We recommend that you don’t try this at home. Or anywhere, for that matter…but if you do, be safe and make a beautiful video! Cracked Ice, Kenai Lake, Alaska from Luc Mehl on Vimeo.
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Katmai’s Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
STEPPING OUT OF THE BUSH PLANE INTO THE VALLEY OF TEN THOUSAND SMOKES, my shoes sink into the ash and pumice. A cold breeze carrying the vague smell of sulfur stings my face as I scan the valley for signs of life, finding none.
Arctic Alaska’s mysterious stone walls HIKING ACROSS THE ARCTIC TUNDRA ONE RECENT YEAR, I happened upon an unusual array of rocks, unlike anything I’d seen in more than three decades of exploring Alaska’s diverse wildlands. Upon discovering the piled stones, two thoughts ashed through my mind. Who would build rock walls deep in the Brooks Range wilderness, many miles from any settlement? And why? I knew that during their nomadic days, the region’s Nunamiut Eskimos had in places built “stone guards,” called inuksuk, along caribou migration routes. Intended to mimic humans, the stone gures helped the Nunamiut steer caribou toward areas where the animals could be more easily harvested. But these rocky forms were totally different. Built along one edge of a wide valley bottom in the central Brooks Range, they had been shaped into walls, not widely spaced cairns. And those walls were far too low—from a few inches…
Don’t blink or you’ll miss it
THE HARSH ENVIRONMENT of the cold, windswept Aleutians keeps little foliage other than grasses from growing on the island of Adak, which is home to the westernmost city in the United States.
Don’t leave Alaska without drinking (at least some of) these beers
Tips for success from Mark Kelley
MARK KELLEY IS A JUNEAU-BASED PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER who has been shooting in Alaska for more than 40 years.
Alaska Earthquake Damage & Repairs from Alaska Aerial Media on Vimeo.
Capturing the spirit in the sky
A SHIMMER OF LIGHT FLICKERS OVER THE KOBUK RIVER AND THE CURVE OF THE BORNITE HILLS. Then another. As I gaze eastward, yellow-white tongues of fire rise from the horizon, accelerate in pulsing curtains that blaze overhead, shred and vanish, then form again.
