la bomba shelter

Checking out the sand dune at Kincaid Park

The denuded area of Kincaid Park along its southern coast had been there for many years, but in the ’90s sometime the authorities started to get a bit more concerned, and wondered [with good reason] if a large part of the park was turning into a desert?  I’d heard about the sand dune for years, and seen signs of its presence but had never seen it in person.

These geo-cachers give a pretty good basic explanation of what happened there.

And Alaska Dispatch has a good photo gallery and description of the area from 2011.  Their headline might seem alarmist, until one sees this landscape in real life.  Descriptions and even aerial photos don’t really do it justice.  The dune head seems like it could swallow the Anchorage bowl.

Here’s a few of my photos from Mayday evening.