Monty's 4th Trip to Alaska The flight...      On May 27th, 1999, I flew once again to Alaska. This will be my fourth trip in so many years. The flight was uneventful, though long. Lafayette, Indiana to Detroit, Michigan, then to Seattle and finally Anchorage. I of course got a window seat on all three planes. It was pretty hazy and cloudy for much of the flight. I was able to get a few images through the haze over Lake Michigan. Playing with PHotoshop I ended up with a pretty weird looking image. It's the western shore of Lake Michigan, exactly where, I do not know.       Flying from Seattle to Anchorage was fun. It was nearing sunset in Seattle. However, instead of gradual twilight to darkness, the available sunlight went from gradual waning to slowly increasing. In terms of time zones, Seattle is only one hour later than Anchorage, however, in terms of actual geography, this time of year, the night never becomes dark even in southern Alaska. When the plane landed at 9:30 pm Anchorage time, the sun was still quite a distance above the horizon. The air is also quite a lot clearer up here so as the plane went up the Coast of British Columbia and then over the inside passage, cloud scapes gave way to the mountains below.       Although clouds from the plane are fun (click on the photo index icon below) what was really cool was the landing. The flight path takes the plane over the Chugach mountains. This mountain range extends from Anchorage to Valdez. As the plane flew over the cloud shrouded mountains, glaciers and ice fields, I was able to get some really neat shots.       I also got a few photos of mud flats as the plane rounded south of Anchorage. Really neat patterns of water and goo in that mud.

Web page & images © 1999 Monty Sloan Page last revised Monday, May 31, 1999