More reflections

I love the way the mudflats break this image up, putting a barrier between the mountain and the reflection.

Morning reflections, Turnagain Arm

Our last day. After today I have to try to remember how to wrestle my own luggage and provide my own snacks. We have been extremely pampered on this tour, and basically I haven't had to do anything except show up and take pictures.

We made an unscheduled stop this morning on our way to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center so everyone could take pictures of the beautiful reflections on Turnagain Arm. That calm surface is deceptive – the bore tides here are the second highest in North America after the Bay of Fundy, and unwary hikers can get stuck in the mud flats and drown.

But this morning -- not a ripple.

Ghost forests

Just below Anchorage, I started noticing these stands of dead trees along the water (we were whipping along the highway at the time, so I don’t have any clear pictures.) They were an eerie anachronism in such a lush, brilliant setting, spikes of withered branches amid the curves of the mountains and glaciers and waves.

They’re called the ghost forests, and they’ve been there since the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in North America. The land along Turnagain Arm, including a section of the highway we were on, sank six to nine feet. Two coastal towns, Portage and Girdwood, were underwater at high tide afterwards. Portage was abandoned; Girdwood, which is where we’re staying, was moved two miles inland and rebuilt.

Salt water killed the trees, but ironically, also preserved them, so they still sit along the coastline fifty years after the earth sank beneath them -- strangely beautiful, haunted, sad.