Alaska's Kenai Peninsula

This was taken on the road south from Anchorage into the Kenai Peninsula. I wasn't even there yet and I was floored by the beauty of the region.

The rest of the ride down to Homer was less spectacular, although it did have its moments. At one point, I saw a really stunning collection of clouds off to the east, but didn't stop to take a photo because, well, if I stopped to take a photo of every cool looking cloud I'd still be in California right now. A short while later, however, the cloud formation had expanded to take over all of the eastern sky and had taken on a weird brownish tinge.

Great, I thought, a freakin' volcano erupted here and I couldn't be bothered to take a photo of it. Way to go.

Well, it turned out not to be a volcano (damn! I never get to see the cool natural disasters!) - it was a forest fire that started near the city of Kenai from a lightening strike. The fire must have spread pretty quickly, because I was unable to outrun the spreading smoke. By the time I reached Homer at the end of the peninsula, most of the sky was dark and the temperature was dropping fast. There were also little tiny flecks of ash starting to fall from the sky.