Views from the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center

Before one enters the tunnel going to Whittier, there is the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center.  This visitor center is named after 2 politicians who were lost in an airplane crash in Alaska back in the 1970s.    Thomas Hale Boggs was a Democratic US House Representative from Louisiana and Nick Begich was a Democratic US House Representative from Alaska.  Their plane was never found.

 

This is a view from a viewpoint near the visitor center.  You can see a glacier in this view – many glaciers in Alaska – way more than I ever thought!

 

I did not think I’d see icebergs like this once we left Antarctica, back in 2009!  However, here was a very large one, just floating in the lake just outside the visitor center.  An interesting fact about icebergs – the ice area that is blue, is very, very old.  The older the ice is, the closer it gets to being transparent.  The last color that it is before becoming transparent is blue.

 

I had to include a close up of the iceberg.  I just love the ultra-blue color.  It looks so clean and fresh.

 

I included this image to give you an idea of how large things are – the mountain and the glacier.  Just check out the people at the bottom of the image!

Enjoy!