Category: Island

  • Glacier Bay Scenery

    Hoonah–Angoon Census Area Census Area of the Unorganized Borough, Alaska, USA (August 1995) Mt. Fairweather This grand view points down Johns Hopkins Inlet, the home of numerous impressive glaciers. It is framed at back by Mt. Fairweather (map), which is somewhat of a misnomer since the weather can be quite nasty. Mt. Fairweather towers more…

  • South Marble Island

    Glacier Bay: Hoonah–Angoon Census Area Census Area of the Unorganized Borough, Alaska, USA (August 1995) South Marble Island (map) is a small protrusion within the main channel of Glacier Bay as one sails from the Visitors Center at Glacier Bay National Park up towards the major glaciers. It would be unremarkable except that it houses…

  • Adventures on Kaua’i

    Kaua’i, Hawaii, USA (October 1997) When my wife and I planned our trip to Australia we figured we might as well hit Hawaii since we’d be all the way out there anyway. On the leg from Los Angeles to Sydney a few days earlier we flew right over Hawaii; a thirty second view of Molokai…

  • Miscellaneous Bayfield Locations

    Apostle Islands & Bayfield Peninsula, Wisconsin (August 2007) Stunningly clear views of the Apostle Islands and the mainland led the way to the Mawikwe Sea Caves. Now on our return trip, passengers jostled railings for viewing space as we sailed away from the northwestern tip of the peninsula towards the Bayfield marina. We completed our…

  • Tybee Island Light Station

    Tybee Island, Georgia, USA (July 2006) The Tybee Island light station sits a pleasant 18 mile drive east of Savannah (map). From there, visitors can overlook Georgia’s Atlantic coast and the mouth of the Savannah River. The beautifully restored facilities mirror their original condition. Admission requires a modest fee.  This allows visitors to climb all…

  • Sand Island and Eagle Island

    Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Bayfield County, Wisconsin (August 2007) We cruised past Sand Island and spied its famous lighthouse in the distance, a tan notch along a forested cliff. The Sand Island Lighthouse first shined in 1881 as a companion to the nearby Raspberry Island light. Ships heading east to Ashland couldn’t see Raspberry Island…

  • Raspberry Island

    Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; Bayfield County, Wisconsin (August 2007) Mariners navigated through the Apostle Islands with the Raspberry Island Light as their companion since its 1863 activation. This “Showplace of the Apostles” took its present form in 1906 when the U.S. Lighthouse Service expanded the keeper’s quarters to accommodate additional workers to operate a new…

  • Ocracoke Light Station

    Ocracoke Island, North Carolina (March 2012) The primary reason we went through the trouble of riding the ferry to Ocracoke Island from Hatteras was to see the old lighthouse (map). Construction of this version occurred in 1823 although lighthouses watched over Ocracoke Inlet since 1795. The need had long been established.  English explorers first wrecked…

  • Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse

    Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina (September 2008) The lighthouse on Sullivan’s Island (map) is an oddity. It doesn’t look like any other lighthouse that I’ve ever seen before or since. Sure it’s a towering structure and it throws light far out to sea, but its appearance is downright strange. Most noticeably the tower takes a triangular…

  • Morris Island Lighthouse

    Charleston, South Carolina (September 2008) The Morris Island lighthouse (map) has the classic appearance of what a lighthouse “should” look like. I took this long-range photograph taken from several miles away at Fort Sumter.  It doesn’t do it much justice, but you can just make out the alternating black and white horizontal bands painted onto…