Welcome to Miki's World

Miki really loved this campground, mainly due to the beach!  Let’s take a look at things she got to enjoy –

 

 

When we first got here, she just sat on the bluff to keep us company and just sort of survey her domain for the next couple of days.  Can you blame her for just soaking this in?

 

Along the little bluff from the campsite to the beach, these lovely pink flowers were blooming.  She would run thru them to get from the bluff to the beach and back again.  Ahhh….a dog’s life!

 

Ravens were plentiful here, altho not one of Miki’s favorite neighbors.  Why?  Because if she left any food kernels in her bowl, the ravens would swoop down and take Miki’s left overs!  I found them really cool, and decided to convert this image to black and white, to sort of match the personality of the bird.

 

What a great portrait of Miki on the beach, waiting patiently for her dad to throw her stick into the water so she could take a swim and play catch!

Enjoy!

Sunrise on the Lake

The last time around, I was excited about the moody sunrise.  This time, I was excited because it was not!  It was glorious instead.

 

 

This was the view you’d see the moment you would step out of our RV.  In a hotel, there’s no telling how much you’d spend for this view – our campsite was $25!  A bargain price for a million dollar view!

 

Look at this view!!  The sky was just so big and beautiful, it took my breath away!  I love mountains and sky, and this campsite delivers both……plus a lake!

 

Here’s a sunny yet moody view of the sunrise here.  I really love that canoe on the beach.  Since it was here last time as well, we sort of figure that it sort of belongs to the campground.  I thought this would make a pretty cool photo painting, so I converted it!

Enjoy!

On the Way to Kennicott, Alaska

One day, we decided to check out the small historic town of Kennicott, Alaska.  There is a copper mill/mine there.  It was closed down in 1938, and time has sort of ground to a stop since then.  There is some restoration going on there, but it’s not all rebuilt.  Also, as an interesting side note – the town is spelled Kennicott, but the mill is spelled Kennecott.  The owner of the copper mill was named Kennecott, but when the town was registered, it was accidentally misspelled as Kennicott.  Rather than go thru the trouble to get the spelling corrected, they left is as is!  But, for now, let’s take a look at the road to Kennicott.  It’s 60 miles of a very, very rough dirt road!

 

This gives you an idea of what you’ve got in store for you right at the beginning of the drive!  It’s a one lane slot cut into the rock, and is just wide enough for 1 vehicle to fit in it at a time!  Originally, I believe this was created for the railroad to pass thru, but the railroad is, for the most part, gone, with just some sections of track remaining.

 

Isn’t this a great view?  It’s the Kuskulana Bridge, built in 1910.  It spans 525 feet, and is 238 feet high.  This bridge has been restored so that it’s now safe for cars to travel on it.  However, don’t try to walk on it – it’s only wide enough for 1 vehicle, and 238 feet is a long way to fall!

 

I just love the rusty look to this entrance to the Kennecott (mine spelling).  The rust is natural, I’m fairly certain, and I love the look!

 

One of the first things I saw walking down main street Kennicott was this cool little bird house – or at least it has the front façade of a birdhouse!  If you look closely thru the “door”, you can see thru the back to the trees.  I guess the tree itself provides the back of the house – or most of the back.  I just love the feel of this image, tho – very natural.

 

Jeff & I thought this little bloom reminded us of the movie “Wall-E” where the green plant is growing out of an old shoe.  No old shoe here, but a very rusty container of sorts with rusty steel cables or something around it!

Enjoy!

Welcome to Kennicott

At the end of a very long, very rough dirt road, lies the town of Kennicott.  There are some very cool buildings in various states of disrepair – take a look!

 

Now, I now live in a small town, but Kennicott is absolutely tiny by comparison to my little home town in New Mexico!  Kennicott does not have any water wells or amenities of any sort.  However, Alaskans are a hearty group – thanks to generators, the town does have toilets with indoor plumbing, electric lights, etc.!  However, the town in dependent on a stream that runs thru the area for the water that they use.  It’s a charming little town – however, I would not want to arrive back from a trip (perhaps 1 LONG day or overnight) to find that I forgot one ingredient I needed for dinner!  My creativity would be put to totally new uses!!

 

I would have totally missed this if not for Jeff.  These are the old water pipes that were used for the copper mill/mine and town.  The interesting thing about these pipes is that they are made of wood!  They are wrapped with steel cables – I guess to keep them together.  I know this isn’t a cool photo for photographic purposes, but the makeup of the pipes warranted a posting.

 

I’m not certain, but I think this was probably some sort of residence for the workers in the copper mill/mine.  I really like the impression of a somewhat wavy foundation – and actually, it probably wasn’t an impression.  Back in 1936, there was a huge flood that runs by this building (it’s actually in the forefront of this image, but out of sight) and covered quite a bit of it.

 

There is work being done to reconstruct much of the copper mill/mine area of Kennicott; however, it’s a slow process and this building has most definitely not been rebuilt yet!  I do love the look of the worn wood and the inadvertent sky lights!

 

This is a house on the other side of the stream that I mentioned above.  This one will make another appearance is some creative digital collages that I did, but for right now, enjoy it in “reality”.  I love the tone of the wood, tilt of the windows and the front porch and “deck” on the side of it.

 

This is the stream that I mentioned a couple of times in this posting.  It looks rather peaceful now, doesn’t it?  I really liked the gentleness of this image and decided to convert it into a photo painting.

Enjoy!

Windows of Kennicott

As you all know, I love deserted cabins.  There were plenty of uninhabited buildings in Kennicott, and many, many cool windows!  I decided to have some fun with the window images and used them as the basis for a few digital collages.

 

 

I imagined a family that lived in the building this window belongs to.  I love the wistfulness of this image - a sort of forgotten family history....

 

 

This is a building you've seen in a previous posting for Kennicott.  I call this one "Nobody Home" - at least nobody who is with us in physical form.  However, there are many who are with us in spirit - and here are 3 that I imagine may have lived in this house.  Imagination is a wonderful thing!

 

 

I really loved the old wood surrounding this window, and somehow just saw this gentle soul looking up from reading her book to gaze out at us.  Her refined elegance is a lovely counterpoint to the rough and falling apart exterior.

 

Enjoy!

Moraine Landscapes

There was a moraine in Kennicott that was really sort of surreal.  Just to let you know, I did not do anything special or different to the following images – this is truly the way it looked!

 

The moraine is the brown area in the foreground of the image.  It is basically dirt and debris from the glacier that has made its way to the surface.  Underneath the brown is the white snow/ice of the glacier.  I found the moraine to look sort of like a painting, even in reality!

 

I love the partial shell of an old building in the foreground of this image.  There’s an interesting layer of texture – the rough of the building, smoother greenery, then the ruggedness of the moraine, then the rolling smooth surface of the pine trees in the foothills of the mountains, and then, finally, the rough mountain tops.

 

Finally, I like this image for putting things into perspective.  Imagine living in a town that not only looks out toward the mountains, but has a glacier in between!  You can actually see some of the glacial snow in patches toward the back of the moraine.

Enjoy!

 

Kennecott Copper Mine/Mill

The Kennecott Copper Mill is really quite impressive.  Keep in mind that when it was first built, there were no roads to the mine – and even now, the only road is an extremely rough dirt road.  So, a method of transporting all building materials on a new railroad and road that they had to build first!  Really, it’s kind of mind-boggling when one thinks about it.  But, while you ponder that, take a look at the mill and supporting buildings – some have been restored, others not yet.

 

This is the mill – a 3 story building that had a definite method to the design!  The copper comes into the mill at the top and then is slowly separated from the limestone that it’s found in – larger chunks taken out in the second tier and then the smallest granules are isolated in the 3^rd and final tier.  They spent quite a bit of effort to have the copper be as pure as possible because the cost to transport materials via the railroad was very high, and they only wanted to transport what would bring in the revenue! 

 

Here’s a side view of the lowest tier (in front) and other tiers behind them.  You can see how the foundation has been shorn up – check out the log type structure in the lower left corner of this image.  The thing I love best about this image is the texture of the wood on this building, tho!

 

I also loved all the windows in this mill.  In today’s world, mills would probably have very few windows – of course, today’s buildings have much better ventilation and lighting, so they probably need fewer windows!

 

This is an image of the rebuilt old powerhouse of the mill.  This is actually a restoration of the second powerhouse.  The first powerhouse burned to the ground in 1924, and a temporary powerhouse was rebuilt in just 11 days!  Again, keep in mind the difficulty in transporting supplies and building materials – amazing isn’t quite an accurate enough adjective to use!

 

I almost missed this while wandering the old copper mill.  It’s a chute that was used to get some of the copper that was harvested in the upper tiers of the mill down to the railroad cars.  You can see the wood of the infrastructure and the rails that the cars on the chute would ride on.  I sort of love this image of some semi-forgotten history.

This last image is of the very bottom of the mill where the railroad cars would be loaded with the copper – either larger chunks or small granules.  If you look at the first image in this post, the area that is in the lower left corner leads to this area.  The railroad tracks are still visible, as you can see in this image.

Enjoy!