Fire Island

This is not THE Fire Island back east that is infamous for it's wild parties, and outrageous behavior. The bad photo above is our little Fire Island just offshore from Anchorage. Fire Island is the low spit of dark land on the right of the photo. Sleeping Lady is the mountain in the background.

No one lives here and access to the island is severely limited. Most of it is owned by the military, or a Native American Tribe, called Cook Inlet Regional Corporation locally. They are getting ready to build a large wind farm on Fire Island next summer.

This photo, and those that follow, were all taken by Scott, who flew out to the island recently. Fire Island is unusual in the area because it has a real beach, and sand dunes.

As you can see by Scott's great photos, this is a very picturesque place. It might look warm and sunny, but our temperatures are in the high thirties faranheit, these days. Low twenties at night. Things are preticted to warm up to the low forties in the next few days. I'll take what I can get.

A small lake. This island is best known for it's constant winds. It is funny to me how different local areas here, have very different weather patterns. Here in Anchorage, the east side of town, where I live, is far less windy and wet, than south Anchorage. We also get much colder here in the winter, than the west side of town. The Cambell Creek Science Center, about three miles away, is the coldest part of town. Interior Alaska is much colder still.

You can imagine the frequent winds by seeing the striations in the sand.

Any plant experts out there that can identify this plant? I think it's non-native to Alaska.

A Devil's Club. See the spines on the stalk? That's how it gets it's name. They are wimpy compared to the spines on many plants in the Southwest.

This is not from Fire Island. Scott shot this photograph today. I'm not sure where. It's another view of the tundra jungle.

Scott told me where he went today, but I forget what he said. This must be Turnagain Arm.

I bet he shot this photo from his airplane, rather than climbing up some steep mountain.