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Lee Petersen
@leepetersen.bsky.social
1.6K followers 54 following 1K posts
Photographer and writer in Alaska. Field notes on landscape, science, and a changing North. Lots of stuff here: http://lwpetersen.com/links
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Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 21d
My 2027 Alaska Wall Calendar is done and ready for ordering. Check out the stories behind all the photos or order the calendar here: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/2027-alask...

#alaska #glacier #wildlife #landscape #hiking
Four bull caribou stand and rest on open tundra of green and gold grass in soft, overcast light. Each has a large rack of antlers still covered in velvet. Three are standing, spread across the frame, and one lies in the grass near the center-left. Behind them the ground rises into a smooth, out-of-focus hillside. Text over the image reads Alaska, 2027 Wall Calendar, Lee Petersen.
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One of the East Group Tors at Granite Tors in the Chena River State Recreation Area. Taken a couple of weeks ago, when the autumn foliage in the tundra was near peak.

Story and more photos in my Field Notes Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/impromptu-...

#alaska #hiking #fallfoliage
A group of tall, jagged granite tors rises from a slope of autumn tundra. The weathered gray rock forms angular spires and fins, stacked and fractured, the tallest leaning like blades against a gray, cloud-heavy sky. Green spruce trees of varying heights grow among and in front of the rock. The foreground tundra is a dense patchwork of red, orange, and gold low brush, with a few small spruce scattered across it. Distant hills fade into haze on the lower left.
September 18, 2026 at 3:14 PM
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Looking over the Savage River Valley from the Alpine Trail back in early March.

#alaska #hiking #winter
A wide snow-covered valley stretches into the distance, its rolling hills dotted with sparse dark spruce and laced with faint drainage lines. Beyond the valley, a range of rugged snow-covered mountains rises along the horizon, their peaks partly veiled by low cloud. The sky above is pale blue with soft banks of white cloud. The whole scene is wintry and muted, in cool whites, blues, and grays.
September 18, 2026 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Lee Petersen
alaskawx.bsky.social
Fairbanks Airport as of 1pm AKDT Tuesday up to 2.64 inches (67.1 mm) of rain so far in September, making this the highest precipitation during the first half of September in 101 years (2.95 inches Sep 1-15, 1925). #akwx #Climate @arcticgoddess.bsky.social @leepetersen.bsky.social
September 15, 2026 at 9:17 PM
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Long exposure of Falls Creek along Turnagain Arm in Anchorage, Alaska. Taken in mid-October after the leaves had fallen.

photos.lwpetersen.com/Portfolio-Im...

#alaska #hiking #fall #waterfall
A small creek tumbles down a series of rocky steps in a long exposure that blurs the falling water into smooth white streaks and veils. Dark boulders thick with bright green moss break up the flow, and fallen yellow and gold birch leaves are scattered across the rocks and collected along the water's edge. The stream drops through several tiers from the top of the frame toward the lower left, framed by autumn brush and more leaf-covered ground.
September 16, 2026 at 5:14 PM
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The last 4 photos in my 2027 Alaska Wall Calendar.

Get the calendar here: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/2027-alask...

#alaska #wildflowers #wildlife #landscape
A cluster of small pink orchids blooms on slender dark stems, each flower nodding beneath a crown of narrow pink-purple petals above a pouched lower lip. The lip is white flushed with pink, marked with reddish-brown spots and streaks and a patch of bright yellow bristles at its center. Many blooms fill the frame at slightly different depths, sharpest in the middle and softening into a green and pink blur behind. A bald eagle stands in profile on wet gray beach sand. It has a white head and tail, a dark brown body and wings, a hooked yellow beak, and yellow feet with black talons, its pale eye turned toward the water. Behind it, out-of-focus blue-gray surf rolls along the shore in bright daylight. Low golden sunlight breaks through clouds over a high tundra meadow of dry golden grass scattered with rocks and small spruce trees. On the right, a tall weathered rock outcrop rises above the trees. Rolling hills and distant snow-dusted mountains fade into the hazy light beyond, and sun rays streak across the scene from the upper left. A wintry mountain scene lit in deep blue twilight. In the foreground, the rippled snow-covered surface of a glacier stretches back in low mounds and swells. Beyond it rise steep, snow-plastered peaks with a sharp summit near the center. The whole scene is monochrome blue, dim and cold, with no sky color, only the faint glow of dusk.
September 15, 2026 at 6:35 PM
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A cow moose feeding in a pond near an American wigeon in the Chena River State Rec Area, Alaska.

#alaska #wildlife #moose
A moose wades chest-deep through a pond, its brown coat wet and its long face streaming with water as it lifts its head from feeding, sending a spray of droplets into the air. Water sheets off its muzzle and ears and ripples out across the surface. A short distance in front of it, a small brown duck floats calmly, unbothered by the much larger animal. The pond reflects warm morning light and the brown and green of the far bank.
September 15, 2026 at 4:14 PM
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Took a walk along the Savage River last night with Cassidy on our way home from Anchorage, where our youth climbing team had a qualifying competition on Saturday.

#alaska #hiking #denali
A wide braided river runs through an open valley, splitting around long gravel bars in the foreground. The banks are thick with autumn brush in gold, orange, and green, with dark spruce scattered behind. In the distance, a range of mountains streaked with gray rock and reddish autumn tundra rises under a partly cloudy sky. A wide braided river runs through an open valley, splitting around long gravel bars in the foreground. The banks are thick with autumn brush in gold, orange, and green, with dark spruce scattered behind. In the distance, a range of mountains streaked with gray rock and reddish autumn tundra rises under a partly cloudy sky.
September 14, 2026 at 4:37 PM
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McGinnis Peak in the Alaska Range towers over the Black Rapids Glacier. Freshly covered ice foliation, likely from sedimentary stratification in the accumulation area, creates a rippled surface in the light.

www.lwpetersen.com/alaska-infor...

#alaska #glacier #mountains
Vertically composed photo of McGinnis Peak. The tall triangular peak is rocky, but snow and ice-covered at the top. The sky above is blue with small white clouds. A thin layer of white and gray clouds separate the peak in the upper frame from the lower half of the mountain. A steep valley glacier and icefall winds down in the lower reaches of the peak, emptying into the much larger Black Rapids Glacier. The lower reaches of the valley glacier are covered in brown rocky debris. The foreground is looking down a rippled surface of snow, freshly fallen the night before on foliated ice, almost looking like small waves in the snow.
September 13, 2026 at 5:22 PM
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A little reflection under Microdot Peak at Hatcher Pass, Alaska, last night.

#alaska #hiking
View of a tall mountain with steep green slopes and lots of gray talus and rock under a blue sky with light white clouds. Beneath the mountain is a small, rocky pond, lightly reflecting the golden evening light and lots of white, gray, and black talus in the tundra in the foreground.
September 12, 2026 at 9:50 PM
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Looking over the Gulkana Glacier in the Eastern Alaska Range, Snow White in the background. Photo was taken in late July of this year. Story and more photos on my Field Notes Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/weekend-in...

#alaska #hiking #glacier
A glacier fills a valley, its pale gray ice sweeping in a broad curve from the distance down toward the foreground. The surface is streaked with long curving bands of dark rock debris that trace the ice's flow, and the lower foreground gives way to dark gray moraine and loose rubble. Steep rocky ridges patched with snow rise on both sides of the valley. In the background, a snow-capped peak stands above the head of the glacier under a clear blue sky.
September 11, 2026 at 5:32 PM
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Inside one of the glacier caves we visited this summer in the Alaska Range. Story and photos here: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/three-days...

#alaska #glacier #climatechange #hiking
Inside a glacier cave, walls of ice curve overhead and down the left side of the frame in deep blues that darken into shadow. The ice is layered and translucent, streaked with fine bands of dark sediment. Daylight enters through an opening in the upper left, throwing a bright glow across a lower shelf of ice on the right, where a wet, uneven surface scattered with grit and meltwater catches the light and shines. The textures range from smooth polished ice to rougher debris-covered slopes.
September 10, 2026 at 5:25 PM
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One of my favorite flowers is the Dryas octopetala, or eight-petal mountain avens. It's highly susceptible to changes in temperature and moisture, and its pollen, found in bog sediments, is used as an indicator of past cold periods.

#alaska #wildflowers #bloomscrolling
September 9, 2026 at 5:58 PM
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Aurora from the Granite Tors Trail in late March of 2015.

#alaska #auroraborealis #northernlights #nightsky
A green aurora curls into a tight spiral high in the night sky, its brightest band coiling like a whirlpool near the center of the frame. Softer green light streams downward in vertical curtains and rays across the rest of the sky, fading toward the horizon, with scattered stars showing through. Below, a low snow-covered ridge and distant hills run across the scene. In the dark foreground, bare leafless branches and the trunks of spruce trees stand silhouetted against the snow.
September 9, 2026 at 5:14 PM
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Set out Sunday evening to photograph mushrooms and ended up chasing light across the tors instead. The Asgard Tor in full fall color, Granite Tors Trail. Story and more photos in my Field Notes Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/impromptu-...

#alaska #hiking #fallColors #granitetors
A tall granite tor of dark, weathered rock rises in twin fingerlike columns from open tundra, lit warmly from the side against a soft blue sky scattered with cloud. Behind and below it, forested ridgelines fade blue into the distance. Small spruce are spread across the mid-ground, and the foreground is a broad expanse of autumn tundra in gold, rust, and grass, with a vivid patch of deep red low plants near the bottom of the frame. This is the Asgard Tor in fall color along the Granite Tors Trail.
September 8, 2026 at 6:30 PM
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Cowboy's handkerchief (Hygrophorus eburneus) along the UAF Trail System. I've been out shooting fungi a bit over the last couple of weeks. Check out some of the photos from Saturday in my latest Field Notes: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/barely-tal...

#alaska #fungi #mushrooms #macro
A single pure white mushroom rises from a bed of bright green moss, photographed from a low angle against a dark background. Its cap has curled upward into a shallow, wavy-edged bowl, and the surface is so wet and glossy it looks almost glazed, with a faint gray tint pooling in the hollow. White gills run down from the rim onto the thick stem, which is finely rough-textured near the top and tapers as it descends into the moss. Sprigs of moss and a few slender reddish plant stems with small dark green leaves surround it.
September 7, 2026 at 5:04 PM
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Cotton candy sunset in Miller Creek near the terminus of the Canwell Glacier in the Alaska Range.

#alaska #sunset #hiking
A wide sunset sky fills most of the frame, streaked with soft pink, lavender, and purple clouds that catch a band of warm orange and yellow light low on the horizon. Below, a dark ridge of silhouetted spruce trees and low brush runs across the scene, with snow-streaked mountains rising on the left and right. In the foreground is open ground scattered with pale rocks and bare shrubs, dim in the fading light.
September 6, 2026 at 5:30 PM
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The rain is slowing down.
Let's go find mushrooms.
September 6, 2026 at 2:06 AM
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A red rainbow at sunset near the Donnelly Creek Campground, south of Delta Junction. Mainly the longer wavelengths remain when the sun passes through so much atmosphere low on the horizon.

#sunset #alaska #atmosphericoptics
A vivid rainbow arcs down into a dark spruce-forested ridgeline at sunset, its band glowing almost entirely in red, orange, and gold rather than the full spectrum, because the low sun's light has been reddened by the atmosphere. A fainter secondary rainbow is visible to the right, with a band of darker sky between the two. Heavy blue-grey rain clouds fill the upper sky, and the forested hills of the Interior roll toward a pale, distant horizon.
September 5, 2026 at 10:22 PM
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Descending to College Creek in the Alaska Range. The delineation of rough texture on the valley side displays the glacier trimline, the historic elevation of the surface of College Glacier that once filled this valley, whose terminus is now 4 miles up the valley.

#alaska #mountains #glacier #hiking
A lone hiker in a light shirt and cap, carrying a backpack, walks downhill on a faint trail across a green tundra slope in the foreground, small against the scene. Beyond and below stretches a broad valley of bare gray gravel cut by shallow gullies and braided channels. Rising across the valley is a huge mountainside, its lower slopes stripped to raw, deeply eroded brown and gray rock and its upper slopes smoother and streaked with snow, the change in texture forming a rough horizontal band partway up. Snow lingers along the ridge crest at the top, and a strip of clear blue sky shows in the upper right.
September 5, 2026 at 8:09 PM
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Hiking in the Hoodoos region in the Alaska Range with views of the Gulkana and College Glaciers.

#hiking #alaska #summer #glacier
September 5, 2026 at 6:50 PM
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A large active moulin on the Canwell Glacier in the eastern Alaska Range.

#alaska #hiking #glacier
September 4, 2026 at 2:54 PM
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A water-filled moulin on the Gakona Glacier in the Alaska Range.

#alaska #hiking #glacier
September 3, 2026 at 4:23 PM
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Anderson Falls emptying into Prince William Sound near Valdez, Alaska. It's one of those places that are so beautiful that the weather doesn't seem to matter.

#alaska #waterfall #valdez
A tall waterfall drops down a steep, densely forested mountainside, its upper plume half-veiled by low gray fog and its lower course tumbling in a bright white cascade through the spruce to the water's edge. Ribbons of cloud drape across the dark green slope and hide the ridgeline above. At the bottom, the falls meet the calm turquoise water of the sound, with a rocky shoreline along the base.
September 2, 2026 at 5:06 PM
leepetersen.bsky.social
May–Aug from my 2027 Alaska Wall Calendar (by calendar month, not season): sunset at Anchor Point, a hoary marmot near Wickersham Dome, seracs on the Gulkana Glacier, and evening light at Hatcher Pass. Stories + ordering: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/2027-alask...

#alaska #hiking #glacier #wildlife
The sun sits just above the ocean horizon in a blaze of orange and gold, its light laid down in a bright reflected path across breaking waves and onto a dark wet beach in the foreground. Small rocks and clumps of foam catch the light near the bottom of the frame, and a band of low cloud stretches along the horizon to the left. A hoary marmot lies stretched along a lichen-covered rock in warm, low sunlight, facing left in profile. Its coat is grizzled silver-gray over the shoulders and browner toward the rump, with a thick rust-brown tail hanging down over the rock. The background falls away into shadow, so the lit animal stands out sharply. In the foreground, weathered blue-white glacier ice rises in cracked pinnacles streaked with dark debris. Beyond it the ice gives way to a broad gray valley of rock and braided meltwater channels, framed by dark ridges. In the distance a green valley floor and a pale lake sit under a heavy, brooding cloud layer. Low evening sun breaks through a notch in a jagged ridgeline as a bright starburst, casting long warm light across a green alpine valley. A small stream winds through the mossy valley floor on the right, while the left foreground rises in a slope of dark boulders and low tundra. Scattered clouds fill the upper sky.
September 1, 2026 at 4:58 PM
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A small arch in the seracs of the Gabriel Icefall on the Gulkana Glacier, eastern Alaska Range. Photos and story in my Field Notes From the North: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/incredible...

#alaska #glacier #hiking
A glacier's cracked surface fills the frame, its ice pale blue-white and streaked with dark bands of rock and grit. In the lower foreground the ice curves into a small arch, hollowed out so that a pocket of deep blue glows in the shadow beneath it. Above and behind, the glacier climbs in a jumble of fractured seracs and ridges toward its upper icefall, and a dark, rocky peak with a few patches of snow rises against a flat gray overcast sky in the upper left.
August 31, 2026 at 5:14 PM