Childs Glacier

Childs Glacier ~ Chugach National Forest
Cordova, Alaska

Child's Glacier is the only actively calving glacier
on the Alaskan road system.

The perfect place to get comfortable, brew a pot
of coffee and spend the day.

The last few years have seen steady, spectacular
calving of ice from the glacier.

The Coast Guard on a training flight ~ It was very cool
to see them flying so low!

Childs Glacier is over 300 feet tall~!

Bears

One of the most exciting things to do in Cordova is bear watching ~

Dawn or dusk, morning or night ~ everyone has an idea of  when they're most active....

As summer comes to a close, the bears spend their days fishing...

looking for a quiet spot to munch on their catch ~

Momma bears teaching their babies....

and keeping a close watch ~

Daddy bears stay close by....

squabbling over fishing rights ~

Winter days are coming to a close... spring is on it's way and the bears will be out to play again soon!

Northern Lights

The northern lights are making a modest showing this first week of February.

The moon is just a sliver and had already set.... not very much light to shoot by.

A little red showing here!

Many hours are spent watching a quiet glow like this one, waiting for the action.

The forecasters say this year the northern lights will be building ~ lots of

late-night roaming around coming up!

IceWorm 2011

This year was the 51st Annual Cordova IceWorm Festival. Held the first weekend in February it helps to brighten the long dark winter days. Cordova celebrates with sunshine this year!

The Survival Suit Race is a chilly tradition in the annual IceWorm Festival. The sun peeked over the mountain top and lit up the harbor just as the contest began.  The air temperature was 25... I don't know about the water, but there was some ice skimming the surface on the other side of this float ~ brrrr. 4 team members race to don their survival suits then swim to the raft.

This team was the first to score big on the extra "style" points with their elegant back flip entry!

And so it goes... each participant gets a good practice run in their life-saving survival suits.

Barb Beedle, Grand Marshall and Martin Moe, Citizen of the Year lead this years IceWorm Parade.

The Girl Scouts & Boy Scouts join in the fun

Folks from the US Forest Service bring the railroad back to life!

Miss IceWorm & her Court leave the evening gowns at home for this ride on the Fire Truck

Cordova's Fabulous Volunteer Fire Department

The IceWorm, powered by the legs of our energetic kids ~ escorted by our faithful Keystone Cops

An awesome fireworks display for the finale of IceWorm Festival 2011 ~!!

Mile 93

Seward Highway, Alaska

An early morning drive Anchorage to Whittier ~ another ferry ride back to Cordova. A five mile avalanche danger area begins at mile 90.... but it was too beautiful not to stop! I jumped out of the truck and snapped this photo in a hurry ~ rushing because of the avalanche warning ~ but also because I was running late to catch the once an hour tunnel opening into Whittier. Miss the tunnel = miss the ferry, not a good thing!

The ferry ride from Whittier to Cordova takes 3 hours on our "fast ferry" the Chenega... unless it's routed through Valdez... today it was a 6 hour journey.

Ferry dock

Valdez, Alaska





Turnagain Arm

Mile 88 Seward Highway, Alaska

I drive the Seward Highway from Whittier to Anchorage twice a month to bring back supplies for my store, Laura's. Today was a spectacular drive, even though the roads were very slushy. Right after I took this photo a car flipped over on the highway, landing wheels up in the ditch ~ traffic slowed way down after that! Happy to say no one got hurt, the driver was impatiently waving away everyone who stopped to lend a hand, the car with the flashing red & blue lights refused to leave....





Did the Groundhog see his shadow today? I’m not too worried about it since I’m still celebrating Christmas…  February is a great month to finally get those cards in the mail!

I’ll think about the Groundhog  somewhere around Memorial Day, especially if the snow is still falling in Cordova!  Skating right past Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, I'll slide into April with my favorite holiday season ~ Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter. Who really needs more holidays to celebrate after that?

Yup, winter Cordova style.... winds at least 70 mph.

A good day & night to stay inside and learn how to set

up a blog!