Two Tickets to Paradise

Entering the park

A view of the mountain from just inside the gate

On the way up, a detailed view of the mountain
[Full Gigapan]

Pausing for a moment of reflection

Lunch at the Paradise Restaurant

Visiting the new Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center

The Visitor Center is fortified against the heavy winter snows
The old one ... wasn't

The mountain looms over Paradise

Life abounds in the highlands
A bee services this Avalanche Lily

Looking back down toward the Visitor Center

Closer and closer

Trekking

Buttercup

Aerial view from about 25,000'MSL taken a few days later

A weekend in Juneau

A relaxing weekend spent in Juneau, the Capital City of Alaska, provided these scenes.


Snaking down from the Juneau Ice Field, the Mendenhall Glacier calves into Mendenhall Lake, itself fed primarily by glacial meltwater and runoff from the mountains on either side.


A bear searches for fish from atop a beaver dam near Mendenhall Glacier.


Peeking through the woods at the Mendenhall Glacier.


Tree debris in a pool beside Mendenhall Lake.


Float planes parked in a scenic cove in Auke Lake.


Boats on the glassy calm water as we slowly motor out of Auke Bay Harbor.


A sail boat in Auke Bay Harbor.


A view from the fishing boat in a quiet moment of reflection (translation: looking around while waiting for a bite).


The forest towers over boats back in Auke Bay Harbor.

Along the way to Alaska

As promised, two more images added at the end of this post.


Dungeness Spit protrudes from the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.


Ediz Hook, another long spit of land protruding into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, attached to Port Angeles Washington.


A lake fills this Canadian valley cut by a glacier long since melted away. I don't know its name.


Another glacially cut Canadian valley, but this time the glacier is still there.


Another view of the same glacier.


Cruise ship ms Ryndam docked at the port of Juneau.


Juneau's Federal Office Bulding