First morning in Anchorage.
Visit to Alaska Zoo.
Double humped camel. Since it exists in the extreme cold, it stores fat instead of water in its hump, plus the humps have a thick layer of hair to protect from the cold.
Tiger (forgot what type).
This was the only exciting thing for me in the zoo. Reading the family histories of the animals !!
This is how high the sun shines in Anchorage.
Awwww ....
The polar bear whose touching story you just read.
This was from below the pool in the previous snap. The pool was covered with ice on top and the shining thing is the flash !
If the BCCI ever had its zoo, this would be displayed outside Ashish Nehra's cage.
Snow leopard.
Ice sculptures on display near Anchorage downtown.
A portayal of the Anchorage earthquake of 1964.
I have heard this somewhere but can't quite place it.
A sculpture in progress.
Fishes.
The dancing bear and its creator.
The sculptures were all on display around an ice rink ! Tricky and slippery.
30th morning. Frozen lake with an ice rink.
One of them was Josh, forgot the other name. They were ice fishing here with their dad.
The foot long hole they had drilled. Actually it was foot-deep; too much of Subway.
View from the snowmobile base camp.
That was my snowmobile. And that tiny part of my nose that is exposed is currently red !
About 20 miles into the drive.
Halfway mark, at the glacier.
Ice cave beneath the glacier.
A frozen stream of water.
Another one.
There was a hole from the end of the cave to the top of the glacier.
From the end of the cave.
The snow rings on a rock. The guide tells us that these are similar to the rings on trees and can tell the history of snowfall this winter from the thickness of each layer.
Just before leaving the snowmobile base for Fairbanks. A friend tells me that the bright star could be Venus, which was predicted to be closest to the moon on 31st.
First attempt at capturing the Aurora Borealis.
Second attempt.
Watching the Aurora in the middle of nowhere.
31st morning at Fairbanks. This was at 12.30 p.m. and the highest that the sun rose.
Church carved in ice on a sidewalk in downtown Fairbanks.
31st night. First signs of the Aurora buildup.
And the show begins.
This was some Aurora activity behind a few cable lines.
We were on a hill, below is a huge plateau. Please pardon the orientation, I did not have a tripod !
My makeshift tripod. All the snaps courtesy this ladder thing.
The light on the road below is some car and shows the the exposure time.
This snap is less blurred but the previous one had more activity.
Finally a group snap with Aurora buildup as the backdrop. We stood still for 25 seconds for this snap ! Guess where I am [:)]
Drive back to Anchorage on the 1st. Our first glimpse of the Alaska range, which houses Mt. Mckinley.
This landscape reminded me of Ladakh.
Almost sunset.
And the amazing sunset.
Goodbye to Alaska.
