Klondike Country

This was the place at the heart of the famed “Klondike” gold rush in 1896, and is still filled with remnants from that rich history.  Along the ‘Top of the World Highway’, 200 miles along a mountaintop from Dawson City, Yukon to Tok, Alaska, the artifacts are as plentiful as the amazing auroras.  I also spent some time bushwhacking through Tombstone Territorial, and another trip back there is high on my list.

Choose your own adventure!  Finally got to see some of those elusive purple auroras.  Had to shoot this sign dark, otherwise you’d be able to read all the dumb chicken related town names, found in Chicken, Ak of course..

I found this curious Grey Jay, aka. Whiskey Jack aka. Canadian Jay, along the Top of the World Highway.  She even came in for a landing, had me feeling like Snow White.

An enormous gold dredge beached in Chicken.

Tombstone Territorial Park has some of the most impressive mountains I’ve come across. Unfortunately circumstances and time restraints stopped me from exploring around here as much as I’d like, but that’s for another time I suppose.

I loved the little line of autumn following a tiny stream down the mountain, though bushwhacking through alders is the pits.  About 10 miles, I ran into a grizzly.  Part of me would have rather been eaten than find my way back through this devilish undergrowth.

These are tailings, the raw earth dumped out the dredge after its done its thing refining out the gold.

They stretched on for miles!

Another gold dredge, and why preservation of historical structures is important.

 

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Hatcher Pass, AK in Autumn

Amazing how much a few months can change a place.  This is the same mountain pass from the previous post.  Definitely a different feel from when its not encased in 10 feet of snow, and made for a much more enjoyable hiking.

Not sure where the pooch came from, but it was nice to have some company for bit til she trotted off down the mountain.

I found her people but she went off exploring the mountain on her own.  I need a mountain dog…

This guy’s got alpine travel figured out.  I think when my knee finally goes I’m gonna go this route.

Sketchy crossings,  no problem for the slow and steady…

Autumn found in pockets amongst the pine.  There were also entire mountainsides which were a blanket of yellow birch and spruce.

I’d been on the road for a week at this point, and hadn’t found a shower in awhile.  This is me, debating whether to brave the cold and take a bath in this lovely little alpine lake… Frigid but completely worth it.

Nice little ptarmigan, funny little birds and not in the least bit shy.

Random Roadtripping Pt. 1

I’m going to be playing catchup with the next few posts.  Finally got around to working a bunch of images from some wandering around I did last year, I just kept on traveling and was so busy shooting I never found time to work the backlog.  

 A foggy night at the Umpqua Lighthouse, Oregon

 An old dancehall in an abandoned amusement park, Central PA

 A few from Crater Lake, OR

 Many forest fires raging through SW Washington

 Lighting flashes as the clouds open up an isolated rainstorm

 Crop burns and hundred of geese coming in for a landing

 High atop the Columbia River Valley, OR

 Striated land shows just how series the drought has become in Southern California

 My buddy Banks perched atop Sequoia’s infamous Mono Rock

 The ascent up Mono Rock

 Just down the other side of the Sierra’s are the strange tufa formations of Mono Lake

 QueensBridge’s Finest

My favorite barn in the Palouse, WA

Glacial Trekking

A collection of images taken from glaciers all over Iceland.  The majority are from the Vatnajökull area (including Breidamerkur, Svinafell and Skaftafell), but I also explored around Myrdals, Snæfells and Eyjafjallajökull.  

 

Ice Cave Collection

Definitely some of the most trecherous terrain I’ve ever braved to get the shot, but well worth it!  Such surreal experience wandering around these shifting, swirling caves to the heart of the glaciers.  Below is a collection from inside 7

Mossy Lava Fields of the Eldhraun

From the moss covered lava fields in the Eldhraun area in Iceland, also some from the western peninsula near Breidabólsstadur.  A land carpeted in clouds and green pillows, air hisses as it escapes the moss underfoot.  This was one of the most fun and fantastic landscapes I’ve ever encountered.