Monday, July 27, 2015

Tatshenshini: Voyaging Together



We traveled in three rafts with three guides and 10 other clients down the Tashenshini to its confluence with the Alsek and then down the lower Alsek.  These rivers flow through Kluane, Glacier Bay, and Tatshenshini-Alsek Parks, three parts of a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprised of four contiguous parks.  Wrangell-St. Elias is the other, and together the four protect a total of about 38,000 square miles.    



The UNESCO website says the parks hold "the largest non-polar icefield in the world and contain examples of some of the world’s longest and most spectacular glaciers" and "demonstrate some of the best examples of glaciation and modification of landscape by glacial action in a region still tectonically active, spectacularly beautiful, and where natural processes prevail."



We shared this massive protected place with a friendly community of strong, good, careful, caring people.   Here is the village, population fifteen, starting with the three guides, third-generation Tatshenshini guides from Haines, AK, who learned the river from guides who learned it from guides on the first commercial trip there in 1976.

Alisa
Steve
Bryce



Steve and Dale
Glen and Marcia
Donna and Eric
Nancy and Tom
Ray and Connie

John
Sarah


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