Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • A small community seen from the air is located in the fringes of an estuary along the Lynn Canal part of the Inside Passage. The intertidal or littoral zone in Alaska's Southeast maintains a balance between the land and the sea. The habitat of fresh and salt water is harsh and critical for marine life and birds.
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  • Estuaries seen from the air along the Lynn Canal are shrouded in morning fog. The intertidal or littoral zone maintains a balance between the land and the sea. The shoreline is along the Inside Passage in Alaska's Southeast is a combination of saltwater and freshwater, a hostile environment but a habitat refuge for some species.
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  • Taku Glacier in the Juneau Icefield is the deepest and thickest alpine, temperate, tidewater glacier in the world. From the air Taku Glacier appears to be a ribbon that winds out of the southeast corner of the icefield as an outlet glacier with its terminus in the Taku River.
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  • Taku Glacier is the deepest and thickest alpine temperate glacier in the world. It originates in the Juneau Icefield of the Tongass National Forest, and converges with the Taku River.
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  • Taku Glacier is a tidewater glacier and the largest in the Juneau Icefield. Long an anomaly among  glaciers, it was advancing but in recent years has started to succumb to climate change and retreat. The blue ribbon of ice is mixed with sediment with the terminus of the Taku River.
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  • Fog shrouds steep cliffs on the forested hillsides of Mount Juneau in the Tongass National Forest. Sitka Spruce and Hemlock thrive in the wet environment that receives over 200 inches of rain a year.
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  • Captive bald eagle at the Visitors Center in Juneau.
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  • Fog slowly lifts in the valley following a morning snow in Juneau near the Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding mountain peaks in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • Early morning fog lifts revealing snowy Mount Juneau above the Tongass National Forest seen from Douglass Island across Gastineau Channel.
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  • A crisp early morning after a freshly fallen snow in the Mendenhall Valley at an inn near Juneau.
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  • Equiped with crampons and emergency equipment, a hiker crawls through a blue ice tunnel formed in the Mendenhall Glacier. As the glaciers in southeast Alaska melt, ice is exposed thousands of years after being buried. Some tunnels in the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield are connected to ice caves, which formed as the glacier moved across uneven surfaces.<br />
<br />
During the Pleistoncene Great Ice Age several climate fluctuations created glacial advance and retreat, and vast sheets of ice covered nearly a third of the Earth’s land mass and one half of Alaska. As the climate warmed during the Holocene, ice retreated remaining in Alaskan at high elevations. The most recent variation in advance and retreat created the Juneau Icefield formed 3,000 years ago and ending in the 1700’s. Mendenhall Glacier has flowed for 250 years for 13 miles ending in a lake at its’ base.
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  • A hiker explores an ice cave recently revealed at Mendenhall Glacier. As the glaciers in southeast Alaska melt, ice is exposed thousands of years after being buried. Some tunnels in the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield are connected to ice caves, which formed as the glacier moved across uneven surfaces.<br />
During the Pleistoncene Great Ice Age several climate fluctuations created glacial advance and retreat, and vast sheets of ice covered nearly a third of the Earth’s land mass and one half of Alaska. As the climate warmed during the Holocene, ice retreated remaining in Alaskan at high elevations. The most recent variation in advance and retreat created the Juneau Icefield formed 3,000 years ago and ending in the 1700’s. Mendenhall Glacier has flowed for 250 years for 13 miles ending in a lake at its’ base.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075149.jpg
  • Climbers leave their base camp to trek on the ice field of Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is one of many that connect to the vast Juneau Ice Field, a 1,500 square mile remnant of the last ice age, cradled high in the coastal mountain’s lofty peaks in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • A couple arrives by helicopter and carefully negotiates walking on ice onto the Mendenhall Glacier for their wedding ceremony in Juneau, Alaska.
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  • Tourists are wed on Mendenhall Glacier in the Tongass National Forest. He marks the spot of their ceremony with a GPS while behind them a guide leads hikers up an icy trail. She blissfully basks in the sun as they wait for their helicopter return back to Juneau.
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  • Tags identifying miners hang on a numbered board in a display of old equipment at the AJ Gastineau Mill gold mine. Gold was discovered in Juneau at what is now known as Gold Creek, in 1880 and AJ was constructed in 1913 and shut down in 1921. Over the years, the mine recovered 500,00 ounces of gold from 12 million tons of ore.
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  • The Taku River flows out of the Coastal Range in British Columbia to 100 miles northeast of Juneau, Alaska. <br />
A world-class wilderness, the Taku River watershed contains some of the richest wildlife habitat in North America and is teeming with grizzlies, wolves, Stone’s sheep, moose, woodland caribou, migratory birds, and abundant populations of salmon.  The Taku is southeast Alaska’s top salmon-producing river with nearly 2 million wild salmon returning to the river annually.
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  • A couple drink a bubbly toast after their wedding ceremony in a park setting in Juneau.
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  • Dressed in elegant formal wear, a bride and groom walk to the helicopter to fly up onto a glacier for their wedding ceremony in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A bride picks up the groom for the kiss completing the wedding ceremony. The couple strapped on crampons beneath their formal wear and flew by helicopter onto the Mendenhall Glacier for a memorable experience in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A couple rides in a limousine to the airport to take a helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier for their wedding. Holding flowers for the ceremony, they share a warm moment in anticipation of the event.
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  • A newly married couple dances on Mendenhall Glacier. They took a helicopter onto the icefield and celebrated after the ceremony. Although dressed in traditional wedding formal wear, they were careful to step over the melting ice in their crampons.
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  • Dressed in formal attire, a couple donned crampons to walk on ice to be married on Mendenhall Glacier. A helicopter swept them onto the icefield where they said their vows that were recorded by a videographer to save their memory.
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  • Cross country skier glides along side his dog as snow falls on frozen Mendenhall Lake surrounded by trees at the base of the glacier in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • A big congratulations wish to a couple dressed in formal attire who donned crampons to walk on ice to be married on the Mendenhall Glacier. They took a helicopter onto the icefield and said their vows, then were toasted husband and wife.
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  • Hands clasped, a couple shows their rings after the wedding on Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • A surreal and beautiful setting for the wedding ceremony. A cake and champagne are placed on a table covered with a linen cloth. A camera on a tripod records the couple's wedding vows taken on the Mendenhall Glacier. They said they were married in "God's Cathedral."
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  • A couple rides in a limousine to the airport to take a helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier for their wedding.
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  • After the wedding ceremony on the Mendenhall Glacier, a newly married couple waits to fly back to their cruise ship by helicopter.
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  • A bride and groom cut the cake and kiss after their wedding ceremony that was held on the Mendenhall Glacier. Champagne, flowers, music and a linen table cloth set the scene for their atypical, romantic celebration.
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  • A bride and groom are fitted for crampons before taking a helicopter flight to the Mendenhall Glacier to be married in the icefield.
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  • A newly married couple dances while wearing crampons and formal attire as they celebrate on Mendenhall Glacier. Many passengers arrive on cruise ships making tourism the fastest growing industry in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A couple steadies themselves with crampons and kiss while waiting for their wedding on the icy Mendenhall Glacier in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A hiker treks over cracking ice fissures of Mendenhall Glacier. Locals are drawn to explore newly exposed ice tunnels as the glacier retreats. The face of the glacier is an active calving zone. Ice near the face of the glacier is also weaker and can be treacherous due to the continuing movement.
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  • A fisherman prepares to clean a halibut.
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  • Ice on branches of trees near Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Fresh snow on mountains overlooking Mendenhall Glacier and Lake.
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  • Frosty morning snow on a canoe and trees surrounding a small lake near Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Tourists are drawn to the beauty of Alaska and its glaciers, and some come for the ultimate and most unlikely experience—donning crampons for their wedding on ice.<br />
If the weather cooperates, couples can arrange for a limousine pickup from a cruise ship to the airport for a helicopter flight onto a glacier. They had a traditional ceremony with tuxedo and white wedding dress and extra touches including wedding cake, music, and flowers.<br />
The groom pops the cork on a bottle of champagne provided by the planner who married this couple on the Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Meadow of blooming fireweed frames Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Fog shrouds steep cliffs in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Mendenhall River surrounded by McGinnis Mountain and other peaks.
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  • McGinnis Mountain in early morning after a fresh snow.
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  • A luxury spa and overnight inn in the Mendenhall Valley.
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  • Ice tunnels and crevices in Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Tracy Arms, a retreating glacier in Tongass National Forest.
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  • A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfaces and dives into Stephens Passage. Studies how the humpback from Southeast Alaska travels mostly to Hawaii to breed and returns in the summer to the cold Alaskan waters.
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  • Estuaries shrouded in morning fog are revealed in the intertidal region of the Southeast Alaskan coast along the Lynn Canal in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • Ice-covered peaks of South Chilkat Mountains appear to have frosting on their tops from melting snow.
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  • Icy winds blow snow clouds blow over the jagged ridges of the South Chilkat Mountains that rise above Southeast Alaska's coast.
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  • Tracy Arm Fjord is formed by a retreating glacier melting between granite walls. Sawyer Glacier calves into the fjord in the heart of the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Tourists don blue jackets and hike in the rain to Mendenhall Glacier through the Tongass National Forest. The region earns its reputation for receiving up to 200 inches of rain a year creating a lush, green and moss-covered environment.
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  • Cross country skiing with a dog on Mendenhall Lake.
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  • Snowfall on evergreen trees.
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  • Ridges in sand at Eagle Harbor at low tide looking west.
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  • A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfaces and dives into Stephens Passage. Studies how the humpback from Southeast Alaska travels mostly to Hawaii to breed and returns to the cold Alaskan waters.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075106.jpg
  • Estuaries along the Lynn Canal are shrouded in morning fog while Lion's Head in the Tongass National Forest rises above.
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  • A Bald Eagle in flight catches a fish with its talons. Their wingspans measure 7½ ft. The average weight is 10-12 pounds, some weigh up to 16 pounds. Bald Eagles can pick up and fly off with a fish or other prey items that weigh 4-5 pounds, any more weight than that is too heavy and they will stall out and crash.
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  • A storm clears creating a serene landscape along the Mendenhall River after a light, morning snow on trees and surrounding mountains in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • A salmon swims up a 450 foot fish ladder to spawn in a fish hatchery.
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  • Admiralty Island in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • Fog shrouds steep cliffs in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Crisp winter air clears over freshly snow-dusted trees in Tongass National Forest looking across the Icy Strait in the Inside Passage toward Southeast Alaska’s Chilkat Mountain Range. The region is known for it’s harsh winds and rugged landscape as well as it’s beauty.<br />
Chilkat, in the native Tlingit language, means “storage container for salmon.” The name was given because of warm springs that keep the Chilkat River from freezing during the winter as it flows through the mountain range, thus allowing salmon to spawn late in the season, and creating safe “storage.”
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  • More than 5,000 miles of roads are carved into the remote landscape to clear-cut large swatches of forests on Chichagof Island. An aerial picture after a winter snow reveals the patchwork on lower reaches of the mountains where logging traditionally occurs. <br />
Taxpayer money has subsidized the timber industry since 1980. Tongass National Forest timber management has cost U.S. taxpayers roughly one billion dollars, making it the largest money loser in the entire national forest system.
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  • Taku Glacier advances in the Juneau Ice Field.
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  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains, illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
The Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges that  overlook the Inside Passage. Stillness is only broken by the sound of skiers breaking through crusty snow to view the sunset view on top of Douglas Island nearby Juneau.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges framing an overlook of the Inside Passage from Douglas Island and the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. Sunset comes early and days are short in the winter months with approximately 7 hours of light.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges that  overlook the Inside Passage, stunting the trees that frame the view on top of Douglas Island nearby Juneau.
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  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy ridges and peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
The Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
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