Adventures
I finally wrote about my visit to Cabinetlandia, which was five years ago yesterday. And in doing so, I fell down a rabbit hole of research about this fun project—stuff I really wish I had known when I first visited out of a whim. This has Web 1.0 feels all over it.
A runway that changed the world
On this day 79 years ago, this runway on the small island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands changed the world. It was from this stretch of remote pavement that the Enola Gay took to the air with a ferocious new weapon, headed to Hiroshima to inflict unbelievable damage.
We visited the then-abandoned site in 2017 as part of our travel quest to visit all the major sites associated with the Manhattan Project.
One of the highlights of our visit to Halifax was the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, housed in the same dock building that served as the port of entry for immigrants. I was surprised at many of the similarities between the histories of immigration in Canada and the United States.
OTD in 2018, I hiked to Exit Glacier, my first experience with a glacier. It’s iconic for the signs showing the previous extent of the glacier in various years, clearly demonstrating how quickly the ice has receded.
I’ve been to every national park unit in the US, and this remains my most favorite park sign anywhere. It’s located on the back side of the entrance sign for the Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska.
Love this “cloud shadow” around Mt Edgecumbe, from five years ago today.
Here’s a short video of our flight back from Aniakchak, taken near Upper Ugashik Lake looking southeast towards the Aleutians. Just gorgeous terrain down there.
Visiting Aniakchak Crater
Five years ago today, I finally made it to the least visited national park unit in the country, Aniakchak National Monument, a collapsed volcanic caldera in the Aleutian Range in Alaska. I really need to blog about the whole story about this.
This park is very remote, requiring a bush flight to access, and the unpredictability of the weather means you might be waiting many days for even a short flight window. It took six days of nervous waiting for us to make it there, constantly checking the weather and in contact with the pilot every couple hours. Many folks get skunked; a fellow park quester had waited ten days just prior to our arrival and never got an opportunity. We got ours on the very last day we had committed to the endeavor. This might be the best text message I’ve ever received, sent by the pilot.
I’ll write and post more about this on rscottjones.com, but for now, here are some photos of our time there.
Visiting Aniakchak was the lynchpin for me completing my quest to visit all 400+ national park units, which happened a few days later in Glacier Bay National Park.
On this day in 2018, we stopped at Edge of the World Brewing in the remote and infamous polygamist town of Colorado City near the Arizona/Utah border. I’m still surprised that this place ever opened, let alone stayed in business.
