Zooming in on the View

A few days ago I finished my chores early. I didn’t need to start dinner right away, so instead, I sat down at the veranda with a pair of binoculars and a camera to enjoy the view. Before long, I used the binoculars and the camera’s zoom to poke around the cirques and peaks of the Coast Range across Lynn Canal.

The “L” on “LC Mountain” up close (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

These mountains aren’t inaccessible by any means. In fact, the man who built our homestead skiffed across the fjord one afternoon and scaled The Pickets, a steep set of peaks in the middle of the view. But, he’s a better man than I; I much prefer doing my exploring from the comfort of the homestead, with the help of optics.

“The Pickets” on the left, this cirque is one of my favorite spots to “visit” (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

My method proves far better for casually skipping from mountain to mountain, peaking into crevices, perusing pocket glaciers, sliding up and down waterfalls at the exact moment that the afternoon sun lights up this feature, or shades that. One day, before I grow too old and settled, to go hike some of these places. I know I won’t get to some of the locations, which would require too much climbing skill. Many of them, being at the bottom of avalanche shoots, would likely be too dangerous to visit for any length of time—certainly I couldn’t safely explore them as thoroughly as I’d like.

A closer view of the cirque (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

This waterfall flows well even in dry years, like this one (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

For more views like this, see Sunny Cirque.