Driving down the Richardson to Chitina, with a stop at the Gulkana

Here's a panorama of the Wrangell Mountains, viewed from a pullout overlooking Willow Lake along the Richardson Highway near Glennallen, Alaska. A day this clear is rare, and the view is spectacular. You have to view it full-sized to begin to appreciate what it's like scanning this range with binoculars.

I like this one. Glacial river, taiga, tundra, and the perpetual ice cover of a massive high ridge dozens of miles away in the Wrangell Mountains.

A few spawning sockeye salmon are visible near the lower left corner of this scene.

While I was taking pictures of the whitefish I caught, I heard loud splashing in the water upstream. Two caribou cows and their calves were crossing the river. (Only one calf is visible here.)

An anonymous dipnetter works the bank near the access point at O'Brien Creek.

At this time of year, sockeye salmon in full spawning colors dot the edges of the upper Gulkana, and are visible from the road in a few places, including this one.

Dead sockeye salmon fertilizing the upper Gulkana River.

A small round whitefish.

A pair of sockeye salmon on their redd.

Seagulls rest on a gravel bar across from the fish cleaning station at O'Brien Creek, in between meals.

This is the delta where O'Brien Creek flows out into the Copper River's channel. It may be one of the most intense graveyards for filleted salmon in the world.

This is the home base for the Chitina dipnetting fishery that supplies thousands of Alaskans with much (if not most) of their annual protein. Many people pay a jetboat charter to ferry them down to prime spots in the canyon, and ferry their hundreds of pounds of fish back up. Others follow the trail to which this bridge leads and negotiate the steep canyon wall themselves, with their fish, and haul them back with the help of an ATV.

A float plane takes off from Willow Lake near Glennallen along the Richardson Highway.