I have, on the mantle of my fireplace at home, a Matryoshka doll that my grandmother gave me when I was only four years old. She had bought it during her travels, wrapped it in her clothes, and brought it home to me.
Kroschel Wildlife Center delights visitors
ALASKA & THE TURNAGAIN ARM from BRILLIANT IMAGES on Vimeo.
Bagging the greatest lightshow on Earth
[by Todd Salat]
A brilliant moon illuminates fresh white snow on the Kenai Mountains in southcentral Alaska as multicolored auroras dance above Portage Lake on November 7, 2017, at 3:33 am. Photo by Todd Salat. “I hear the northern lights are going to shut off because we’re in the low of the solar cycle,” someone had told me a while back. This thought flashed through my mind as I stood bewildered by the aurora dancing directly over me last March in Alaska’s interior. Not one night, but five nights in a row, the nighttime sky erupted with wild, bizarre sheets of emerald white and crimson light rippling and following the turbulent whims of our magnetic field interacting with the solar wind. Science turned magical. It’s true that we are currently in what’s called solar minimum, the quieter phase in the approximate 11-year sunspot cycle. This means sunspots are low in number. Headline-grabbing explosions…
Alaska from Karisa Job on Vimeo.
Fish are the bonus
I’VE FISHED ATLANTIC SALMON IN RUSSIA, bonefish and permit in the Bahamas and Belize, and I’ve chased tarpon—for up to 30 days straight—while bumming around the Florida Keys.
A walk across Chichagof Island
The floatplane lifted off glassy water and I wiped a bit of vomit from my lip. I was about to trek across Chichagof Island, and nerves had gotten the best of me.
Whales, sea lions, and otters are the only traffic for Glacier Bay rangers
PARK RANGERS ARE ON EVERY CRUISE SHIP THAT TOURS GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK, but the massive ships don’t stop when they power into the bay, which means rangers have to board the boats while they’re still pushing through the water.
The importance of the Porcupine herd to the Gwich’in people
[by Charlie Swaney and Peter Mather | photos by Peter Mather]
AS I SIT WITH GWICH’IN HUNTER CHARLIE SWANEY UNDER A CLASSIC BLUE CAMPING TARP, A RAIN DRIZZLE SILENTLY DRUMS ALL AROUND US.
