A Full-time Life

GOT AN AX TO GRIND?

 

 Another edition of Whimsical Alaska -- maybe the last one -- for this Throwback Thursday post from last summer.

 

 

(I really think that is supposed to be a bull and a cow moose, not a two-headed one. The sign was very weathered.)    Moose Pass is on the highway somewhere between Anchorage and Homer.   It was founded in 1909 and served as a supply station for the Klondike gold rush and other pioneers.

At one time, you could have ground your ax (literally) at the water wheel below -- it's a restoration of the original built in 1928 (according to another sign at the site).

 

 

 The original provided hydroelectric power to the village for decades.  It has been restored as a tribute to the town father who built the original.  

 

 

 

 

LINKING TO:  SIGNS SIGNS (thank you Lesley); to GOOD FENCES (maybe not so good in this case) with thanks to Theresa; and to next week's RUBBISH TUESDAY  (thank you Roan).  

 

 

 

HOMER! SCENERY SIGNS and ADVENTURE

A look-back to last summer combining SIGNS and SCENERY  -- two memes that don't often  go together.   But both beautiful scenery and fun signs were plentiful all around Alaska and especially in Homer, where all of these pictures were taken.   

 

 

One day during our stay Bill took a  halibut fishing charter out of this beautiful  harbor.   This picture was taken a couple days before the fishing excursion, from the deck of a restaurant.   We walked all over exploring.  

  

 It was a successful day of fishing (only two of these are his -- that is the limit).    This is Captain Mike's where we took the halibut he caught to be frozen, packed in dry ice and shipped (back to our daughter and son-in-law's in Oregon.)

They were delicious!  There were quite a few meals worth waiting in their freezer when we got back to Oregon this fall.   (I wish I'd remembered to take a picture of all of us enjoying it at a family dinner.)

  

 

 While Bill was out on the charter somewhere in the middle of the ocean, I spent a lovely day catching my own brand of beach treasures:

 

 

 

Prettier than the halibut -- but the fish tasted better!   

 

 

I saw this sign near one end of the beach where our camper van was parked.

 Not having the slightest idea what snagging was,  I could only hope I wasn't doing it!    

Of course, when the fisherman returned, he knew the answer.   It's a method of catching a fish by using hooks without the fish having to take it with their mouth.  It's usually illegal, but Fish and Game Departments allow it when there's a surplus of fish.  

Here are a few more harbor shots.  Gotta' get the boats!

 

 Linking to:  SIGNS SIGNS (thanks to Lesley) and to SCENIC WEEKENDS (thanks to Gemma).

 

 

In Alaska EAGLES ARE EVERYWHERE

 (Like many of our neighbors here  in Fort Myers Florida I've been a little obsessed  over the past couple of seasons with following the adventures of  Ozzie and Harriet, our local eagle pair.  This lovely couple  have their own nest-cam and have become local, if not worldwide, celebrities as a result.   They were the first bald eagles I'd ever been able to photograph and so they'll always have a special place in my birding heart!  On Christmas Day they hatched their second egg  of this season.  I'm sure I'll still check on the family's progress occasionally, but I won't take as many pictures   -- because my files are really full of eagles from our summer's trip.  Here are some of them.)

This past summer in Alaska, we saw more bald eagles than I ever imagined we would see in our whole lifetime.   They are simply everywhere in that beautiful State.   Here are just a few  of our summer sightings (along with the stunning scenery in the places these Eagles call home). 

 

COOK'S INLET

Most of the people fishing at this beach weren't very excited about the birds,  so I wondered if seeing them would become so routine to us too that they'd soon be "just another bird."  But that didn't happen.   It was still just as much fun to spot them at the end of our trip as  it had been at the beginning.   

 

Above is more scenery from the Cook's Inlet beach, in South-Central Alaska.  

 

YAKATAK BEACH NEAR FERRY DOCK

 

The picture above is a little out-of-sequence.  We actually saw these mature and young eagles early in June while we were still on the ferry ride from Washington.  We got off the boat and walked during a brief loading and unloading stop in tiny Yakatak.  So these were our first Alaska Eagles. 

 

HERITAGE RV PARK, HOMER

This was the prettiest RV Park ever in the prettiest little coastal city.  There was a pair of eagles who loved that light post.  The recreation room/office for the park had an observation deck perfectly positioned to watch them.

  

BELUGA SLOUGH, KENAI PENINSULA

 It was a lovely easy walk around the slough -- we saw several eagles, some   cranes and as always the amazing scenery.  

 

HAINES

The guide on one of our nature tours told us that Bald Eagles were never endangered in Alaska, the way they were in the lower 48.  

He said they have always thrived in the State because DDT was never used there.  

This is how nature is supposed to be!

 

 

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Sharing these Alaska memories with NATURE NOTES,  WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY, and the next SCENIC WEEKENDS and SATURDAY CRITTERS.

 

 Thank you to Michelle, Stewart, Gemma, and Eileen for hosting these wonderful sharing opportunities!

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS LAST SUMMER

 

 We visited the Aurora Ice Museum at Cheena Hot Springs during our trip to Alaska.  Even though it was July and fairly warm and sort of sunny outside, once we were inside the museum we experienced our  coldest Winter weather in recent years.    The temperature and especially the festive Christmas room almost made us forget what month it really was.

 

There were several rooms carved out of ice in addition to the Christmas one-- a bedroom, a music room, a sitting area...    These pictures are just a tiny sampling.    

The most elaborate carvings were along the hallways between rooms... these were for the most part too large to photograph as there wasn't room to get far enough away. 

 

 Cheena Hot Springs is near Fairbanks and HERE is an earlier post about the rest of our experience there.  We loved it all!

 The bottom left and right photos are in the carving workshop in the Museum.  Everyone on the tour gathers in the anteroom, picks up heavy parkas, and enter the Museum quickly and all at once.  After you enter the Museum itself, pretty much everything that isn't special lighting (or human) is made of ice.

     

 

Below is the Ice Bar -- (all ice except for the comfy barstool covers).   Someone you may recognize is drinking a very icy appletini (in a martini glass made of ice).  The tour guide also served as bartender and he only served this one drink.  I don't think anyone would have wanted to hang around long enough to choose from a menu -- or to drink more than one. 

 

 

Cheers!  

And Happy Holidays from Florida, where Christmas is a little bit warmer!

 

SHARING with MOSAIC MONDAY and OUR WORLD TUESDAY.

 

Thank you Judith (MM) and Lady Fi, Sandy, Sylvia, Gattina, Arija, and Jenn for Our World.   

 

WORTH THE TROUBLE

 

We saw this sign as we pulled into Northern Lights Campground, Glenallen Alaska (but we stayed there anyway.)   

 

There definitely ARE mosquitos in Alaska and the campground hosts here had the right idea -- you might as well laugh about it!   It was a very nice well-run place to stay.)   And (like pretty much everywhere else in the State) the scenery in the area was  well worth a little inconvenience -- and a little bug spray.

Here is some of what we saw just before and after we stayed at this particular campground:

 

 

 

 

 Linking to Lesley's SIGNS SIGNS and Gemma's SCENIC WEEKENDS.  Thank you both for hosting.

 

INDEPENDENCE MINE

 

Independence Mine is an Alaska State Historical Park.   There is more  information about the gold-mine's history in an  earlier post from while we were on the road (HERE).   This  is more about the structures on the old mine site. 

This pretty chain-link fence bordered the walkway to the Visitor Center, which is in what was the Mine Supervisor's home when this was an active gold mine.  

 

 

As we walked toward the Center, some of the other mine buildings were visible. ... housing and offices for the various occupations and professions that it took to run this kind of operation.

 

\

 This is a view from the Visitor Center window...  It would have been the Supervisor's living room window ... he and his family could have sat in comfort and seen quite a bit of the site. 

(From all accounts, he was a good supervisor well-liked by the people who worked there.)

 A few more of the buildings are open to the public and there are great informational posters in the Center and along the pathways.  We also walked up the hill to where the actual mining operations took place.

 

The fencing here really didn't seem quite adequate to protect visitors.  Notice the people on the left of the picture -- no fence at all between them and the mine-shaft ruins. 

 

Poignant and almost elegant in decay, not to mention hazardous.  We were surprised (but pleased)  that the State has left these ruins standing for the public to see.   

 

LINKING TO OUR WORLD on TUESDAY (thank you to Lady Fi, Arija, Gattina, Sylvia and Sandy) to Roan's RUBBISH TUESDAY and Tex's GOOD FENCES.  Thank you all.

 

AMAZING ALASKA QUICK-STOPS/PHOTO OPS

There is hardly anyplace in Alaska that isn't a photo-op.   Even when we were just driving from one place to another, we usually had to stop every few yards to take a picture.  These are a few of those quick stops as we drove between Valdez (where we'd stayed for over a week) and our next (several-night) stop in Mt St Elias National Park.  

 

We got out to stretch our legs along the Gilahena River. 

 

An elegant pair of Trumpeter Swans.  We saw them  just after we left Valdez.  

 

 More scenery as we walked along the lovely Gilahena River.

 

 

 

    LINKING TO:  SCENIC WEEKENDS,  SKYWATCH FRIDAY,  SATURDAY CRITTERS, I'D RATHER B'BIRDING and MOSAIC MONDAY.  

Thank you to the hosts  for making these sharing opportunities possible. Each of them has a beautiful blog of their own in addition to managing these memes.   

 THANK YOU to Gemma for SW; to Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy for SWF;  to Eileen for SC;  to Ani of the Bird D'Pot; and to Judith for MM.    

Your generosity is appreciated!

ARCTIC OCEAN GEESE

The town of Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) Alaska is  the biggest industrial area you've ever seen.  There are no homes, no shopping,  not much of anything except machines and shops and trucks associated with oil drilling here at the start of the Alyeska Pipeline.  

The people who work for the various drilling and trucking companies live in barracks called "Man Camps,"   where they eat, sleep, and, I guess, play if they have any time.   They work for varying lengths of time (three weeks or longer) and when the time they signed up for is over, the company flies them back and forth at no cost to Anchorage or Fairbanks for their equal time off .    There are no parks or outdoor recreation areas or amenities at all.

So,  you wouldn't usually go birding in the industrial area of town.  But Deadhorse sits smack on the edge of the Arctic tundra,  which is the breeding grounds for several species.  We hadn't really thought of that though and so we didn't really give ourselves the time to really GO birding here.  But, without really trying we saw quite a few wonderful ones anyway.

 

There were several families of Greater White Fronted Geese.  This was a first-time sighting for us.

And tons of Snow Geese -- both the blue phase and the white.    We had seen flocks and flocks of the white ones in New Mexico one Fall several years ago.    That might even be where these very ones will end up, since they leave the Arctic sometime in October. 

The blue ones were new to us.    When we took the security bus to the Arctic Ocean, there was a hand-made sign out on the tundra (near the oil rigs) that said "Slow Please.  Snow Goose Flight-Training Area."  It made me  happy to know that the workers cared.  (I wish I could have gotten a picture of the sign.    But the driver had his timing down to the second, so I couldn't even ask.)  (Here is a link to an earlier post about this area.)

 

Another shot of the white-fronted goose family. 

 

 

 

These look like Snow Geese, but their billls look black.  Maybe it's a trick of the light.  Otherwise, I'm not sure what these guys are.   

 

Sharing these Arctic Ocean sightings with  WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thank you Stewart.

WE DID IT ... BACKWARDS

The Alaska Highway (formerly known as the AlCan) was built during WWII to connect the United States to its (then) territory of Alaska through Canada.   It opened to the public in 1948, when much of the route was still rough and unpaved.  Quite a few  tourists who braved it bought the bumper sticker that  said "We survived the Alcan." 

 

 Now paved over its entire length, it's fairly smooth driving.    Not the worst road we've ever driven by far.  Not even the worst one in Alaska.  But we honored the history of those who went before by taking the obligatory picture of  the start of the highway -- at Dawson Creek BC.    (Only, for us, Dawson Creek was the end rather than the beginning of the road.)

      

 

Like just about everywhere in Alaska, the drive-by scenery along the Highway was stupendous.   

 

 

But also like everywhere else in the State, there are only two seasons:  Winter and Road Construction.  One time, we followed this pilot car for over 15 miles.   Road crews keep very busy repairing frost heaves and other weather damage.

 

 

 

 

Of course, the scenery was even better when we could get out of the car to explore and we felt fortunate to be able to do that.

 

 From the Alaska Milepost guidebook:

"The Alaska Highway begins (or ends) at Mile 0 in Dawson Creek, BC. The first 613 miles/987 km of the Alaska Highway are in British Columbia, where it is designated BC Highway 97 North.  

The highway travels in a northwesterly direction to the Yukon  border near Watson Lake, YT (Historical Mile 635). From there it continues as Yukon Highway 1, crossing 577 miles/929 km of Yukon to Port Alcan on the Alaska border.

The Alaska Highway crosses into Alaska at Historical Mile 1221.8, where it becomes Alaska Route 2. From this international border, it is 200 miles/322 km to Delta Junction, AK (Historical Mile 1422), the official end of the Alaska Highway. " 

 

We drove all of it.  Not in one fell swoop  --   parts of it at a time with side jaunts here and there.     We stayed overnight in Delta Junction (the end/beginning of the Highway) on August 2 and we got the other end at Dawson Creek on the 5th of September.  Even covering all those miles, that gave us  some time to explore.

 

 

So we  survived the Alcan Highway -- even though we did it backwards.  (There might be a metaphor for our life in there somewhere!)

 

 

LINKING with the wonderful sharing opportunity provided by the host team of OUR WORLD on TUESDAY.  Thank you Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy, Gattina, Arija, and Jenn.

A MUSHROOMING POPULATION

 

 

Nature has reclaimed the abandoned town of Dyea Alaska,  once a major port for Klondike goldrush travel.   Mushrooms and other fungi thrive where storekeepers once sold supplies to stampeders.

 

 

The area is now owned by the National Park Service; some historical artifacts and ruins can be seen on a self-guided walk.  Even better, the reclaimed forest was a quiet and beautiful place for a long nature walk -- a perfect day trip to escape from the touristy city of Skagway, where we were staying.

 

 

 At the time of the goldrush, this area was a grassland and the forest is not yet mature ... the process known as plant succession is underway here.  As it matures, spruce, hemlock, and cottonwood trees will  give way to the shade-tolerant western hemlock.

At its present stage, the forest-floor provides the perfect home for mushrooms and fungi.  So many varieties that we lost count.   (But I think we got pictures of most of them.)

 

 

 Magical mushroom, I'm sure.

 

 

Fungi on parade.

 

 

 Broken but still beautiful.

 

Linking this post to Laura's I HEART MACRO; to Judith's MOSAIC MONDAY; and to Michelle's NATURE NOTES.  

Thank you to each of these lovely ladies for giving us these opportunities to share and learn.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?

 

Anybody else old enough to remember penny scales?  

 

 

While Bill registered us for a night's stay at Tolsona Wilderness Campground (on Alaska's Glen Highway),  I was busy taking pictures.   This was a private campground.  There were antiques, including this wonderful scale,  and well-used but now abandoned farm machinery everywhere we looked --  sadly just rusting away in the weather.  

 

 

It was a big place with nice walks along the river  -- it even had a flower bed (an old old visual joke that still makes me smile).

 

 

When the owner noticed our interest, she told us the whole place was for sale and the antiques went with it.    But all we wanted to own was the pictures.

 

 

Linking to Lesley's SIGNS SIGNS (as always one of my favorite places) and to next week's  RUBBISH TUESDAY (a new meme for me; Roan says it is a place to post your pictures of old and deteriorating items, of which I always seem to have a lot)

 

Thank you to Lesley and to Roan.

 

 

A TASTE OF RUSSIA

I made this post back in June while we were on the Kenai Peninsula, then didn't have a chance to post it in a timely fashion because we ran out of good Internet.   We loved this experience and the memory is part of Our World! 

 

 

 

The Alaska Territory was purchased from Russia in 1867.  There is a lot to remind residents and travelers of the State's Russian heritage.  Especially while on the Peninsula, we often saw old-style Russian Orthodox churches, with their distinctive blue onion domes.     This one was open for tours.  

But our most interesting Russian-related experience was the night we spent in the Old-Believer's village of Nikolaevsk, up a mountain road a few miles North of Homer.     We reserved our RV  space for the night along with a Russian dinner at the cafe  -- we really didn't have a choice about dinner.  When Bill inquired about a vacancy for the night, Nina (the owner and chef)  said "yes, we have an RV space.  What time do you wish dinner?"  

 

 

Nina's Restaurant and the Nikolaevsk Church

 

   So she cooked a typical Russian meal for the two of us as we watched  -- there was only one other table of people (who were tourists from Russia), so for a brief time we felt like we'd had a short visit in another country.    (I didn't get a picture of the first course, a borscht soup, which was our favorite part of the meal -- too busy slurping!).  The tea is fireweed tea -- made from that wildflower that grows everywhere here in Alaska.  (That's probably not typical Russian tea.)

 

 

 

 That is, of course, Nina Fefelov in the collage above -- and after dinner was cooked, she was gracious about answering questions (although she was a little bit hard to understand).  Nina was an electrical engineer in Russia before she met her husband and emigrated to Alaska, where her father-in-law was the priest for the church.     She currently teaches Russian in the parochial grade school in the village as well as running her businesses.

 

 

   

 It was a rather primitive RV Park -- really just a place to park in a vacant lot next to the cafe  (there was an electric hookup).  But there was this beautiful view and we had a completely different and unexpected experience.  We were glad we found this place!

 

 

Linking to OUR WORLD on TUESDAY.  (Thank you to Lady Fi, Arija, Gattina, Sandy, Sylvia, and Jenn.)

 

 

 

MEW GULLS and ARCTIC TERN

(As promised, still blogging about our Alaska summer trip, even though it ended in early September.) 

 

 

Above -- this handsome bird (I'm pretty sure an Arctic Tern), posed beautifully along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in Anchorage.    

 

And here's another tern sleeping right through Mother Mew Gull's lesson for the day.  (Doesn't she just look as if she's giving those kids a lecture?)

 

 

If  this brood is any kind of example of how healthy they are, the species is definitely not in 'danger of being endangered.'

We've seen an awful lot of Gulls in our lifetime, but realized here that we'd never before seen Gull babies.  

 

 

 

They weren't happy at all when mom flew off.  Lots and lots of plaintive baby gull noises.  (Come on kids, I'm sure she's just going out to get some lunch for you!)

 

LINKING to SATURDAY CRITTERS (thank you to Eileen) and to WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY (thanks to Stewart).

THE WHITE PASS TRAIN

Trains are a big thing in Skagway.  The town is  headquarters for the White Pass-Yukon route.  That's the same route that the Klondike goldrush stampeders followed in 1898.

 

We traveled that 67 mile route -- from Skagway to Carcross (Yukon Territory Canada) -- much more comfortably than those intrepid adventurers.  Our trip was on a train like the yellow and green one in the photo above.  The red train has a huge snowplow on the front (scary to think about the tracks that would need that) and the black one is a steam train that also makes the same trip we took.)

 

 

Above, some samples of the beautiful scenery along the route.  

Although the day started off overcast, the skies turned blue about the time we reached the US/Canada border.    

  

  

I really like looking out the train window as the train goes around a curve and seeing the engine up ahead.  So here is my obligatory photo of that event.    We went through several tunnels and over several bridges which I am sure were safer than they looked.   (There actually had been a derailment earlier in the season ... and we knew about that, but still took the chance.  Call us crazy!)

 

More scenery and me standing on the platform between cars.  It was a great spot to take pictures  (if you could do that with one hand on the rail -- it was a little wobbly).  

The journey was narrated by an excellent guide, but you couldn't hear him when standing on the platform.  So it was a hard choice to make.  Shortly after Bill took this picture and went back to our seat, the train entered another rather long tunnel.  Of course I didn't hear the announcement (and nobody remembered to come get me.  How quickly they forget!).  That was a little spooky.

 

 

 

The train entered Canada at Fraser BC and stopped for a welcome rest stop.  The actual border (in the first picture above) is several miles from Fraser, but it gets so snowy at that particular spot that both countries have their stations in a lower location.

(This is Part One of the rail trip -- more on Tuesday)

I am linking this post to SKYWATCH FRIDAY (thanks to Yogi, Sylvia, and Sandy) to Gemma's SCENIC WEEKENDS and to Judith's MOSAIC MONDAY.  Thank you to all the hosts for these great memes.  

 

NO SPITTING in front of my fence!

 For  SIGNS SIGNS  and GOOD FENCES --  two memes that I've been away from for too long.

 

Views of a pretty little yard in an 'off-the-beaten-track' Skagway neighborhood.  (We were looking for a place to walk that was away from the hordes of tourists -- pretending we weren't part of them.) 

 

 

 

 The people who live in the home are probably one or two of the 900 year-round Skagway residents.  The population of the town doubles in the summer because of the seasonal workers who are employed to help with the influx of tourists.  The town has over 900,000 summer visitors!  Those cruise ships bring a lot of people (this post).

I'm pretty sure the sign was meant to be funny.  Although who knows how much sense of humor those 900 residents can maintain during the summer season!

 

 

 

Thank you to Theresa at the RunARound Ranch for GOOD FENCES and to Lesley for SIGNS SIGNS.

I've missed these memes.

SKAGWAY

Haines (this post) and Skagway are only about 15 miles apart by water -- Skagway is at the end of the Lynn Canal.   By land, the only way to get from one to the other is 350 miles, back into Canada through part of the Yukon.  

 

view of Skagway Harbor from the ferry

 

So of course we chose the water route -- taking another Alaska Ferry, very much like the one we traveled on (back in early June) to Alaska from Washington State.  But this one just makes the one-hour crossing between the two cities several times daily.  

As we did in Haines, here we also stayed in an RV Park within easy walking distance of the town center.  But Skagway seemed to us like a made-up town.   Three to five cruise ships were docked every day we were there -- and when the passengers disembark they by far outnumber the population.   Many of them walked right by our RV Park on their way into town, so when we were at "home" it made for good people-watching.

    

 

  

This picture, from a viewpoint above town, is a graphic example of how the giant cruiseships dwarf the town --  Skagway really does exist (these days) almost solely to cater to these tourists.  Skagway's downtown blocks are charming at first glance, wooden sidewalks and some old buildings dating from the Yukon goldrush. But there are almost no locally-owned stores.

 

 

The driftwood-covered building above was (in goldrush days) home to the Alaska Brotherhood lodge.  Now it is a Visitor Center for the Klondike National Historical Park.    Next to it (on the left of the picture) is a jewelry store.   Most Skagway storefronts are occupied by jewelry and "gold" stores.  Not our thing anyway and besides nearly all of them are owned by the cruise lines... tailor made so that cruise passengers who may only have a few hours in town can spend their money on something "local."  

But ... although we didn't love Skagway the way we did Haines, we were really glad that we stayed there .... 

Shameless teaser about the next post

...because of the adventures we had when we got away from the town itself.  (And that's another post or two. )   

 

SHARING WITH:  Wednesday Around the World.  A new meme for me, hosted by Betty who blogs beautifully from New Zealand.  Thank you Betty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAINES --- birds, beasts, and a charming town

 

Most of the time we spent in Haines, we were exploring outside of the town...

 

...  watching birds, gazing at scenery, taking a few pictures, fishing a bit,  and watching other wildlife:

  

 

 (Like this guy on the way to his favorite fishing hole.)

But we also really enjoyed the little town.   Here are some of the views of this picturesque  area:

   

 

Like most places in Alaska, Haines is nowhere near a city of any size.  Because of its location and small population, I had expected a tiny village with few amenities.   I was pleasantly surprised.   It actually does not have chain stores and that was OK by us.  It's sweet to see a town that doesn't look like every other place you visit. And besides,  the local merchants offered  everything we needed (good grocery stores and restaurants for us mostly, but there were other stores, none  of which seemed overtly 'touristy'.)  

This bald eagle was fishing near Haines at the same time Bill was.

 

About 3500 Bald Eagles migrate into Haines in late Fall and the town hosts the Chilkat Valley Bald Eagle Festival in November.  (I'd love to be there   --  if only it weren't already so cold by then!)  But we were just happy to see a few of the ones who make their home permanently in the area.  

SHARING WITH:  MOSAIC MONDAY (thanks to Judith, the new host)  OUR WORLD on Tuesday (thank you to the team Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer) and WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY with thanks to Stuart.   

 

 

CARIBOU

 

It is estimated that over 95,000 caribou make Alaska their home, so it wasn't surprising that we saw a few of them.   They are an important part of Alaska's history and culture.   

 

  Archeological evidence shows that ten thousand years ago, nomadic hunters --descended from the people who first crossed the Bering Sea land bridge  -- followed caribou trails into what is now Denali National Park.  The animals were hunted for their meat and fur.   Their  hollow hairs are a natural insulator against the cold weather.   

Today, the caribou population is managed by controlled hunts as well as by predators (they are the center of the food chain).  Many Native Alaskans still depend on them for food and some areas along  migration routes (as they travel from summer to winter grazing areas) are set aside for subsistance hunting. 

 

 We saw a herd of several hundred on the Dalton Highway (past the Arctic Circle) and that was amazing.    (The picture above,  part of a much smaller herd of females and young, was taken in Denali Park.)  In the summer time,  the herds mostly consist of females and young with the males more often spotted alone.

 

Both male and female grow antlers during the summer.    Bulls drop theirs after the Autumn mating season,  while cows carry theirs until mid-winter or even later. 

Caribou and reindeer are  pretty much the same animal.   In Alaska, reindeer simply means domesticated caribou.    (According to the story told  by one of our Denali drivers this means that the reindeer pictured pulling Santa's sleigh are all females, since at Christmas time  males would be antler-less.)

 

When the Alyeska Pipeline was being planned in the 1970s, there was worry that it would disrupt the caribou population (and, therefore, the entire ecosystem).  In places where it was known that the pipeline would cross the migratory paths, the pipeline was  buried to allow them to proceed unimpeded.  But it turned out that step was not necessary; the caribou simply ignore the pipeline, treating it as if it isn't even there.  They slide under the pipe wherever and whenever they want.     

 

Linked to SATURDAY CRITTERS.  (Thank you to Eileen for hosting) and to NATURE NOTES with thanks to Michelle.

 

 

 

VIEWS OF WRANGELL-ST ELIAS NATIONAL PARK

 We traveled along the scenic Copper River and its tributaries into Wrangell-Mt St Elias National Park.  When we came back after our stay, the RVs and the fish wheels in the background (below) were cut off from the road because of flooding.  I hope they eventually got out.  We had beautiful weather the first part of our stay, but on the last day we were in the Park, there was drenching rain.  

 

 

While Wrangell-Mt St Elias is the largest National Park in the US, other than about 20 miles of bad road, it is roadless wilderness.  Backpacking wasn't on our agenda, so we didn't do any hiking into the glaciers.  But we had lovely views from our campsite, from the van we took into Kennicott/McCarthy, and as we walked around the  site of the old company town. 

 

 

The Kennicott Glacier is hundreds of feet deep and is covered with a few feet of gravel.  It is retreating and causing some land that was along side to collapse.  

 

 

 

  This is a view of the Glacier from an empty (no glass)  window in one of the top floors of the Copper Mill (this post).  

 Back then, the glacier would have been much closer to the mill town buildings.

But I don't suppose the people working in the mill had  time or the inclination to admire the view.    

In fact, the story is that the company actually built their outhouses high above the glacier, so that the waste dropped right down onto the ice.  That's cold!  

 

Some morning views from where we camped while we were in the Park.  (It was called Root Glacier Base Camp).  The footbridge goes across the river where a van picks you up for the drive to the old town of McCarthy and on into Kennicott.

 We noticed while in camp that the fireweed was bloomed out clear up to the top. 

 

 Alaska folklore says that when this happens it is only six weeks until Winter (this post).  So we decided it must be about time to get ourselves down the Mountain!  

 

SHARED with SCENIC WEEKENDS.  Thank you Gemma. and SKYWATCH FRIDAY , Thanks to Yogi and the SWF team.  (Maybe I will be last on both memes this week ... WiFi where we are now isn't  quite as good as it was supposed to be.)

KENNICOTT WORLD HERITAGE SITE

We took a rough unpaved road through part of Wrangell-St Elias National Park to the Kennicott Copper Mine World Heritage Site.        The mine-site, the Kennicott Company town, and the small old village  of McCarthy lie within the National Park.  Gold was first discovered near here during the Klondike Gold Rush, but it soon became evident that the rich copper deposits were far more valuable.  (The highlighted link here is a good overview of the history.)

 

 

This narrow passage marks the end of the paved road.  From here it is 62 miles to McCarthy.  The road overlies the old railroad built to transport ore from the Copper Mine to a steamship port on the Alaska coast.

The story is that the builder -- in a hurry to get the railroad through to the new mine -- put a case of beer on the far side of these rocky cliffs.  He told the crew they could have it when they blasted through the rocks-- so they cut the minimal amount to clear the train.

 

  

This single lane steel span-wood decked bridge, with low guard rails, replaced the wooden trestle across the Gilahina river.  The train ran from Cordova up the Copper River to Kennicott.

 

 

This is the  copper ore mill building.  At 14 stories it is the tallest all-wood building in this country.

We climbed pretty much the whole thing -- on some very narrow, rickety stairs.  It was kind of amazing to me that people are actually allowed to tour this old mill. (We did have to sign waivers and wear hard hats in parts of this building.)

 

Our guided tour of the entire old company town was excellent. It included the old company store,  several various shops, housing (barracks for the workers, fairly nice old homes for the bosses).   A pretty building that had served as a hotel/temporary housing has been renovated and restored and is again an inn with a nice restaurant. We ate lunch there. 

 

I plan to link this post to next week's  OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  Thank you to the lovely ladies who host this great meme.

 

DENALI NATIONAL PARK

 

 

Catching up on a part of our Alaska summer that I wasn't able to blog much about at the time.  Either because we were too busy, too tired, or there was no Internet.  Or all of the above.

 

We stayed in Denali in mid-July.   Dall sheep were just one of the animals we saw there for the first time.

 

 The scenery all along the road was beautiful, even though we were not among the lucky one-third of Denali visitors who get to see Mt McKinley shining in the sun.   Clouds hung over these lower peaks  ... and  raincoats were the costume of the day.    

 We stayed at Teklanika Campground while we were there.  At 29 miles up the road, it is the furthest place where you can drive a private vehicle.  From there we took the Park Service bus along the rest of the road through the Park.   

It's a hop-on/hop-off, so at any time you can get off to spend some time exploring or hiking.  (Just hailing the next bus when you're ready to go further or go back to camp).

 

The first day,  we took the bus straight through to the end of the trail at Kantishna, the site of a reconstructed miner's cabin from a brief gold rush in the early 1900s. 

  This ride was  an all-day excursion with several planned stops and frequent spontaneous ones for wildlife sightings.

The second day, we rode just part of the way stopping for a while to explore and spend some time at the Visitor Center, which is about half-way up the road.

  All of our drivers were great about waiting for wildlife photo stops as long as they could stop in a safe place.

  This was the cause of one of those stops -- and I was proud to be the first person on the bus to spot this grizzly guy and shout out.    

It's kind of  funny to hear the shouts "bear on the left", "moose on the right", etc.  Sometimes you hear "oops, rock bear".  Once somebody yelled "mosquito in the bus".  

More wild Denali animals in a future post.

This weekend,  I am linking to SCENIC WEEKENDS (thank you to Gemma) and to SATURDAY CRITTERS (thanks to Eileen).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BACK IN ALASKA (for the second time)

 

 

 

Yesterday, we arrived in Haines on Alaska's Panhandle.  To get here, we had to travel through part of Canada -- driving along the Kluane River in the Yukon Territory and then through a tiny bit of BC before re-entering the US just a few miles outside of Haines.

 

(This sign made me laugh.  Tok is this tiny little Alaska village --  the area has just over 1000 people.  Canada, on the other hand, is a slightly larger village!)

 

  

It was really a beautiful drive and -- because it was 445 miles from Tok to Haines and we don't travel long days -- we had the fun of staying overnight in another country (at Haines Junction, Yukon Territory) -- on our way back to the USA.  

 

It has been many years since we've been in Canada -- and certainly we've never been in the Yukon before.  It was a beautiful drive and we look forward to driving through more of beautiful BC when we decide that our Alaska adventure is over.

 (But there is a whole lot more to see in this area and the weather is still beautiful -- so it will be a while before we leave the Haines and Skagway area.   Plus we have WiFi in our RV Park.)  

 

 

SHARING these beautiful Canadian skies (and this touch of early Fall color  -- already) with SKYWATCH FRIDAY.  Thank you to the hosts.

 

(Last time I posted we were leaving Valdez and heading to Wrangell-Mt St Elias National Park and the Kennicott Copper Mine World Heritage Site.  We did  go there and it was amazing.     I have so many pictures from that beautiful and interesting area that I don't even know where to start ... so I'll save that post for later (did I already mention that we have WiFi here?).   

 

 

 

HATCHER PASS

 

We drove beautiful Hatcher Pass -- between  Wasilla and Palmer -- early in July.

 The pass had only opened two days earlier --  there was still a lot of snow along  the roads.    

 

It was a technicolor day -- blue skies, green trees, rushing water, white snow  in the background and, probably because the road had only been open for a couple of days, relatively little traffic.  

 

 
 

Bill first read about the pass while we were staying in Wasilla, so it wasn't something we'd actually planned on in advance.     That, plus the fact that we didn't see a lot of people, made this side-trip even more special.    It almost seemed as if we were the first to discover this lovely area.

(You can't really pretend that in Denali or any of the other places you've read about all your life -- even when it is your first time!)

About mid-way up the pass we came to the Independence Mine, once a highly productive gold mine and  now a State Historical Park.

 

  

My grandfather was a mining engineer and worked at gold mines his entire career.  He was retired by the time I was old enough to understand anything.  We heard stories of course, but I had never quite been able to imagine what it was actually like.  Although not one where he worked, this mine gave us a better idea of what it would have been like for him at the ones in Canada where he mostly worked (I think).    And what it would have been like for my grandmother, my dad and his siblings when they lived in these camps during the summers.  (My grandmother stayed at home in Spokane  during the school years.)

 

We enjoyed hiking around the old mine and mining camp, but especially loved the parts where we learned more about what the mining engineer did.

 

 I'm linking this post to SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SCENIC WEEKENDS.    Thank you to the hosts.

PTARMIGANS ... and Chicken (?)

The Willow Ptarmigan is Alaska's State Bird.  This bird is really good at camouflage -- in the winter they  turn completely white (in all the snow) while this time of year, their dappled brown feathers  blend in really well in Alaska's summer landscape.  We spotted this family out for a stroll on the outskirts of Denali National Park.

 

 

Of course this was a new bird for us because it doesn't migrate into the lower 48.  

 

 

 Ptarmigans are members of the grouse family.  They are protective parents as we could tell watching them shepherd their babies.

 

 

 

Sometime after our visit to Denali, we spent a night in the old mining town of Chicken.  The legend is that the settlers spotted a whole lot of these birds around the area and wanted to name their new town after them, but they couldn't agree on how to spell it.    So they settled on Chicken.  (I don't blame them.)

 

 

 

 Sharing these birds (not the chicken) with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thank you to Stewart for hosting.

BOATING IN ICE

We took a full-day boat tour of Prince William Sound up to Columbia Glacier.    Lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife along the way but the highlight was arriving at the Glacier ice field.   We were amazed.    

All of the pictures in this post are straight-out-of-the camera and were taken without using a zoom lens.  We were this close!  

 

In the picture above the boat was a mile and a half from the face of the Glacier.  Those giant "snowballs" are actually chunks of ice that flew on top of icebergs when the glacier calved.   (Calving is the word used to describe the process of ice breaking free from the face of the glacier.)

 

 

Here (above) we were one mile from the face of the Glacier.  The ice was getting thick and the Captain was having to pick his way carefully through the ice-field.

 

 

And here we are only one-half mile from the face of Columbia Glacier.  Most of this floating ice calved during the night as the Captain said the waterway had been much more open the day before.    The large cracks in the face of the glacier are where more calving will soon take place.

The Captain stopped the boat at this point for over an hour, so that we could watch for calving and take lots and lots of pictures.   When we were ready to leave, he had some difficulty maneuvering the boat to free it from the ice that had packed in around us.   

I tried to relax and remind myself that he had done this many times before.

 

Sharing this memorable experience with OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY.  Thank you to the hosts.

MUSK OX

On our trip to Prudhoe Bay we saw three different herds of musk ox (I never heard anyone say musk 'oxen' although it seems like the plural should be that). 

These huge animals are more closely related to goats and sheep than they are to oxen, but they are a species of ther own (genus Ovibos 'sheep-goat').     They are the last survivor of a line that eons ago adapted to cold tundra environments.    

 

 

 

 

 The one in the picture below was part of a herd that was bedding down for the evening.   He looked so goofy and happy to be chewing on a flower while he was falling asleep.

I'm sure I had a big goofy grin on my face too while I was taking his picture ... he was so fun to watch.

 

 

 They do look like prehistoric survivors  ...  as I guess they are.    And they all look ancient -- even when they're babies like the two below. (Their mother was just out of photo range and in a few minutes she curled up around them.  But that picture just looked like three brown rocks on the tundra.)

 

 

 

Once spotted, the animals were easy to see  with the naked eye but  you could only see the expressions on their faces through binoculars or the camera.   

Adult musk ox(en?) weigh 500 t0 800 pounds and they are four to five feet tall at the shoulder.    You would not want to get real close to them -- they are said to have a bad temper -- and those horns look lethal.

  

 

 

There were  20 to 30 animals in each of the herds we saw. 

 

 

 

 

I don't think there is such a thing as a 'life-animal' list, the way there is for new birds.  But if there were, the Musk Ox would definitely be a 'lifer' for us.

 

Linking to SATURDAY CRITTERS.  Thanks to Eileen.

DALTON DRIVE-BYS

 

 

We drove the Dalton Highway to the end of the earth!  (As far North in the US as you can drive by car -- and then we took a tour bus even further.)  Here are just a few quick pictures of the journey (there will be more someday I'm sure.  It was quite a trip.).  

 

 

 The road is rough -- it is really a haul road (built for truckers and equipment used to install the pipeline from the Prudhoe Bay  oil fields).  It has only been open to the public since 1995.     

 

 

The pipeline is close to the road in some places -- in others it is buried.  Beautiful mountain views all along (when you can take your eyes off the road). 

 

On the way, we slept at the Arctic Circle (one night in a BLM campground) . 

 

Ancient rock formations  on the tundra:  

 

  

Coldfoot camp (below) is  the only place on the Highway where you can get fuel and fill the RV water tank.    Look at that dirty camper van   -- and we weren't  nearly at the end of the road yet.

 

 

The actual end of the road is Prudhoe Bay --  the industrial area for the Alyeska Pipeline.  I'll do another post about it later.   Because of the oil fields,  private vehicles aren't allowed to go the Ocean.  You have to reserve a spot on a security bus.   

 We did that -- and here we are enjoying the lovely summer ocean breezes:

 

 By the time you reach Prudhoe Bay it really does feel like you're at the end of the world -- and then you have to go back again:   

 

 

 

 Hoping to link this post to next week's OUR WORLD on TUESDAY.  Thank you to the hosts.

 

FIREWEED

Fireweed is a  tall beautifully-colored wildflower that is blooming prolifically in fields and along roadsides wherever we've been in Alaska so far.  

It is lovely to see masses of these magenta flowers as you walk or drive along.   

 

 

Fireweed is known as Alaska's Summer Clock.   Local wisdom says that once the fireweed blooms to the top of the stalk,  summer is over and it is only a few more weeks until the long winter sets in.   

 

 

Believe me, we are keeping a  close eye on it! 

 

Here are a few more beautiful Alaska wildflowers.   We've enjoyed these lovely color spots as we travel in the state and, for year-round Alaskans, I would imagine they are even more welcome after a long cold winter. 

 

 

I'm planning to link this post* to TODAY'S FLOWERS AND NF BLO-MA.  Thank you to Denise and the TF team and to Monica for hosting Blo-Ma.  

(*if travel and internet connections cooperate)

SELDOVIA

 

  Seldovia is a small island town in Katchemak Bay that is accessible only by boat or plane.  It was our mid-way destination when we took a wildlife and sightseeing boat trip from Homer.  

 

  

Our Captain took the slow route getting there, with a lot of stops so that we could look at  all the wonderful sealife and scenery that I posted about here (and more that I didn't get pictures of).  Then he docked at Seldovia where we had almost three hours to eat lunch and stroll before re-boarding the boat for the return trip  (which was faster,  pretty much without photo-op stops).

 

   

 

We walked all around the little town.  There were a few nice homes, an interesting old Russian Orthodox Church, several sweet little pocket parks on the main street, and an awful lot of homes and buildings that had seen better days.

 

 

 

Seldovia was very heavily damaged by the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.   It used to have boardwalks throughout the whole town, but most of them were destroyed during  the quake or in the following "urban renewal" projects.   One person told us that the town, which was a fishing village really, was just beginning to recover from the severe quake damage when the bottom fell out of the fishing industry.  Now it is mainly a  destination for tourists and  sports fishing charter boats.      

 

The tourist literature said that artists  and craftspersons also find it a good place to live and work, but in our limited time there we did not find a whole lot  that interested us.  (We weren't in the market for art in any case -- not much room in our teeny tiny RV for art or crafts.)   There were a lot of rustic chainsaw carvings, which normally don't impress us much, but I rather liked these puffins.

 

 

A few of the sights  as the boat pulled away from Seldovia on the return trip.

 

SHARING WITH OUR WORLD TUESDAY with thanks to the wonderful ladies of the hosting team.

  

 

 

WALKING THE BABY (moose)

 

 

Mama Moose and her baby came strolling right toward us as we drove down the road to Cook Inlet State Park.

At first the little one looked quite wobbly on his feet.   It just might have been his first long-term outing.

 

He seemed to get more sure of himself though as we watched.

 

  

 Heading for greener pastures.

 

 

 

 Let's try going a little faster now!

 

 

 

 

Mom, Mom, MOM, look at me -- I can do this by myself!! 

 

 

 

Stop right now and wait for me before you cross that clearing!!

(All pictures taken from window of parked car -- we pulled over as soon as we saw them walking down the road.) 

 

Linking with SATURDAY CRITTERS.  Thanks to Eileen.  

 

HOMER ALASKA

 

 We really loved Homer.  It was one of those places that called our names -- where we felt right at home -- where we could almost imagine ourselves living happily ever after.  At the Southern  end of the Kenai Peninsula Homer is literally the end of the road ...   the Sterling Highway ends in the town and you can't drive any further.   When you are ready to leave, you have to turn around and go back the way you came.  

 

 A seacoast town, with a slight counter-culture vibe existing side-by-side with a working fishing village.   Birds and whales and fish and boats.  Nice people ...  and even some pretty darn good restaurants  ....  what's not to love!

 

 And of course the amazing views!

 Glaciers, ice fields, and volcanic peaks are visible across the bay from the Homer Spit (the very end of the land, down on the fishing wharf and docks.)  

 

 

 

 

We stayed in an RV Park on the Spit ... about 2 minutes from the dock area and about five from the town itself.    All of these pictures (except for the one from the wharf with the glacier) were taken on different evenings as we walked on the beach.    In front of where we were camped.  At around 11 p.m.  (Yeah, I still haven't quite gotten over that!)

 

 

 SHARING with SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SCENIC WEEKENDS.    Thank you to THE HOSTS.

MURRES and other "common" birds

I sort of hate it when a  bird I've never seen before is called "Common ..." but since we saw hundreds and hundreds of this bird on a tour of Katchemak Bay it's apparent that "Common Murre" is an appropriate name.

 

 

 

What's definitely not common is this bird's ability to "walk" -- or more aptly, "dance" on the water.  

That is such an amazing behavior to watch.  

Here's a closer look.

 

 

 __________

Below is a look at some other common -- or maybe not so common -- birds.  We saw hundreds of these two kinds of birds on the piece of floating real-estate called (surprise) "Gull Island".    

 

If these birds have a round black spot on the bottom of their wings, then they are  Kittiwakes  - a bird found pretty much only in Alaska (according to our tour guide).  

If they have no black spot, then they are a glaucous-winged gull found in pretty much every landfill in every state (again according to our guide, but we all know this).       I have seen the black spot clearly several times, but it is definitely harder to get  excited about this lifer.  

 

This boat trip from Homer to the little island village of Seldovia was a great experience.  

Other birds we saw (not lifers) included puffins, oystercatchers, eagles -- more eagles -- there are  so many of them in Alaska (I'll have a post about that another week).  

 

And, though the picture below isn't about birds, I think most birders enjoy viewing all wildlife, so just because I love these guys, I think I 'otter' end  this way:

 

 

 

 FOR WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thank you Stuart.

 

 

 

 

RUSSIAN RIVER FALLS

 This small adventure in OUR WORLD happened last week when we were still staying in Soldanta.  We've moved on a couple of places since then.  I might still be blogging about Alaska next winter -- so much to see and do here.  (And such iffy Internet connections.)  

 

We hiked a 6 mile out-and-back trail up to the Russian River Falls (uphill both ways, it seemed like to me). It  was the beginning of the run for the red salmon (Coho).

 It was amazing to watch the fish try so hard to swim up these falls.  There were so many of them.  And people told us that this was just the beginning.  Soon there would be even more. 

 

 

We watched several parties netting the fish from the bottom of the Falls.     In assigned places, rural Alaska residents  are eligible to catch salmon using dip nets.    It used to be only Native Americans who could do this, but now most  residents of the State are eligible. 

 

 

It was interesting to see families hauling their nets, ice chests, and other paraphanalia along the trail.  I think if they are willing to go to that much work, they certainly deserve to put fish in their freezer for the long winter ahead.

 

 

The beautiful  day was perfect for a hike.   New spring growth and lots of wildflowers.   In spots of clearing we could see snow-covered mountain peaks, but we were in shirtsleeves the whole time.   

 

 

 For  OUR WORLD TUESDAY and  SCENIC WEEKENDS

 Thank you to the hosts!  

MIDNIGHT BLUE

 

After Midnight,  June 20 2014.  Soldanta Alaska

 

 

 

There was more color in the sky that night than we had seen since we'd been in the State.

 

Mostly the nights have  been -- well -- not night.   Just pale blue daylight all the time... until we go ahead and go to bed anyway.  And still the same color when we get up the next morning.   Takes a little getting used to.

 

The next day it rained almost all day.  So I guess the color was the storm clouds gathering.  That was June 21, the longest day of the year.   Not a good day for the city's Solstice Celebration.  We decided to skip it and we probably weren't the only ones.

 

 

FOR:  SKYWATCH FRIDAY.  Thank you to Yogi, Sylvia, and Sandy

LILACS IN JUNE

 

 

We have learned that there is a way to see typical early Spring flowers even if during that season you are in Florida where it is too hot for them.  

And even if you don't arrive for a summer visit with your kids in Oregon until mid-May, when the earliest spring blooms have faded.

 

 

The way you do it is to arrive in Seward Alaska in mid-June.  Spring has barely begun here.  It has been years since we've seen lilacs.  I wanted to bottle their wonderful scent.

 

 

Flower gardens were certainly not our primary reason for traveling to Alaska but aren't these beauties a nice bonus?

 

 

FOR: NATURE'S PHOTOS BLO-MA,  TODAY'S FLOWERS and MOSAIC MONDAY.  Thank you Monica, Denise and Mary.

 

PUFFINS

 

We really wanted to see puffins -- and we did see some on our dinner cruise out of Resurrection Bay,  but not close enough to get decent pictures.   A couple of days after the cruise, we went to the Alaska Sea Life Center   (on the same Bay -- in Seward) and I took all of these pictures there.  

 

Horned Puffin

 

The horned puffin above is the kind we saw from the boat ... and the kind we were hoping to see.  Didn't even know there was such a thing as a Tufted Puffin  (like the one below) until we visited the Center.

 

Tufted Puffin

 

(Looks like a real bad hair day.) 

 

 

I still hope to be able someday to spot and photograph puffins in the wild, but the Sealife Center is the next best place.  And  we have at least seen the horned puffin in its natural state so I can add it to my list.

 (When I first became interested in birds, it was pre-digital camera, so back then whenever I saw a new bird it was a great day.  Nowadays, I don't quite feel like it counts unless I get a picture.)  

 

LINKING TO:  WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY brought to us by Stewart, who hosted his 100th edition of WBW while we were traveling.  Belated congratulations and, as always, thanks for hosting Stewart.   

 

 

EXIT GLACIER, KENAI FJORDS N.P.

 

      

 

We hiked to the edge of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.  It was a pretty good little jaunt for a couple of great-grandparents ...  Had we been here only a few years earlier, it would have been easier.    The chart below, seen along the trail, shows the glacier's retreat.

 

 

Although it has been receding since the end of the little ice age, it has lost mass at a much faster pace in the last few years as shown.  

 

 

 

 

 

Small signs as you walk along the trail from the parking area show where the edge of the glacier would have been in earlier years.  The distance between them was an excellent visual of  how clmate change  has affected the glacier.

 

 

Kenai Fjords National Park

 

 

Linking this post to NATURE NOTES (Thank you to Michelle) and to OUR WORLD (Thank you to Lady Fi and the other wonderful bloggers of the OWT team).

SEA OTTERS - RESURRECTION BAY, SEWARD

 

 Everything about Northern Sea Otters is so darn cute.    I could watch them all day (and almost did). The bay was full of Otters.

 

Looks like he might be saying grace before dinner (or praying for a good catch).

 

And  it worked.  A few minutes later --  after a quick backflip underwater  -- he was up again and enjoying a yummy shellfish dinner! 

 

Time for an after-dinner nap!

 

Northern Sea Otters are a member of the weasel family.  They are the only marine mammal that does not have blubber to keep warm.  Instead they rely on their very dense fur [1200 hairs per square inch] which keeps their skin dry.  That rich fur contributed to their near-demise after hunters nearly wiped them out  by the early 20th century.   They are now protected and the species has rebounded.  But they are still considered an endangered animal because of habitat loss.

The next day we visited the sealife rehabilitaion center and learned more about them.  Sea otter diet consists of shellfish.  Due to their high metabolism and the cold they eat about thirty percent of their weight daily.  At the center, we were told that they eat more than a Sea Lion, and are much more expensive to feed [shell fish vs herring type fish] They are one of the few mammals to use tools -- they sometimes place a rock on their chest and pound the shellfish against it to crack it.    

 

LINKED TO SATURDAY CRITTERS.  Thank you to Eileen for hosting.

 

 

KENAI FJORDS N.P. by boat

 

 

 

We went on a dinner cruise to see Kenai Fjords National Park from Resurrection Bay.   (You know you're boat people when you are ready for another cruise after only getting off the ferry three days earlier. )  

 

 

We saw this colony of stellar sea lions, whales, dolphins, and birds.  All of which (except these lazy guys) moved too fast for me to get pictures from a moving boat.  

 

But the salmon/prime-rib buffet dinner (prepared on board) was delicious and the scenery amazing.    

 

 

This is one of the isolated places in the bay where men were stationed during WWII to man radar or anti-submarine equipment.  Gives new meaning to living 'out in the middle-of-nowhere'.

 

Several companies offer similar cruises.  The one we chose,  Major Marine,  has a National Park Ranger on board to provide narration and answer questions.

 

LINKED (I hope) TO: SCENIC WEEKENDS  and  OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  Thank you to the hosts.

VIEWS ( and reviews) OF OUR INSIDE PASSAGE

 

 

As usual when we are on a roadtrip, I am about a week behind on posts.  We are currently exploring the Kenai Peninsula in our camper-van, but this is about last week's journey to get from the "lower 48" to Alaska.  We traveled on  the Kennicott, part of the State's Ferry System.  

 

 

Boarding the Kennicott

  We loved this way to travel.  The spectacular views along the Inside Passage (from Bellingham Washington to Whittier Alaska) were the best part of the journey.  We had short  amounts of time to spend off the boat at each port of call (just while the crew unloaded and loaded cars and passengers).

 

Bellingham to Ketchikan 676 miles

We also quite enjoyed just being on the ship.  This kind of travel is  casual and laid back ... perfect for us.   Lots of sunny lounges with lovely windows for the view  (or to read ...  some people played cards or did puzzles).     There's a walk deck all around the ship as well, with a couple of quieter reading lounges on the upper decks too.    

 

Ketchikan to Juneau 338 miles

 

 

The food on board was good, with way more fresh fruit and vegetables than we expected.  Lots of fish, salad bar, soups.  The cost of meals is not included in the fare (it's a ferry boat, not a cruise ship) and this actually suited us fine because we could choose what we wanted without the niggling feeling of not getting one's money's worth because everybody else is eating more.   A small bar/cocktail lounge was next to the dining room -- no liquor was allowed anywhere else on the ship, including in the dining area.  

 

 

Juneau to Yakutat 269 miles

 Sleeping arrangements on the ferry were adequate, not luxurious.  You are not allowed to sleep in or use your RV or vehicle, but there are two or three time each day when you can go below for fifteen minutes if you need to get something out of it.   We had a stateroom with our own (small) bathroom.  I appreciated having our own   temperature control.   Some people just camp out on the upper deck, in tents or they sleep on lounge chairs or the floor (as if they were on a Greyhound bus or a train).     

 

Yakutat to Whittier 346 miles

 

We had less than an hour in the remote fishing village of Yakutat, but were able to climb up a small hill to buy a latte from a shop that pretty much relies on twice weekly ferry visits for income.  We also found a (rare) sandy beach.   We wished we'd had more time here.  

Shortly after we left port, our  Captain took a bit of a detour in order to move close to a glacier and ice field near Mt St Elias.   A scenic highlight in a trip filled with wonderful scenery!

Linking to OUR WORLD  and MOSAIC MONDAY with thanks to the hosting team.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HEADING NORTH

North to Alaska! 

 

(Alaska State Ferry System photo)

 

On Saturday afternoon we boarded the Alaska Ferry in Bellingham Washington.  (We've  been planning this adventure since last winter --  unusual for us  to make RV reservations that far ahead of time -- but these ferries fill up fast!)

We'll be on the boat for five days; then camping and exploring throughout Alaska for as long as we can.    (As long as we can stand camping in the Roadtrek and/or as long as we don't get too cold.  Whichever comes first.)

 

 

 I would say we plan to stay until we've seen everything, but I know there is no chance of that.  We have spent months in  states much smaller than this one and still wish we could visit again because we missed so much.  But we will do our best.

We are SO excited to have  this chance to visit this new (to us) State.   And can't wait to experience for ourselves the wonderful animals and scenery that we've read and heard so much about.   And can't wait to share our pictures.

 

computer station in the RoadTrek

BUT there is no WiFI on board the ferry.  So I will  not be able to link or post (or visit any blogs)  until we disembark and reach our first campspot.  

 

   

 REVISED MONDAY morning.  I may be able to link this post to OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  We are in Ketchikan for a couple of hours  and have cell service and can use our personal hotspot. I will try to link  up as Alaska  is four hours earlier than Eastern time, so this week's OW might be up before we hit open water and lose our phone connection.  We've already seen some beautiful scenery and the boat has everything we need!

At any rate, we have now set foot  on Alaska soil -- walked an hour after we docked -- but  had to be back on the boat an hour before we're scheduled to take off again.