Gallery, Alaska

In 2000, we took a trip to Alaska. We found a company, TransArctic Circle Treks (www.arctictreks.com or www.glacierblue.com, arctictd@ptialaska.net), that I can highly, highly recommend! They organized tours for us through Denali and a glacier tour as well as guiding a tour along the Dalton highway to the Arctic Circle, to Coldfoot (the northernmost truck stop in the world), to Prudoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean! All for a surprisingly inexpensive price! Again, highly recommended!

The state is three times the size of Texas. We crossed the Yukon river, crossed the Arctic Circle and went higher than anywhere in Scandinavia. The Arctic Ocean is very cold (gosh, surprising!) and very non-salty. Yes the sun stays up at night (we went during the summer solstice), making ellipses in the sky. Our guide was Kim Killion, very knowledgeable and passionate about Alaska. If you take a tour with TransArctic Circle Treks, ask Terry when she's available to be a guide.

Dall sheep at Denali park	Grizzly at Denali park	Touching the Alaska pipeline	At the Arctic Circle	Had to ham it up at the Arctic Circle	Finally made it to Coldfoot, Alaska!
What happens when permafrost melts? Buildings sink!	At the Brooks range; this is the "other" continental divide, between the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans	Wow! 'Nuff said.	Standing in the Arctic Ocean! If you taste the water, it is not salty, but there is a lot of silt	The midnight sun	The midnight sun at 2am
Milepost sign from Prudoe Bay to everywhere	The start of the Alaska pipeline -- milepost 0	Please don't stand on the pipeline!	Map of the Alaska pipeline	Glacier becoming icebergs; the deep blue is very old ice	Yeah, smiles, but it was still disconcerting to hear mini-icebergs banging on the hull of the boat ...
More glaciers	Iceberg with striations