A Beautiful Day For Snow

Sometimes when it snows, it's a gray day and it's snowing. Other times, it's a brighter day, snow comes down hard, and then the sun comes out to highlight all the trees with their newly fallen snow. This was one of THOSE days, and thankfully I had my camera with me! I don't think these photos need any other explanation... so... enjoy!



The view from the upper air building (where we launch weather balloons).

'Til next time...

First Snowshoe Adventure of the Season and Snowflakes!

I was itching to go snowshoeing, but didn’t know where some great trails would be.  I don’t know why I thought we needed trails, but we ended up going to the Coastal Trail and snowshoeing for awhile on there. It was neat to see the trail for the first time in the winter… I’m so used to seeing it in the summer when I bike along it! It’s been a cold winter already, and sea ice chunks are building up as one of the highest tide differentials in the world continues day after day.  It’s pretty neat to see these huge chunks of ice and silt out there just piled up.  It looks like a natural disaster has occurred!  It’s definitely natural, but not a disaster at all (although… these ice chunks can be quite dangerous for many coastal communities, especially on the northwest part of Alaska when unusually strong storms or high tides bring the ice on shore. Thankfully that doesn’t happen all that often!).



That's Mount Susitna (also called Sleeping Lady) in the background.



Part of the Coastal Trail



The Chugach Mountains sure do make a nice backdrop for our humble city!

I decided to go for a drive along Turnagain Arm today after snowshoeing on the Coastal Trail. I got a few photos of Turnagain Arm, but it was flurrying.  Not that flurries are bad… they’re just distracting because they’re so beautiful when they’re dendrites and plates! At one of the pull-outs, I stood there photographing all kinds of snowflakes on my car windows for probably close to an hour and a half.  At one point, the people in the car next to me (who had taken in the view and then were sitting in their car for a few minutes before leaving) put their window down and asked if I locked my keys in my car.  “Uh… no… I’m just photographing snowflakes… don’t mind me!”  He said, “I was wondering what you were doing there!”  Haha, yes, it’s true.  I’m not going to lie… it was hard to tear myself away!  The flakes just kept falling gently and I’d see a new one and just HAVE to photograph it as well.  Anyway, enough chatter… enjoy the photos!

Ok, NOW you can see some snowflakes.  I hope they were worth the wait!

I hope they were worth the wait!!  'Til next time...