Armored in Ice

January’s frigid temperatures can freeze the sea of upper Cook Inlet, coating mud flats and rocks with an ice sheen. The tidal ebb and flow molds boulders from ice and mud that litter the shore. As the season goes on, they slowly grow larger with each cycle until they eventually start blocking access to the water. To capture this photo, I walked about 50 yards from the Seward Highway to stand among them on the beach of Turnagain Arm, right across from the Kenai Peninsula. It was near high slack tide, very cold and quiet, with a slight current whispering against the mud.