My 10 Favorite Shots of 2019

Here are my 10 favorite shots of 2019! Some I enjoy because they recorded a rare & fleeting moment, while others remind me of pleasant times spent in the mountains. They’re not in any particular order, except for number one. Enjoy!

1. Muldrow Glacier Ice Cave At Sunset

I planned to take an epic shot of Denali from a ridge across Muldrow Glacier on a backpacking trip in Denali National Park last August but I ran into trouble crossing the river on the west edge of the glacier. While hiking across the glacier, I stumbled upon this tunnel under the ice with a glowing blue ceiling. I realized the sun would shine directly through the entrance as it set, so I camped beside the tunnel and caught this shot of golden sunlight reflecting off the ice. Overnight, the ice stopped melting and the puddles inside became perfectly calm, but I was too cold and tired to emerge from my sleeping bag for a reflection shot.

2. Aurora Proposal

A client asked me to help him propose to his girlfriend under the aurora and capture her reaction in the moment. He wanted Rainbow Ridge in the background but that area was too cloudy when we arrived, so I had to find another scenic spot that wasn’t too windy. The aurora was incredibly active earlier in the night but by the time we made it to this spot the aurora was barely visible. As morning twilight was quickly approaching and time running out the aurora started to brighten enough for a picture, so I had them pose for a couple shots and gave the guy the cue to propose. As soon as he dropped to one knee, the sky instantly exploded, and she said “yes”. (Click here for aurora tour info.)

3. Delta Junction Visitor Center Rainbow

I chased this rainbow around Delta Junction for about an hour before sunset in early June, taking several shots of it over a few local landmarks. With sunset around midnight at the time and little traffic on the road I was able to stop in the middle of the Richardson Highway to line up this shot of the Visitor Center, which marks the end of the Alaska Highway. A few images of this rainbow are available in my online print store.

4. Harding Icefield Sunrise

I first hiked the Harding Icefield Trail in 2013 when I wasn’t as strong of a hiker or photographer. Last September I carried a big backpack full of gear up the trail and camped overnight at the top to catch the early morning light over the Harding Icefield and Exit Glacier. After a summer full of rugged off-trail hikes with high elevation gains, the trail seemed like an easy walk. Watching the sunrise from this spot was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve witnessed in Alaska, and it was difficult to pick a spot to photograph because there were so many options. If you enjoy hiking, I highly recommend this trail.

5. MacKeith Hut

A low snow year and warm summer temperatures exposed the ice on the upper Canwell Glacier by early July. I took advantage of the conditions and paid my first visit to the MacKeith Hut, which sits in an exposed location on the hillside above Canwell Glacier across from the pass to Gulkana Glacier. The hut is incredibly comfortable and the views are amazing in every direction. If I could figure out how to stock enough food here I’d never leave. See my MacKeith Hut post for more.

5. Canwell Glacier Snowshoer

Canwell Glacier is also one of my favorite places to visit in the winter. I took this shot in January on a snowshoe trek to the glacier with some friends, and I like how the blue ice and my friend’s red jacket stick out against the white snow. I also like how my friend’s tracks are the only marks in the snow, which is otherwise untouched. I hiked up a steep, snow-covered ridge of ice so I could get this aerial feel and capture the size of the ice cliff. (For tour info, click here.)

7. Eastern Alaska Range Vista

I visualized this 300mm selfie shot with me in front of McGinnis Peak (left) and Mount Moffit (right) in Google Earth before I took it, and I used a tripod with my camera set on an interval timer to take it. This shot wasn’t my main goal on this hike, but I thought I would try it out on my way down from Boulder Peak after catching the sunset and sunrise from high in the eastern Alaska Range. I ended up liking it quite a bit and wish I had chosen this spot for the sunrise instead. (Boulder Peak is one of my guided summer hiking routes.)

8. Caribou Gang

While backpacking near McGinnis Glacier I encountered a gang of five caribou high on the alpine tundra. They were quite curious and approached me a few times to check me out while I photographed them. I like this shot because it captures their curiosity and and also the rugged environment where these animals roam. They don’t look like the stereotypical majestic caribou I see in most professional images because their antlers are just starting to grow and their winter coats are being shed, but this is more representative of the caribou encounters I have in the backcountry during the summer.

9. Mount Moffit Sunrise

I love telephoto shots of striking mountain faces, and the SE face of Mount Moffit (seen here) is one I’ve stared at quite a bit since moving to Alaska. I shot this at sunrise on the same day I saw the caribou in the previous image, and the clouds and mountain ridges combined to create an interesting stripe of light over the face. I really wanted to get closer to Mount Moffit this summer but the weather didn’t hold on this trip and wildfire smoke ruined most of the weather windows I had later in the summer. See my McGinnis Glacier post for more.

10. McCallum Creek Aurora Portrait

I shot this aurora portrait for some friends of mine before they moved out of Alaska. We were searching for a good mountain background on this night where the aurora was dancing wildly but the Alaska Range was mostly clouded over. We finally found a gap in the clouds over McCallum Creek and waited for the right moment. When the aurora came alive again it lined up perfectly over the mountains and their (adorable) baby cooperated better than I could have hoped. I miss nights like this where photographing the aurora didn’t freeze my fingertips, as well as clients like these who bring me Snickers and Mountain Dew :)

dead delta: keep out...for your own good

This is the fourth installment of a photographic series called dead delta, which examines the shuttered, decaying, and derelict structures in Delta Junction, Alaska where I live. 

keep out…for your own good

Before I moved to Alaska for a job at Fort Greely, I had heard the nearby town of Delta Junction was very small. As I drove from Fairbanks to Delta Junction for the first time, I passed the even smaller town of Big Delta, and I initially thought that was Delta Junction. I passed a handful of homes, junkyards, and some decaying old buildings in Big Delta and began thinking I had made a huge mistake. When I saw a couple gas stations, a bank, a post office, and a shopping plaza in the real Delta Junction a few miles later, I breathed a sigh of relief.

No doubt, the sight that most worried me in Big Delta was the retro-looking yellow “Delta Food Mart” sign standing in front of three rotting buildings with “KEEP OUT” signs posted on them. Eight years later, the surrounding brush has grown a bit higher but the rotting buildings are still there telling everyone to KEEP OUT, while the sign out front still invites people in from “7 AM - 12 Midnight” with the promise of 7 UP. The yellow building on the left is obviously the remains of the old Delta Food Mart, while the log building in the middle looks like an old-fashioned Alaskan lodge or roadhouse. With the TV antenna sticking out of its roof, I suspect the building on the right was a residence, but I suppose it could have been another shop, motel or restaurant…or some combination of the four, since this is rural Alaska we’re talking about.

The old Delta Food Mart is just a shell of a building now with no doors or windows left. Sitting on a concrete slab, it has actually survived quite well except for the log addition on the side which has collapsed. A few other people have taken a look inside judging by the footprints in the dust on the floor. An old refrigerator flipped over on its side is the only thing left inside. Around back, there’s a decaying shack full of junk, a decaying Quonset hut full of more junk, an old greenhouse frame exploding with brush from the inside, another decaying shack adjoining the Quonset hut, some other scattered junk in the overgrown grass including a pile of tires and a car door, and a mysterious steering wheel bolted to a tree.

The sagging roof of the log building next door is covered in moss. Christmas lights are still wrapped around the tree out front. What appears to have been an arctic entry on the left side of the building has collapsed, and the front door is now stuck partially open, unable to swing in or out. Behind the front door is an “OPEN” sign leaning against the wall, likely in the same exact position it was left some 30 years ago. The ceiling has collapsed in a few places and the floor is very rotten from water damage, but the windows are surprisingly intact for a building that’s been abandoned for so long, including one large picture window looking into the backyard. The entire floor has collapsed in one of the back rooms, and I could see through missing floorboards to the basement underneath my feet as I poked my head around a hallway containing a bathroom and another dark room that I couldn’t reach safely. The intact stone fireplace contrasts against the rest of the decaying interior, and there are still ashes, bricks, scrap paper and a partially burned log in the hearth.

The last building on the right is boarded up very well, but the door to the basement in back is open. However, the ceiling inside the basement has collapsed, so I couldn’t check out the interior. The flat roof on that building has obviously failed, so I can’t imagine the interior looks much better than the log building next door.

Take a stroll around these properties yourself through the images below…

The Log Building

For years I interpreted the “KEEP OUT” sign on the log building to mean “keep out, private property”, but after observing the inside I wonder if the person who fixed the sign on the building intended it to mean “keep out…for your own good”.

There’s still a partially burned log in the fireplace, which is the only part of the log building left in good shape.

The floor has completely collapsed in the room on the far side of the door frame in this image, leaving a dangerous 12-foot drop. Several floorboards in the near room are missing and most of the remaining ones are rotten to the point where I thought I would fall through if I walked any farther. A bottle of Clorox bleach still sits on one of the shelves, and it’s possible there are more items in the cupboards on the right that I couldn’t inspect. Someone spelled “69 4:20” on the mirror in the background with adhesive decals, but I’m not convinced that person was a vandal, especially since there are no other obvious signs of vandalism inside.

The floor was too rotten for me to check out the bathroom and the room on the left in this image, so I stretched to position my tripod as close as I could for a picture. The bathroom has naturally survived water damage better than the room on the left.

When’s the last time you saw one of these beer cans? For me, the answer is…never. And is that a bird nest?

The Backyard

A car door rests against the Quonset hut in back. Nearby, there’s a steering wheel bolted to a tree.

This sign was manufactured in August 1980 according to the stamp on its side. Apparently, Olympia Beer signs were very popular in the 1970s and 1980s, but the old brewery where the beer was made has been mothballed since 2003.

I think this was a greenhouse…either way, I suppose it is now.

The Old Delta Food Mart

That 7 UP logo was in use from 1980 to 1987, which is probably the last time 7 UP was popular enough to warrant a sign like this being displayed by the roadside. When most businesses in the United States fold or change locations, their signs are removed or covered up so people know they are no longer open—many city codes require this to keep their towns looking aesthetically pleasing and to prevent signs from becoming hazards from lack of maintenance. But in Delta Junction many signs still stand years after the death or relocation of their associated businesses. Even some of the businesses in Delta that aren’t dead have dead signs out front. One of my future dead delta installments will be dedicated to the dead signs around town.

A log addition to the old Delta Food Mart has mostly collapsed.

The interior of the old Delta Food Mart is very well lit thanks to the large opening on its south end, but there’s not much to look at inside.

A notice from the State of Alaska DEC is still posted on an empty wall inside the old Delta Food Mart.

?

The back of the remaining building. The door to the basement was open but the ceiling had collapsed, preventing access. The metal roof on this building is nearly flat and much of the metal paneling has blown off, so I suspect the water damage inside is very bad.