Wolf moon bedazzled Alaska view

Friday, Jan. 29, was the lunar event known as wolf moon. On this night the orbit of the moon is the closest to the earth of any time of the year. To commemorate this occasion I went for a walk at midnight. It was one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had.

After donning snow pants, jacket and bunny boots, I wandered along the framework of trails crisscrossing our 58 acres of pristine forest. Fortuitously, the night the moon was brightest seemed to coincide with the night the sky was at its clearest. It seemed as if the sky had temporarily become devoid of any moisture, like a view from space. One incredible effect of the moon’s proximity was that scores of features I have never been able to see were now visible in jaw-dropping detail. The beautiful vista spread out before me resulted in more than one stumble, as I was looking at the sky more often than the trail.

Also, the pair of high-powered binoculars to which my eyes were glued for about half an hour meant that I saw the moon in greater detail than at any other point in my life. It seemed as if I could see every ridge, crater and valley on its surface.

As I tramped though the fields below my house it seemed as if the world was holding its breath. The noise of traffic from the highway, usually so prevalent, was replaced by a profound silence. Only my breathing and the sound of the snow crunching beneath my trusty bunny boots disturbed the quiet. Near our house is a huge grove of birch trees covering some 20 acres of rolling hills. Under the moonlight, the shadows formed an enormous and intricate pattern of darkness and light that was so utterly alien it took my breath away. I am amazed that we can live in this state for our entire lives and yet never see the beauty of our surroundings until it hits us in the face.

At the edge of our property the trees clear out and the ground drops suddenly down to the Matanuska River, affording an uninterrupted view of the Chugach Mountains across the valley. As the moon beat down, it illuminated every curve and ridge before me. Mount Marcus Baker is one of the most impressive mountains in the Matanuska Valley, and in the light the face was resplendent in silver light. A layer of fresh snow had fallen the night prior, and still had that pure white gleam absent in old snow.

It is moments like that when we Alaskans, who have lived around such beauty our entire lives, can truly see the magnificence of nature around us. I feel extremely grateful to be able to live in a place where the sky isn’t obscured by smog and city lights.

Christopher Martin is a student at Glacier View School.