In her Lens-Artists Challenge this week, Leya (Ann-Christine) shared a wonderful collection of images from her journey to Africa. She invites us to do the same: select five to ten photos that capture one of our favorite journeys. As she writes, “What were the highlights, what are the memories that will stay with me forever? Maybe the big surprises? The animals, the people, the culture, the landscapes? This week it will be interesting to see how you choose to present a short or long trip (maximum 10 images), what will be your main points and why?” As a traveling photographer, I will find it fun to see how everyone chooses to present a short or long trip (maximum 10 images), what their main points are, and why. You can read her entire challenge post here.

In August 2014, we journeyed from Seattle to Alaska aboard the Norwegian Pearl. We saw so many wonderful places, but it was the landscapes that resonated with me. For my allotment of images, I’ll share some of the beautiful scenery from our 49th state. The opening image features the rugged coastline along the Inside Passage, where mountains, clouds, and sunlight often combine to create unforgettable moments. I’ve shared a similar photo—one of my favorites—several times in past challenges, but for this week I chose a different image to keep this post’s selections unique.

Our first stop was Juneau, where we chartered a van that held our family party of six. One of our stops was at the Nugget Falls Trailhead, where we made the easy 1.6‑mile (2.6 km) round‑trip walk to reach this breathtaking view. Standing at the edge of Mendenhall Lake with the glacier on one side and the thunder of Nugget Falls on the other was an experience that stays with you. The scale of the landscape—and the way people seem so small against it—reminded me just how immense and beautiful Alaska truly is.

Our next stop at Skagway allowed us to take a walking tour of the city and—joy of joys—a train ride to Canada on the White Pass and Yukon Railway. What could be better than a photograph of a train traveling through gorgeous mountain scenery opposite the trail once used by early prospectors, who hand‑carried their provisions toward the Yukon goldfields? In 1897–98, stampeders (as they were called) were required to haul nearly a ton of supplies up this route, making dozens of trips on foot through steep, icy terrain before they were even allowed to cross into Canada. Seeing the modern rail line trace the same dramatic landscape gives me a whole new appreciation for the grit and determination of those early fortune‑seekers.

Glacier Bay is one of the few National Parks only accessible by boat. The low clouds and fog that shrouded the Norwegian Pearl initially threatened our visit, but by the time we reached the inlet, the cloud ceiling rose enough for us to enter. Glacier Bay is home to more than a thousand glaciers—most tucked high in the mountains as hanging or valley glaciers—that descend quietly without the dramatic calving faces of the tidewater giants. As the cruise ship rotated 360 degrees in front of the Lamplugh Glacier, we captured its jagged, luminous textures. Just two years after this photo was taken, a massive 2016 landslide dumped 120 million metric tons of rock onto the ice—the equivalent of 60 million SUVs—forever burying the face of this remarkable remnant of the Little Ice Age under a dark blanket of debris.

Our last stop in Alaska brought us—and the low cloud ceilings—to Ketchikan, one of the rainiest places on earth. Our zipline canopy tour took place on Revillagigedo Island, and we lucked out with only light sprinkles throughout the excursion. At several points, we were over 135 feet (41 m) above the forest floor, crossing a rope bridge and launching from platforms perched in old‑growth spruce. I would have loved to share photos of the views from high in the trees, including bears wandering below us or fishing in the streams, but cameras and phones were strictly prohibited. Safety rules required both hands on the zipline handles at all times. So instead, the photo above captures the view of Ketchikan as seen from the Norwegian Pearl—a quieter moment before our rainforest adventure.

It’s easy to wonder whether the “no cameras” rule had more to do with selling the photos taken on our final zipline run—until you look at the image above and realize just how simple it would be to drop a camera or phone while flying through the trees. Holding anything securely at that speed would be a challenge. Our harnesses were clipped to two separate safety lines, each with its own carabiner, so even if one cable had failed, we would never have been at risk of falling to the forest floor. The system was designed for redundancy, not photography.

That’s all for my response to Ann‑Christine’s challenge. It didn’t take long to decide which of my many journeys on Journeys with Johnbo would take center stage this week. For this post, I even dug through my private Flickr archive to find images I’ve never used in a challenge before. I reprocessed the RAW Lamplugh Glacier photo in black‑and‑white specifically for this response. One note of interest: when I asked AI tools to identify the glacier from my 2014 photo, one insisted it couldn’t be identified, while another confidently labeled it as Lamplugh. Because the landscape around Lamplugh changed dramatically after the massive 2016 landslide, it’s difficult to be certain. Still, the rock formations in my image match features noted in one AI’s explanation, so Lamplugh remains the most likely candidate.

Thanks, Ann-Christine, for reminding me of our first and only trip to Alaska. Next week, it’s Anne’s turn to host. Her post goes live on Saturday, March 14, at Noon Eastern Time. Be sure to follow her here so you don’t miss her post. If you’d like to join in with your own challenge response, here are the details. For those who like to pixel-peep or see the photo metadata, that information is listed on my Flickr site here.

John Steiner