Alaska

Coming home is one of my favorite things in the world to do.

I was teaching in Fairbanks this week. It’s really a cool place and there’s a lot to do and see. The Ice Museum is excellent and there are a number of attractions related to the Chena River. Google it and you’ll see what I mean.

Permafrost combines with wind to make for some interesting growing patterns.  Flying in or out, you can trace the effects of weather and time.

Time is a major  theme up there if you’re interested in noticing. The University of Alaska Fairbanks is built on a series of ridges that raise the viewer four- or five-hundred feet above a valley that goes on seemingly forever, except that you can see mountains rising on the horizon. Stand on that ridge and you’re looking at time. I swear I’m not just trying to be profound.

You can see both the past and the future from that ridgeline. Or from an airplane as you pass over glacial flows that go for miles. From my window seat I could see the ice blocks calving off at one end and the never-ending genesis of the winding river of ice at its origin.

I love road trips in large part because of all the history to be seen. But in most places, you have to already know the story or understand how volcanism or tectonics or alluvial flows work and then apply your imagination to complete the story.

Not so in Alaska. All you have to do is look down or up or around and the masterpieces of nature show you how they came to be. How they’re still coming to be. In Alaska, you don’t need to spot a caribou or an eagle or a bear to be looking at a living thing.