Photo of the aurora borealis over the Wrangell Mountains and Copper River, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks
Shoot Your Passion
…
If you don’t, who will?
Cheers
Carl
The Copper River, fall colors, Mt Sanford and Mt Drum, near Simpson Hill Overlook, Glennallen. Copper River Basin, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
A view from just near the Simpson Hill Overlook, near Glennallen. The mountains here are (from left) Mount Sanford and Mount Drum. Mount Sanford is over 4 000′ the higher of the 2, but because it’s further away, looks to be shorter here. Mt Drum sits about 25 miles away from the Copper River and Glennallen.
The fall colors here can be quite spectacular on a good year. This year was a little dull compared to most, but the Cottonwoods, even on a poor year, still glow in evening light.
The alpenglow on this particular evening was quite grand, and I, of course, pretty much missed photographing it. I have an uncanny knack for not being in the right place at the right time, and true to form, was down walking through the woods when the light hit its peak.
Maybe next year I’ll do better. I did find another really nice viewpoint to shoot one fall evening, so hopefully next year I’ll manage something more.
Cheers
Carl
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
Winter landscape of sunset over Mt. Wrangell and the Copper River Basin. Mount Wrangell, Mount Zanetti and snow covered boreal forest of the Copper River Basin, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click the image to view larger version.
Hey Folks,
“We had a remarkable sunset one day last November .. It was such a light as we could not have imagined a moment before, and the air also was so warm and serene that nothing was wanting to make a paradise of that meadow. When we reflected that this was not a solitary phenomenon, never to happen again, but that it would happen forever and ever an infinite number of evenings, and cheer and reassure the latest child that walked there, it was more glorious still.
The sun sets on some retired meadow, where no house is visible, with all the glory and splendor that it lavishes on cities, and, perchance, as it has never set before, …. so pure and bright a light, …. so softly and serenely bright, I thought I had never bathed in such a golden flood, without a ripple or murmur to it.” – Henry David Thoreau, “Walking”.
For those of you perhaps unfamiliar with this essay, my advice is to read it carefully; those who’ve read it previously will do well to re-read the piece; it’s a classic. Continue reading
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 Continue reading
Hey Folks
Here’s what fifty five thousand feet of mountains looks like. From right to left: Mount Drum (12 010′), Mount Wrangell (14 163′), Mount Zanetti (13 009′), and Mount Sanford (16 237′). This photo is from the northern edge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, overlooking the Copper River basin. The Wrangell mountains come to life as the sun sinks beneath the horizon. Here’s another photo I took of these mountains a year ago, from much further south and west.
Cheers
Carl