Juneau To Anchorage - Great Wild Adventure Out The Window

People spend good money to go into Imax theaters to see huge images of the natural world. But even people sitting in window seats often ignore the spectacular sights outside their windows. Juneau to Anchorage on a clear day like today makes a regular airline passenger into a northern explorer.

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

My favorite Juneau cab driver called Suwanna Cafe in a mall near the airport to order two Pad Thais which were ready for pick up when we arrived a few minutes later.  And I had my lunch for the flight. (And Dennis had his.)

On the plane, my 'small screen', unlike my computer screen, got bigger as I moved my face closer.  It wasn't edited and there was no dramatic music (though I guess that would be easy to provide with an  iPod or computer) and no narrator dramatically telling me what I was looking at.  I simply had to look and observe without someone telling me what to think or what it all meant.






And it was so amazing - even after having made this trip many, many times - that you're just going to have to bear with me and these shots from my pocket camera. 

All this incredible geography was below, outside the plane and most people were reading, sleeping, playing video games.

All that white in the water is ice floating from the huge glaciers all around.  You can see it closer in the next picture.

And then we were flying into Anchorage.  Flattop is at the end of this ridge below.  Powerline Pass on its right.  Denali and Foraker showing dimly (too dimly for my camera) on the horizon.  From this view, you can't even tell you're looking down on a town of 370,000 people.