#aukebay

Some places are where you think stories were birthed. This is one of them. In the Northern tip of the panhandle of Alaska is Juneau, a place that you can only get to by plane, boat, or birth. Ive heard some argue that its an island, although it is landlocked. It is surrounded by the Gastineau channel on one side, and mountains on the other of which behind it is 1,500 square miles of ice fields that feed into many glaciers, including the Mendenhall and the Taku Glacier. John Muir, who visited Juneau in 1879 and witnessed the Auk Glacier, which he named after the Auk Tlingit people, who lived near the glacier, said that clouds here “fondle” the mountains. This is true. The “Auk Glacier” was later changed to “Mendenhall Glacier” in 1892 in honor of the dude who surveyed it. Those that make the rules and the “class” that they tend to want to associate with naming things tends to take over naming as it is a thing of privilege and power.

John Muir described the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range as the range of light. I would describe this place as the range of liquid light. As a place where deep and true magic lives and moves through everything. It is no wonder that so many amazing stories were told and passed on about the animals and plants in this area. This is true of course of any place in the world where people inhabit, but here, perhaps because of the way the clouds weave themselves in and out of the mountains, or maybe its because I want to believe it more, or perhaps its because of how mystical it is to see a pod of Orcas or a congress of Eagles or an unkindness of Ravens socializing. Or because maybe, just maybe each time you think you have seen all the beauty you possibly can, another layer is opened deeper into the universe. This is Alaska.