The village of Ketchikan, southernmost sizable town in Alaska.


Saxman Native Village, south of Ketchikan. You can see the spirits.


First Skagway, and then Juneau, which is the largest city south of Anchorage and the most legislatively important. The capital is only still here because it would cost too much to move it northward; there may be a highway tunnel coming soon, the first outside access to Juneau other than by ship or plane.


Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau's own, and the ice in its glacial pond. There are even tasty glacial ice cubes floating in the water.


The beautiful Inside Passage, calm waters that are host to all the traditional Alaskan wildlife, including sea otters, orcas, humpback whales, bald eagles, and various types of salmon and seabirds. Also host to four cruise ships a week.


Entering Glacier Bay.


Two of the three impressive glaciers in Glacier Bay, John Hopkins and Lamplugh.


Margerie Glacier, at the very end of Glacier Bay, is a very active one. If you look closely toward the left of the second photo, you can see the glacier calving.


College Fjord, in which there are over 20 glaciers all named for universities - women's on one side, men's on the other. There are more women's glaciers, but the men's are bigger, including the two biggest, Harvard (to the left in the photo) and Yale (to the right). Man, those two schools are competitive. They were all named by the same explorer, though.


The Coastal Range, home of several near-10,000-foot mountains, a fairly young range too along the volatile Pacific Rim that is known in Japan for being a hotbed of volcanic activity (see Mount St. Helens below; the Cascade Range is also part of the rim).


Mount McKinley makes a rare cloudless appearance. The only good view of the mountain is to the south on Alaska Highway 3, and only early in the morning can it be seen clearly before clouds set in. For perspective, the little peak on the western ridge is taller than any mountain in the contiguous U.S. (over 15,000 feet). Denali (the new politically correct name) is almost 21,000 feet at the taller of its two peaks.

Alaska Roads
White Pass and Yukon Railroad
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