit, and few more started to fall. I shot a bit more.

Thinking ‘that was cool’, I started to ease up.

Mark says “get ready”. I’m smart enough to know he knows what’s up, so I get ready; seconds later this huge wall lets go. This wall is approx 150′ high. To witness such a blast was amazing. I got some nice shots of the wall falling, then the camera lost focus in the splash – the autofocus just couldn’t grab onto anything, and I was too useless to do anything about it. Continue reading →