Alaska images keep me out of darkness

We are in the throes of winter now with our daylight winding down each day as we approach the winter’s Solstice. The snow has arrived and the winter storms are now lining up along the Aleutians and heading in one after another. The interior has dropped well below zero now and the night sky can be lit up with the always vibrant colors of the Aurora.

For many Alaskans the images of Alaska are embedded deeply within our Alaskan consciousness. It does not matter what time of year as we have seen first hand images of sentinel pine trees frozen in time. The sight of our native people gathered together on the beach harvesting a whale for their subsistence lifestyle; of glaciers with a majestic azure blanketing the peripherals with giant walls of white. The huskies hopping through a snow drift glad to be pulling a sled through snow now and not a four-wheeler across the tundra, the tips of their fur crystallized and glistening.

We need these reminders now as the day is done just after three o’clock and everyone moves into the long hours of darkness. As time seems to slow for some the winter activities ramp up with snow machines loaded on trailers heading out into the snow covered wilds for endless adventure. Anchorage ponds are now frozen and the city clears the way for skating and hockey so those so inclined may still have fun within the “city of lights.”

What is authentic Alaska? Are they the many icons associated with living in the Last Frontier or merely the proverbial tip of the iceberg in our search for something out of the ordinary?

Is it the Bald eagles who flirt with the treetops, swooping through the air on crisp cushions wings swept back, their eyes afire with life and the search for their next salmon? Our abundant natural glaciers don't just protect the shorelines as they reach out and embrace the waters, merging with the sea in a million different angles, each one ablaze with the sun's shimmering touch a blue not seen in ice cubes in your drink glass.

For those who travel the state . . . around every bend, Alaska unleashes the kind of beauty that will remain vivid in your memory for years to come. I am still in awe in the immense size and landscape found in Alaska as I travel off the road system into the untamed ‘bush’ country where there are still places modern man has not set foot. Bush planes carry you to places not on any map where you may fish in the purest waters on earth. It can be experienced from the calm waters that hug its striking coastline on cruise ships which for many who travel here provide the vacation essentials, luxurious rooms, scrumptious dining, relaxing spas, and first-class entertainment. Alaska provides the scenery while picturesque villages bursting with culture slowly pass by with humpback whales swimming alongside, dense forestland and mountains rising from the waters edge engulfing the distance.

These are the images I recall to help ease through the darkness until the time comes and we head back into the light and those long summer days.

The three below zero outside does not sting so much right now as my mind is in another place. Living Life in Technicolor sometimes may mean enduring a time in the whiteness of snow and the absence of light but for me it is a time still filled with Living Color.

Ice