While staying in the Whittier area, we took a day trip on a
train operated by the Alaska Railroad, to see some glaciers and views that you
can’t see from the road. It was a fun
day, with some very cool sights…
Here it is, coming into the station! One cool thing about this train in particular
is that the conductor on the train is a guy that we’ve seen on a cable TV show
called “Railroad Alaska”! He seemed
quite pleased that I recognized him…..altho it was really Jeff who recognized
him – I just had the nerve to go up and talk to him!
The image above and below are 2 of the glaciers that we saw
on this trip. The above glacier is
called Spencer Glacier, and was called a “step glacier”. If you look at how the glacier is flowing
down (center of image), you’ll see what seem to be some peaks as the glacier
has moved/grown downward. Those are the
steps. In the image below, the Trail Glacier
has a dark streak running thru it. That
streak is a moraine, of some natural occurring debris in the glacier that has
risen to the top of the glacier and appears as a sort of trail down it. I thought it was kind of cool.
Isn’t this guy cool?
As we moved along, this eagle sat perched on a dead tree (a favorite
perch for eagles apparently), surveying his domain. I really liked this image, because he’s in
his natural environment, and truly looks majestic. He was close to his nest, where there was an
eaglet (I think that’s what a young eagle is called), so I think he was in
protection mode. I was also very lucky
to get this shot, as we were in a moving train, and I was shooting thru a
window, not generally conducive to a good image!
Another animal we were lucky enough to see was this black
bear. I applied a painting type effect
to it, to make him appear a bit more like he did in reality. He was moving, as were we, so this was the
best it could be. Still, I like it as a
painting.
One of the neat things about this train ride was the series
of tunnels we went thru. What made it a
bit different was that the tunnels were so close together. This image captured that – we were coming out
of one tunnel and would be entering and exiting another is just a few seconds.
This image is of a waterfall called Snow White Falls. It got its name from the fact that there are
7 waterfalls make up this one waterfall.
What struck me about this waterfall is that it really sort of
illustrates the vastness of the truly wild part of Alaska. This is a waterfall that is invisible to you
if you are driving in a car. I couldn’t
help but think about all the beauty that is out there that is invisible to just
about everyone, except those intrepid explorers.
And, finally, one last image from the back window of the
train. A lovely day indeed!
Enjoy!
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