Alaska Range from UAF West Ridge (publ. 2025-04-19)

After participating in a Good Friday service (2025-04-18) I stopped briefly at the lookout parking spot at UAF West Ridge (8:15pm). The sky was partly cloudly, but I had a great view of some mountains in the Alaska Range, which is about 60 miles S of Fairbanks. There were some spots covered by clouds or by downpours of distant rain, but in between those the view was crisp and vivid, with many mount ridges showing as white patches with dark blue shadows. One mountain to the south had multiple ridges jutting NE, in a mostly parallel formation. Looking at OpenTopoMap later, I believe this must have been the long ridges about 10 miles north of Keevy Peak.

some long ridges north of Keevy Peak

Nearby was another mountain where the ridges seem to be coming up to one central peak. But I'm not sure to what feature to match that from OpenTopoMap.

After a while (about 15 minutes) some clouds cleared up more to the SSE, and I saw what appeared to be two very large mountain peaks. I believe those must be Mount Hayes and maybe the nearby Mount Moffit.

Mount Hayes

Mount Moffit

I could also see mountains to the SW, in the direction of Mt. McKinley, but they were not as clear and as interesting.

In the far distance, above these mountains, I could see interesting, large clouds shapes that were flat on the bottom, puffy on the west side, and trailing on the east side — the trail being an extension of the bottom of the cloud — suggesting the clouds were being pushed West and leaving a trail behind them.

In the fields below where I was standing, I could hear and see a few birds and some high-pitched, goose-like honking. I had just heard on the radio that somebody had won the contest for predicting when the first geese would arrive back at Creamer's Field in Fairbanks, just one or two days ago.

The Good Friday service was a pleasant and joyful one, and I was able to play "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" on my ocarina, while the deacons distributed the communion bread.

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CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed