northern light
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Snæfellsness
While there are only four days left before Isabelle and Emile go back, VivaLaVida hits the road to the touristic Snæfellsness peninsula and its various natural attractions.
1. Lava flows in the ocean.
2. Recent volcanic geology…
3. … interspersed with a few small fjords.
4. The famous Kirkjufell mountain, so photographed but invaded by mass tourism. I chose a different perspective, not doing the same as everyone else… 😉
5. To escape the crowd, VivaLaVida climbs to the Snæfellsjökull ice cap for the night.
6. Camp at the crossroads of two deserted trails. Do you see VLV all the way down? 😀
7. Wind clouds while many snowfields persist even if we are only about 2,000 feet above sea level.
8. The next morning, the cap is hidden in the clouds, to the chagrin of Isabelle.
9. But the surroundings are worth seeing…
10. … and the view of the beach, 1,800 feet lower under the clouds, is beautiful.
11. Peninsula South coast.
12. Another highly visited spot, the lava cliffs of Londrangar.
13. The cute little church of Búdir.
14. From the South Coast Road.
15. Stop near a spectacular wall of basalt columns.
16. These pillars, which have a penta- and hexagonal shape of approx. 3-5 feet in diameter, are between 20 and 60 feet high for their visible part.
17. We walk to a pretty little church nestled at the bottom of a crater.
18. Wild camp at the edge of a small river…
19. At 23:00, while I go out to do some natural needs, surprise, I discover a sky adorned with Northern lights…
20. … as much in the Northeast as in the Southeast.
21. I hurry up to get camera and tripod. First of limited intensity, aurora intensifies while I frame VLV in the field.
22. Then without warning, in a few moments, it becomes incredibly intense!
23. Colorful purple fringes appear.
24. And the trails swirl at full speed throughout the sky.
25. Even with an ultra wide angle lens mounted, I can only encompass part of it…
26. I constantly shoot to immortalize this moment of intense contemplative emotion…
27. I feel so small under so much cosmic energy.
28. Then after a few minutes, the show calms down…
29. …
30. I had never been able to see a dawn so bright and dynamic aurora until then.
After more than two hours enjoying this beautiful surprise in the cold, frozen, I go back to bed and look forward to the heating in VivaLaVida…
Brooke Range and arctic tundra
We continue farer northward…
1. Nolan valley, a side valley accessible by a really muddy small mining road .
2. At this altitude, the marshes are still not frozen.
3. I found the Brooke Range that bars northern Alaska back.
4. We stop a few dozen miles after Coldfoot to go climbing one of the mountains beside the road.
5. While VivaLaVida begins to climb Antigun Pass, the atmosphere becomes wintry.
6. All is already frozen here…
7. … and it is already well below freezing in late afternoon.
8. As it’s already late, we find a nice boondocking site before Antigun Pass, approx. 4,000 feet elevation on the banks of a small river.
9. Despite the cold, I’m going to make some pictures while Mino is preparing the aperitif!
Temp will almost reach 10°F that night and VLV’s heater resume service after resting for a few months…
The next morning we cross the Antigun Pass and stop thirty miles down it to go hiking along a beautiful river.
10. The blizzard that blew here two days previously installed winter before autumn has arrived…
11. Despite a significant current, the banks of the river are well frozen. It was about -5F° in previous days…
12. I enjoy the clear light to play with ice concretions…
13. … sometimes contrasting and twisted…
14. … sometimes carved by running water below.
15. On a bank, we find wolf tracks. It happened here less than two days ago, the snow testifies it.
16. The show is sparkling as the river is freezing and carries plates of ice that break in crystal clear sound…
17. … and our eyes feast.
18. Continuing towards the far north, the landscape becomes truly arctic.
19. Blizzard designed the reliefs.
20. Not sure that the truck drivers who supply Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay are all aware of this beauty…
21. We leave VivaLaVida to walk on a side track…
22. Perfect lines of the wintry tundra…
23. We will not go to Deadhorse, the last part of the track is less interesting. We stop at the last foothills of the Norths Brooke Range…
24. … and even find a camp on the tundra. What a fantastic place to camp, isn’t it? 😀
25. The Sunset is beautiful again…
26. … the last rays coloring the hills…
27. … before a magic full moonrise.
28. And to complete this grandiose day, a northern light came to wish good night to VivaLaVida while the full moon was lighting up the tundra!
We began our descent back to the South the next day. To discover in the next update… 😉
Thanks again for your loyalty!
Richardson & Dalton Highways
Continuing our journey northward, we cross the Alaska Range covered with fresh snow.
1. Exploring a side valley, not far from our camp.
2. The Richardson Highway passes through high mountains with difficult access.
3. Scree dusted with snow…
4. North slope of Alaska Range.
5. In the kitchen, we don’t let go: wild salmon with dill on a bed of spinach, all cooked over our campfire, hummm… 😉
6. After the show of the previous day, we watch the sky and a new northern light appears with the last light of the Sunset still pointing north…
7. We spend almost three hours outside despite a tempestuous wind and biting cold!
8. Paintings are constantly changing…
9. … sometimes very soft…
10. … sometimes very intense.
11. Sometimes the aurora crosses the sky with a truly amazing intensity, almost comparable to that of the moon.
12. We are almost hypnotized by the show…
13. … and the grandiose beauty.
14. After going late to bed, we entered the Dalton Highway the next day. The atmosphere was completely different than during my first visit, I feel like discovering other landscapes…
15. Here too the recent snow still covers the hills.
16. Taiga has completely changed color with warm tones adorning.
17. A picture of Grayling Lake I made during my first visit. If you want, you can compare: it’s the image # 17 ! 😉
18. VivaLaVida on the Dalton Highway.
19. Between the orange-red willows and bright yellow aspen and birch, the colors are incredibly saturated…
20. … and snow further strengthens those.
To be followed soon…
Central Alaska
I’m back after a few days of silence due to a lack of network.
Initially, Mino should leave from Seattle. However, to take advantage of the fall in Alaska, at our last update, we were waiting for a confirmation on the ability to change her return flight to leave from Anchorage. The response was positive and, at the time you’ll discover this update, Mino will be on the plane bringing her back the Switzerland…
As soon as we got the answer, a favorable weather forecast decided us to move north along the Dalton Highway I had already traveled six weeks before. We hoped to discover the fall colors on the tundra and to hike in Brooke Range. We then headed to the Glenn Highway to Glennallen and after a first night at a hundred miles from Anchorage, we woke up enjoying the first snow fall on the surrounding mountains.
1. Matanuska River in ther morning.
2. They are still many clouds on the mountains.
3. The first frosts begin to color the trees.
4. We pass near the huge Matanuska Glacier.
5. Clouds plays…
6. Some hills are really colorfull.
7. With such a nice weather, we decided to go hiking and discovered a small altitude lake.
8. The first snow of the season inspires Mino…
9. … who signs its passage ephemerally… 😀
10. … while for my part, I play with the contrast between the snow and the “willows” colored with their characteristic orange-red fall color.
11. As and when we climb, the view extends over the surrounding valleys.
12. The horizon is so wide…
13. Souvenir picture…
14. After nearly three hours to make our way uphill in the tundra, a break is welcome under a beautiful sky of cirrus.
15. A river that flows from one icefield, more than 40 miles away..!
16. From above, tundra reveals so many small lakes and marshes…
17. The contrast between the warm tones of the autumn tundra and the white snow is beautiful.
18. We enjoy some of the thousands of blueberries that are everywhere.
19. This mix of colors is so beautiful that I would stay there longer and longer…
20. Other lakes as we descend…
21. It’s getting late, shadows contrasted the opposite side of the valley…
22. Continuing the road, I took a foot bath to take this image in a flooded marsh in beautiful sunset light.
23. Vivalavida goes north. In the distance, Mount Drum, another volcano from the large fault extending from the Aleutian Islands to Mexico, and the huge dome of Mount Jarvis.
24. We find a nice camp site near Paxson.
25. And while I’m about to go to bed, surprise: a powerful northern light lights the sky up!
26. This is the first that I have the opportunity to see, what a sublime spectacle… I will lie down only at 2am that night… 😉
The following will take in the far north where we had a small preview of the new winter to come … Coming soon here. 😀
D5 Creation