I had the privilege to go out to
Red Dog in the Northwestern Brooks Range with Oceana to take down her coastal radar at the port. We were supposed to go over winter solstice (funny time to go above the Arctic Circle) but the trip was pushed back a couple of weeks.. and ended up landing on my two year anniversary as an Alaskan resident. Not a bad way to spend it. :-)
Upon entering the mudroom, I spotted a Steelers hard hat!!!! WOOO!! Steelers fans are everywhere, I am convinced. Unfortunately the hat did not fit my head, otherwise I would have walked around with it on!! Haha.
We had incredible weather. Well.. it was a little chilly, but it would be a lot colder if there were 20 kt winds blowing out of the north. We stayed down at the port, about 55 miles west of the mine, where about 20 people are living this time of year. Everyone was very welcoming to us. The frozen landscape is like a sea of glass.
Looking out into the Chukchi Sea......
The sun just began to rise in this part of the world, recently. They were gaining over 10 mins of sunlight per day, with about two hours of the sun above the horizon.
In the two photos above, are Oceana and Evans, whom was a huge help to us in taking down and packing up the instrumentation.
I did not get many photos of the road between Red Dog Mine and Red Dog Port due to low lighting, but above is one coming from the sea back into the mountains. The flat terrain rolled into the beautiful Brooks Range.
Our Grand Caravan airplane used for the charter.
Gorgeous.
Trivia tidbit: So I asked why Red Dog Mine is called Red Dog Mine. The man who found the place was a bush pilot and he always flew with his reddish Husky, named Red. Hence, the name Red Dog came about. Pretty cute, huh?
I had the privilege to go out to Red Dog in the Northwestern Brooks Range with Oceana to take down her coastal radar at the port. We were supposed to go over winter solstice (funny time to go above the Arctic Circle) but the trip was pushed back a couple of weeks.. and ended up landing on my two year anniversary as an Alaskan resident. Not a bad way to spend it. :-)
Upon entering the mudroom, I spotted a Steelers hard hat!!!! WOOO!! Steelers fans are everywhere, I am convinced. Unfortunately the hat did not fit my head, otherwise I would have walked around with it on!! Haha.
We had incredible weather. Well.. it was a little chilly, but it would be a lot colder if there were 20 kt winds blowing out of the north. We stayed down at the port, about 55 miles west of the mine, where about 20 people are living this time of year. Everyone was very welcoming to us. The frozen landscape is like a sea of glass.
Looking out into the Chukchi Sea......
The sun just began to rise in this part of the world, recently. They were gaining over 10 mins of sunlight per day, with about two hours of the sun above the horizon.
In the two photos above, are Oceana and Evans, whom was a huge help to us in taking down and packing up the instrumentation.
I did not get many photos of the road between Red Dog Mine and Red Dog Port due to low lighting, but above is one coming from the sea back into the mountains. The flat terrain rolled into the beautiful Brooks Range.
Our Grand Caravan airplane used for the charter.
Gorgeous.
Trivia tidbit: So I asked why Red Dog Mine is called Red Dog Mine. The man who found the place was a bush pilot and he always flew with his reddish Husky, named Red. Hence, the name Red Dog came about. Pretty cute, huh?
2 comments:
Beautiful photos of a wild and precious place!
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