Travel to Alaska

1,618 miles and 14 days, since our last post, we have pulled into Portland, Oregon to have our Yukon Badge of Honor ( A badly broken windshield) replaced. More about that later. The trip South was mostly uneventful and quite pleasant, nothing particularly note worthy. Not a bad change. The trip was a real education as far as watching the change of the surrounding environment from sub-alpine in the Stewart, BC area to near desert in the southern part of the fertile fruit producing Canadian Okanogan Valley around Osoyoos, to the high desert wheat country of the Washington State Inland Empire near Spokane, Washington.  

We’ll pick up this thread after crossing the US/Canadian border back into the US in way North Washington. We chose to take the back country roads over a couple of 5,500′ passes through beautiful conifer forests. We enjoyed the Lake Coeur d’Alene area and the scenic drive around the lake with great vistas. Spokane is the business hub of the Inland Empire wheat producing country and is very busy (tanslated this means the traffic is wouzer!) and we enjoyed the “Pig out in the Park” going on in Riverside Park. Interesting that the Sixties have not yet left Spokane and there was a “Medical Marijuana” booth among the tie dyed vendors. Long hair and long skirts were very much in!  

Our next stop was Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. The dam was built in the late 1930′s and is still the largest dam in the US providing water for the Columbia Basin (631,000 acres under irrigation) and 6,809 megawatts of electricity for the western US. Unlike most of the government this dam makes over $2,000,000 per day.The area that appears black is actually the spillway, 350′ high and 1,650′ wide. After dark they open the spillways to turn the area white and making a magnificent screen for a very entertaining laser light show. On day two we went to Lake Chelan for a 51 mile ride to Stehekin which is at the Northwest end of the lake. No TV, Cell Phone, or much else except a cute little village. The Chelan Gorge is the deepest in North America since the water is over 1,450 feet deep and Pyramid Peak is 8,300 feet high!.Four hours up the lake, 90 minutes in Stehekin and then back. All nine hours are stunning.Oh yes, they do have ice cream for an intermission snack after lunch.Our last day at Grand Coulee we went a bit south to visit the sight of the largest water falls in the world. Dry Falls was the outlet of a glacier dam formed lake called Missoula Lake during the receding years of the last Ice Age. Water 400′ deep went over this falls which was 3.5 miles wide. More water went over this falls than flowed in all the rivers of the world. The lakes are remnants of the depressions gouged by the power of the falling water. While at the top we noted folks down by these lakes so we had to see what it looked like down there.The cliff behind us is at the far right side of the falls in the picture above. It is about 450 feet high. As the kids would say, “Awesome!”

Onward to the Columbia River Gorge with its magnificent vistas and startling waterfalls. This picture is taken from Crown Point and the Vista House. The old highway is a real snake and not where you would like to take your RV.Four miles further down the road you come to Latourelle Falls which involves a bit of a hike but has a great reward at the end.Four miles further and you come to the most famous of the Columbia falls, 640 foot high Multnomah Falls. This falls is truly stunning and not to be missed.I’ve always wondered what the lower falls looked like from the bridge right above them. If you also wonder take a look at this photo. Not your usual perspective. 

Bonneville Dam was next on our agenda so we went and helped them count upstream migrating salmon and steelhead trout. What a wonderful job!Two Chinook and two silver salmon!

This turbine is one of the original eight installed in 1937. It is really big!Saturday dawned bright and clear so we headed for our favorite place in the Pacific Northwest, the Oregon Coast. We have traveled nearly every foot of both coasts and this is, in our opinion, one of the most spectacular areas.Sea Lion Rocks at Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach.Cannon Beach from the North. It was an unusually clear day for the beach.More local haystacks.Finally today, Sunday, September 12, we got to see Mt. Hood our first snow capped peak we have seen from bottom to top on this trip. It is a beauty and here it is seen from Portland.

Tomorrow morning we start for home and there likely will be no further post on this web site. We hope you have enjoyed the trip with us and we hope you may be interesed in one of your own. So far we have traveled 13,900 miles and are looking forward to the next 3,200 and home. For those of you who have been in touch via email, our thanks for keeping us in the loop. Via con dios.

PS: You remember we came to Portland to have our windshield replaced. It got lost in transit!

The final leg of our journey to Alaska is nearly over but we must first journey up the Cassier Highway to Stewart, BC and around the bend to visit the lovely little ghost town of Hyder, Alaska. We had heard of the beauty of the roadway into Stewart but were totally unprepared for the breath taking nature of the views on the way from Mezadian Junction westward. Around every corner was a more spectacular view of the high rugged mountains and glaciers at every turn. One of the more spectacular of the glaciers, Bear Glacier, once forced the roadway way up the hillside and provided Stewart with a near annual event of a flood when the ice dam broke every year. The glacier, in the picture below, has receded across the valley but still provides a wonderful view.Only a few miles further down the road we came to a most unusual site. The next picture is a glacier formed by year around avalanches from a glacier/ice field above. What looks to be a cloud bank at the top of this picture is in actuality the overhanging part of the ice field which contributes sustenance to this unique glacier. Little did we know these would not be the most spectacular glaciers we would see. WE WERE THERE TO SEE THE BEARS!

Hyder is world famous for the opportunity to watch the Brown and Black bears at the Fish Creek viewing area in the Tongass National Forrest.  Over the past few years a viewing area has been built to protect the wild bears from the even wilder spectator/photographers and from themselves.     

At any one time there may be as many as 200 visitors packing cameras from  Iphones up to big time Canons and Nikons with camoflaged 600 mm telephoto lenses on tripods which are monuments to portable engineering mavels. One of the real joys of this experience is to watch, or listen to, these folks run from one end to the other on the whispered word, “BEAR!”This grouping came about in response to the sighting of this rather large male Brown Bear (Yes, I know he is black! He is, in fact, a Brown/Grizzly Bear) sloshing up the river looking for a fat Chum salmon.Shortly thereafter he sighted his choice and took off after his prey. This is not his best side and shows him to be well on his way to putting on adequate fat/weight for hibernation. Sadly, he misjudged his thrust and this one got away. He did win honorable mention for the best cannonball, however.This bear, nicknamed “Dog ear” finally made connection with this wonderful fish. Those of those who know Chum Salmon will note that this is a male salmon not his desired female. He ate it anyway. This was the sum total of the bears we were to see in Hyder but our viewing had one final topper. We drove 17 miles up a narrow dirt/gravel road to see the fifth largest sub-arctic glacier in North America, Salmon Glacier.This glacier is very unusual since you can drive to it and above it. Salmon Glacier is truly breath taking and was a fitting end to our visit to Alaska.

On every trip we usually find a favorite animal, sometimes wild and sometimes domestic. This beauty is an eight year old female Husky who has the heart of a lion and the personality of a pussy cat. She is well known in the Hyder area for her ability to chase Brown Bears away from her residence at the Hyder General Store.At all other times she acts as a greeter for her master’s store. She loves to be scratched behind the ears and on her brisket.

Perhaps this picture should have been at the beginning of this post but it will always be our final memory of Hyder, Alaska. The most active ghost town in Alaska!   

At this point we have completed our journey to Alaska, 7,888 miles from home. This is not to say our journey is over but the trip to Alaska is. As this is being written we are in Spokane, Washington doing some sight seeing in some of the country where I spent my youth. We are off to Grand Coulee to see the Dam I last saw in 1943 and then to Lake Chelan and a voyage on “Lady of the Lake” to Stehekin at the far Northwest end of Lake Chelan. We will then move on down the Columbia to Portland, Oregon to get our windshield replaced. After a trip to the Oregon coast we will start east. There will be far fewer posts but they will happen periodically.

One of the interesting things I have discovered while writing these posts is that there are people in cyberspace who write nonsense as a comment to posts. Some of them are trying to sell something while others seem to be from another planet. There are some who are actually pleasant and like what they read and to them I say, “Thank You.” To the others I say, “Get a life!”

As mentioned earlier we boarded the ferry TAKU at Sitka as midnight approached. It was really a gas backing into the ferry in the dark with bright lights at strategic places to shine in your eyes. The good news was that we knew we would get to drive straight off the ferry in Prince Rupert on Sunday. In the morning we were treated to a view of Kake, a small Tlingit village on the Eastern shore of the inside Passage. The Taku was bit smaller and not quite as nice as the Columbia but it served our purpose. The cabins are small and feature bunk beds which was a real experience. The area around Kake reminded us a lot of the San Juan Islands such as this small unnamed island. Note the sunshine and lack of rain!

Two hours after departing Kake we arrived in a lovely bay fronting Petersburg which is known as the Norway of Alaska. It is a real working town without much tourist trade. I particularly like this house due to its wonderful utilization of floor space. If you can’t go out …. go up!Shortly after leaving Petersburg we headed into the Wrangell Narrows which are well named. In the following pictures you can see how narrow this passage really is. It would have been a bit tight taking BRIGADOON through this area.OK this is a good start, now let’s get to the narrow part. Red is left in this case.Now all we need is a little bit of rain and a bunch of fog. Sure hope the radar works and the lookout on the bow is alert.

Around 2 PM we pulled into Wrangell for a one hour stay and an opportunity to meet some of the entrepreneurs of Wrangell.Unfortunately all the senior greeters were busy napping. These kids, however, were selling garnet crystals to raise money so, “they could take the ferry to Petersburg to see their friend Leonard and go to dinner at Tish’s.” Six and eight years old and they have a plan! Sadly Wrangell is dying due to policies of the US Forrest Service limiting logging sales to 25 acres. The sawmill is being dismantled. The town is next.

We departed Wrangell at 7 PM and headed for Ketchikan. We arrived at 1 AM the next morning but we slept though the visit. We arrived in Prince Rupert at 2 PM the next afternoon, found the local Tim Horton’s and Safeway and left Monday morning for Terrace, BC to get out of the torrential rain we had brought with us. Next, Stewart, BC, Hyder, AK and our never ending search for bears. Glaciers came for free. Later!

I had no idea that fairies came in different colors and in such large sizes. I must admit that I was a bit reluctant to trust our coach to something that sounder like a fairy tale until I saw the COLUMBIA. 418 feet of beauty and spelled slightly differently.After 5 days in Haines and finally finding the sunshine it was this beautiful sight that convinced us that it was OK to wait for the Alaska Marine Highway ship along the road. Haines is very pretty and exudes a small working town atmosphere, we enjoyed the little town very much. Adding to our enjoyment was the opportunity to meet Dee and Tom Little who came into Haines on the Columbia. It was fun catching up and exchanging road condition information.Even though the gangway is large and well marked it is a bit disconcerting to see that the doorway on the port side is open so if you loose your mind or your brakes there are only the two guys between you and cold and deep water.Backing down the gangway is also a bit of a challenge but the crew is very experienced and helpful. Patient , as well! Since we would disembark from the fantail in Prince Rupert I got to do this in Sitka at midnight when I was at my sharpest. Oh yes!

Some of the folks who are either too cheap to pay for a cabin or are true outdoors types choose to pitch a tent on the aft deck. Note the fence. I’m not sure if it is to  keep the tenters in or there in case a bear gets aboard by accident. 

We arrived in Sitka in a light drizzle but have become acclimated to it and wonder what is wrong when the windshield wipers aren’t going. This welcoming sign pops up after you have driven through most of Sitka and managed to get a bit lost. It is the sentiment that counts.

Sitka is most famous and the seat of government during the Russian ownership of this vast territory. Its last vestige is St. Michael’s Cathedral which sits in the heart of downtown Sitka. The Cathedral, and the Bishops residence, a few blocks away, are good for a day of investigation and are both repositories of gorgeous icons so characteristic of Orthodox churches.Sitka has its own icon, the statue of the “Prospector” which sits in front of the old folks home and has a commanding view of Sitka harbor.There are two dance groups that work hard to maintain their heritage through cultural dances. The Russian dance group, which is made up of all women, gives recitals every day of Russian Folk dances. Normally they perform in the Civic Center but this day there was a Russian group in town for a conference so they were displaced to the local gymnasium. Go figure!The ladies also portray the men’s parts since the men wouldn’t participate when the group was founded in the 1960′s. Now, since the group gets to travel a lot, the men want to join and the ladies are having none of it. Interestingly the ladies portraying the men (In white in the picture above) were the more athletic and generally more attractive.

The other troop is a Tlingit group which performs daily as well. They are always recruiting and it looks like they found a new young dancer. The little fellow on the far left appears to be about 4 but he really has the feeling. By tradition the Tlingit dancers always enter the hall backwards so they display their clan markings on the back of their robes. Very colorful and loud!

Oh my, it looks like they found another recruit!

This clan house has a beautiful wall which is carved and painted with the symbols of all the clans it serves. Magnificent!After absorbing all this culture we decided to visit the Fortress of the Bear which is a sanctuary for orpahned cubs of both Brown and Black bears. These two are 3 years old and were found digging through the garbage dump in Angoon after their mother was killed. They are quite well trained and they know and respond to twenty commands. Mostly, though, they like to play in the water. We were basiclly mesmerized and spent nearly an hour watching them.    

These bears respond to there names and it’s quite a sight to see someone call a bear and watch it respond. The bears love to play in the water in their compound and don’t seem to mind the rain.Even though this bear is about 18 feet below you it is obvious this is a big bear who deserves your respect, even while imitating a puppy chewing on a stick or playing keep-away.Sitka was fun and we really enjoyed it but it is time to move on. We changed our plans to bypass Petersburg and Wrangell due to the cold and rainy weather. The trip was good but the decision was better. More later.

Hallelujah! We have found sunshine and it is good! We arrived in Haines on Wednesday to our first full day in Alaska without rain of some sort. We find it to be a good thing and something to be hoped for in the future. Haines is about 20 miles across the Lynn Canal from Skagway and by any measure is no match for Skagway. Haines is basically a working village that plays to the tourism trade when given the opportunity. One large cruise ship, the Vandam, once a week and a fast ferry from Skagway bringing gold in the shape of about 150 tourists nearly every day. Haines is surrounded by snow capped glacier laden peaks on all side so every where you look there is snow or ice. If you look down you will see canals and fjords which are currently laden with sockeye salmon running to spawn in the Chilkat and Chilkoot Rivers.

As you might expect wherever you find spawning salmon you will also find brown bears and the occasional Bald Eagle. Haines claims to be the Bald Eagle capital of the world as is is home to about 3,500 bald eagles in the Fall and winter.

Driving in to Haines you are greeted with spectacular glaciers such as these.

After doing the obligatory tourist things such as visiting the Tourisn Information Center we took our first trip up the Chilkat River toward Chilkat Lake. About midway up the river, which boasts a length of nearly one mile, we discovered signs which proclaimed the area a “Bear Zone” and stated that this area was all about bears and that they had the right of way and we were to watch out for them. We had just reached the first sign and saw a collection of spectators. Sure enough there were three bears! No, not those three bears, but a Momma, called a Sow, and two adorable baby bears, called Cubs (Not to be confused with Chicago Cubs!)  Thsi was our first encounter with a Brown Bear Sow close up. Closer than I really thought safe but the on duty Ranger said she was far more interested in fresh salmon than old Florida guys! Hope she knows that. She is four years old and these are her first offspring and she is learning the motherhood business on the job. Those with sharp eyes will note that she has a radio tracking collar which is a bit of a concern as this collar was supposed to drop off this spring.  We were to see her several times again as you will see. As we turned to go out of the river area Pat noticed another sow with three cubs across the river. She is older and much larger. After watching this family it is easy to see how you could get between mom and the kiddies. The cubs, run, romp, wrestle, and run with great abandon. Mom checks there whereabouts periodically.Our next encounter let us see how she adapted to using the fish counting wier to help her catch fish with the least effort and how she teaches her youngsters what to do with fresh fish. She catches then rips the fish open to get the eggs for herself.   When one of the cubs, this one is the larger and more aggressive one, whom we expect is a male, will come out on the wier and try to get the fish from mom. She tolerates this behavior.

Sometimes the young ones get a mostly whole fish and then the fun begins because they usually drop it which starts a whole new lesson.

Little sister only came on the stage once and it was apparent she didn’t like being there at all.

When Mom had enough she issued orders and the troup retreated up the hill and into the woods to rest and nurse.During the last two days she has decided not to use the “Bear Area” but to cruise the side of the river where fishermen are competing for Sockeye. It’s amazing how quickly a bunch of fishermen in chest waders will get out of the water upon hearing only one word, “BEAR!” When Mom got out in the open you can see that even though she is relatively small, relatively she is huge and impressive.These bears have the protection of the Alaska government and of the people of the Haines area. They are a source of great pride and the natural curiosity of the cubs provides endless entertainment. 

Shortly after this picture was taken some idiot left his German Shepard unleashed right to miy right. The dog thought he was a great bear dog and charged the bear in an attempt to intimidate the bear. Didn’t work! She took after him in a flash and he beat feet. My heart was in my throat and I didn’t get any pictures of her charge!

Tomorrow we depart Haines for Sitka and hope to have more of this 80 degree weather. As a bonus we will get to spend some time with Dee and Tom Little who will be coming into Haines on the ferry we leave on. After four days in Sitka we will spend four days in Petersburg and then on to Prince Rupert, BC. back on the mainland. More later.

Don

For most folks Valdez is more familiar if the word EXXON precedes it, but it is a very popular “Get away” for Alaskans during the height of the salmon run. Never mind that it might be, you guessed it, raining. Oh well, being originally Oregonians, we can cope with a little rain. A lot of rain is a bit of a different matter. The drive from Glennallen to Valdez was a bit of a downer since the whole drive is along the northern flank of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park with 6 of the top  ten high mountains in North America and we could not see a single one of them either going down or coming back. We did find a break in the clouds as we approached Worthington Glacier and we got a great view of the two fingered glacier. The picture below is a stitch panorama of two photos taken about two miles away.

You can get a feeling for the size of this glacier by looking closely at the lower left-center of the next photo to spot the folks who hiked a mile to get within a mile of the glacier face. Click on the picture and look hard at the edge between the ice and the rocks.

After viewing the glacier you get to climb 1,500 feet to the top of Thompson Pass at 2,656 feet at a 9% grade. OK Now that we are at the top what do we do? We go down 2,550 feet in ten miles 

One of the benefits of lots of rain is the beauty of the many water falls in the area. This first waterfall is called Bridal Veil, original eh what?

The next one had no name but it was gorgeous.

This final of the three is called Horse Tail and it was really running hard.

At the far east end of Prince William sound is a salmon hatchery located at a place with the charming name of Solomon Gulch. As you can see, in the picture above, it is true that salmon do return to the scene of their birth with an overwhelming urge to spawn. In this picture there are probably 25,000 Pink Salmon, also known as Humback or “Humpys” of which fewer than 10% will make it into the hatchery to be stripped of eggs and sperm. The remainder will shed their eggs or sperm in Solomon Gulch creek and die. Where there are dieing salmon there are sea gulls and BEARS! In addition there are salmon fishermen in great numbers. The bears overcome their fear of people and help themselves to the feast at hand. With luck you can occaisionally get an opportunity to get close enough to get a good picture or two.If you are a bear looking to add between 25 to 30,000 calories per day this would seem to be a permanently set table. Not only bears enjoy this feast, the gulls pick the eyes out of the fish and the Bald Eagles take whatever is left over.But if you are real lucky you will get an occasional hungry bear to pose.   Sometimes you get lucky and catch them in the act of fishing ….. and catching.I’ll bet this is going to taste like Salmon!We had a couple of encounters with black bears but had no luck with Brown Bears (Grizzlys) so that will have to wait for Haines. We’ll see later this week. More later.

All good things come to folks who hang around and wait (Sort of a paraphrase).  Thursday we awoke early to dense fog and a bit of light rain, so what is new? We were up early to get aboard a fine vessel for a tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park. We departed Seward at 0800 as the fog began to lift and by the time we were approaching the first islands the sun came out. A harbinger of things to come.

Our first sight was of the Bear Glacier just outside of Resurrection Harbor and if you look carefully you can see blue sky. Bear Glacier reminds me of a skunk in reverse! Shortly after this picture was taken our Captain shouted “Whale Ho!” actually he said Humpback whale at the 2 O:clock position. Timing is evrything when using a digital camera but you can’t turn the whale’s tail so the picture isn’t quite perfect.

Every harbor in Alaska has its equivalent to Bird Island and Seward is no different. You can only take so many pictures of gulls, murres, auks, and other birds but I can never pass up an opportunity to get more pix of Tuffted Poffins. The next two pix will give you some indication of the density of birds nesting on this island.

How many Puffins do you see? There are seven in this picture.

There are several small islets, such as this one, absolutely covered with Stallar Sea Lions in all sizes from small to over 2,300 pounds.

The weather just got better and better with more sunshine and fewer clouds and every time you turned around there was another gorgeous sight, such as this one.

After nearly two hours of chasing whale tails, we saw five differnt species, it was time to turn up into Aialik Bay for our close up view of Holgate Glacier. As we turned into Holgate Arm we were treated to a glacier which we had not seen on our way in. Not too surprising since this glacier is called, “Surprise Glacier.”

Our intrepid Captain took our sturdy vessel to within 2,000 feet of the glacier face. While that is nearly half a mile, when you are face to face with a glacier over 600 feet high it is closer than you would really like. The grumbling noise of the glacial ice cracking and groaning sounds like a herd of elephants on a sauerkraut diet interspersed with the occaisional rifle shot. Overwhelming!

Just to prove we were there.

As we were exiting the Holgate Glacier our Captain was told that a pod of Orca were under observation a couple of miles away. Off we went. Sure enough there were five Orca off our starboard side but I was on the port side. I could see them but I had a bit of trouble getting a lense on them. This was as good as I could get.Back to Seward, still under clear skies, so we decided to hike up to the side of Exit Glacier whcih is only five miles outside of Seward. It was cold but an easy hike to the flank of the flow of ice. It is quite a sight to be within a stones throw (No I didn’t, but I was tempted) and the cold air flowing down the glacier is astounding.It really is true that the glacial ice only reflects the blue color.After this little hike we headed back downhill and on toward our trusty coach and drove into the park to the sould of rain drumming on the car and the coach. All in all it was a great day and a bit of rain hasn’t ever stopped us yet. More tomorrow about Valdez and the end of Prince William Sound. We are now in Haines and I’ll get caught up before we leave here on Monday.

There is a sun! And it can shine in Alaska! And it did shine in Homer and Seldovia yesterday and today. The temperatures are still in the high 50′s and low 60′s but with the sun shining, who cares. We had planned to take a boat trip from Homer to Seldovia on Sunday no matter what the weather and thought it was going to be more of same when we went down the “Spit” since the fog was so thick we couldn’t see the water on either side. We checked in and headed for the harbor thinking, “What do we have to do to get a break?”

As we headed out of the harbor and around the Spit the fog began to  lift a bit and we thought perhaps we could see some birds, sea otters, other neat stuff. As we approached Bird Island the fog began to lift and we were treated to seeing lots of Murres, Auks, Auklets, Guillamots, and Puffin! Puffin are one of my favorite birds and I was thrilled to get some photos of Tufted Puffin that are unusual in that we got fairly close to birds that are normally easily spooked and quick to dive.These little guys hung around far longer than I expected and I am greatful for the opportunity.

As the trip progressed the fog lifted a bit more and our hopes increased and they were answered with some beautiful scenery. Seldovia is isolated as its only access is either by boat or by air and the isolation has increased greatly since the Good Friday earthquake in 1964. Up until that time Seldovia was a commercial fishing center for Cook Inlet and was an active seaport. The earthquake, a 9.2 magnitude and the largest ever recorded in North America, destroyed the dock facilities, but more importantly, dropped the earth by 4 feet putting a large portion of the town under water at high tide. This condition is not highly desriable in a commercial situation and the town withered substantially. Seldovia now has about 275 year around residents and subsists on tourist traffic, sport fishing and guided hunting. They have two good ice cream parlors which knowledge is critical to the well informed traveler.

Seldovia is rustic to the extreme and very quaint. Someone certainly has a sense of humor abouit a “NO WAKE” zone.You can see from the next two pictures that Cook Inlet and Seldovia Inlet has a high tidal range only slightly lower than the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.

The high spot for me was watching a rather tame Sea Otter float into the harbor and down between the docks. At first I thought he was asleep but upon examining the photos it was obvious he was just resting.

All in all the trip to Seldovia was a great success partially because the fog continued to lift and today it dawned relatively clear and gave us the view of the Katchemak Range that we hoped to see. Following are some pictures of the local mountains and the Spit.The Spit extends nearly five miles out into Kachemak Bay and is the focal point of Homer and is the location of a very large harbor for the Salmon and Halibut fishing fleet. As a side note we saw a 313 pound halibut brought in yesterday! The Spit is also home to The Salty Dawg saloon which is famous or infamous.

Greeley Glacier, named after Horace “Go West Young Man” Greely is directly across the bay from Homer. Tomorrow we are off to Seward for a few days and for a Fjord cruise. Help us pray for geed weather. The last two pictures are of the westernmost highway point in North America and of a major source of heartburn in Alaska.

Don’t try this on an empty stomach!

More later.

Today, July 30, we finally escaped the clutches of the largest city in Alaska. While in Anchorage we absorbed all sorts of knowledge. Some useful, and some not so useful but rather strange. For instance, who knew that you could purchase a fur Bikini for either a man or a woman? Here is the proof!Who new?

We did make an outstanding discovery, however, The Anchorage Museum has a magnificent colection of art and artifacts of the indiginous peoples of the Arctic. This collection is the property of the Smithsonian but, appropriately, is on display in Anchorage. Unfortunately, due to rule of the museum no photography was allowed. Pat and I would heartily recommend this collection to anyone with any interest in the Athabascan peoples.

During the rain, (what else), we went on several hikes and were fortunate enough to spot two moose. The first was an up close encounter with a cow standing knee deep in a pond munching down water plants and blowing bubbles with her nose. Quite a sight!On our last day in Anchorage, the first day it didn’t rain, we went up toward Flat Top Mountain to see the view of Anchorage and stretch our legs. Pat immediately spotted a bull moose about 1,000 yards away and down in a meadow. Normally Moose, (Meece, Mice?) espescially Bull Meese, are very shy and retiring critters. This guy spent the better part of ten minutes posing and trying to show his best side. I strained the lense on my camera getting the picture below at a range of 1,000 yards and hand held. Not my best but it is a bull moose.

While hiking in the area I found some beautiful picture subjects.

We arrived early this afternoon in Soldotna which by its name one might suspect to be part of Russian Alaska. Wrong! It was founded in 1947 as a result of a homestead act for returning WWII veterans. It is on the banks of the Kenai River which is famous for having produced 8 out of the 10 largest Chinook salmon on record. The settlement of Kenai, which was part of Russian Alaska is the site of a beautiful Russian Orthodox church built in 1846.

Kenai is also known for its dip net fishing at theend of the season/run for various species of Salmon. July 31 is the last day so we got to see a whole lot of folks looking for any excuse to get out of the house! Dip netters use a 60″ diameter dip net with a ten foot handle with a “T” handle parallel to the plane of the net itself. The dip netter stands waste deep in icy cold water with the net out in front of them perpendicular to the flow of the water. If a fish bumps into the net, the dip netter wakes up and tries to hoist the fish out of the water before it gets away. Success rate seems to be about 50-50. I did note that there seems to be a good deal of “Bud” empties in areas where you find a lot of dip netters.The fellow kneeling on the bank accidently caught a fish and is gutting it so he can get back in the water before he thaws out. You can get some idea of the net size by his net which is upright next to him. By the way if you click on the pictures in the blog they are expanded greatly.

This is a small portion of the crowd of folks at the Kenai site yesterday. I can only imagine what it must look like today. We are currently in Homer, Alaska, looking at the inside of a cloud which is locally known as “Fog”. We are less than 50 yards from the beach and can’t see a thing. We are planning to see Seldovia on Monday if the weather cooperates just a bit.

For some strange reason we have met a bunch of folks from Bend, Oregon where I was born, and from Prineville, Oregon where I lived as a small child.

For the statiscally minded we have travelled 6,302 miles to date and are at the Westernmost highway in North America. From here on we are headed East and South. The coach has burned through 767 gallons of Diesel fuel at an average cost of $3.439 per gallon. Hope that cost ges better as we move back into the lower 48. WE would love to hear from you all.

DENALI NATIONAL PARK

Some days are good, some are great, and yet others are so special that you will never forget them. Thursday, July 22, was one of those days. It started at 0430 with the alarm clock alerting us to get ready for a long day’s journey into the wilderness of Denali National Park. We got on the motor coach at 0600 to journey 90 miles over gravel road through some of the most spectacular scenery in North America. Only the near overcast put a bit of a damper on our delight since we did not get to see most of the magnificent mountain but it could not dampen our shear joy with the animals. During the trip we had relatively close encounters with 18 grizzly bears, three wolves (1 white, 1grey, and 1 black), lots of caribou, bunches of Dall Sheep, ptarmigan, golden eagles, snowshoe hares, and other assorted critters. We saw a cow moose on the way to the coach so I guess we have to include her as well.

Following are photographs of some of the animals and the scenery. Photographs of the scenery are inadequate to show the size and scope of what we experienced but they will give you some idea of the area. This is truly Arctic Tundra with very few trees lots of willows and miles of gravel river beds.

Even though she was standing along the road, she was in Denali. It’s hard to keep from laughing when you see a moose cow.

Our first Grizzly bear was only three miles inside the park. This one is very dark and qualifies as a “Silver Tip”. She was a bit spooked and didn’t stay around long.

 Right after the first bear we came across these two Showshoe Hare bucks having a teritorial dispute.

This bull Caribou was showing off for us and he still thinks this is “His best side!”

These are a couple of pictures of the valley we were travelling through and they were our first views of the Alaska Range. Unforutunately we didn’t get to see much more of the mountains.

Dall Sheep tend to stay way high and on rocky terrain so they can escape from major predators such as wolves. These had a wonderful view of the valley and allowed us to look at them.

This picture shows two grizzly bears at a distance, and truth to tell I could have zoomed much closer but I wanted both bears in the same frame. The bear on the right is momma and our guide estimated her age at around ten years. The bear on the left is her cub and is referred to as, “a third year cub.” This is its last year with momma and he/she/it will be run off within the next couple of weeks to start life on his own. Wonder if it is feeling a bit of rejection?The next pair of pictures are of a Grizzly sow with twin cubs, probably the world’s most dangerous creature. These grizzlies are called “Toklat grizzlies” due to their very light color. Some of them are very nearly a light colored as a yellow Labrador. Contrast these bears with the first bear pictured in this segment to note the difference. Pictorial evidence would indicate that both of these bears are of rather loose moral character since the cubs obviously had different fathers. Our guide nicely put it that ” these ladies are a bit promiscuous, and will mate with as many big boys as she can!” Both sets of cubs are called “Springers” meaning they were born this past winter. 

In both cases the bears were headed away as the sows are very protective of their cubs and you must get your shots quickly while wrestling with your fellow passengers for window space.

Passing on West up the valley the clouds broke a bit to give us a brief view of Brooks Mountain and this was as much as we were to see. Brooks is in excess of 14,000 feet ans is one of the shortest in the Alaska Range.

This is the mountain we came to see. Unfortunately this is a picture of a picture at Denali Cabins.

At this Lodge we had a wonderful luncheon, I practiced my gold panning technique (Going from bad to worse)

Pat worked on getting over her fear of swinging bridges,

And we saw some of the Alaska State flower, the Forget-Me-Not. Selected because of the name and the fact that it has clear blue outer petals and a heart of gold!

The Alaska State Bird is the Willow Ptarmigan and is usually easy to spot if you look hard. They tend not to move if they see a predator which causes a rather high mortality rate in the wild. This bird is about 30 days away from moulting and growing its winter set of snow white feathers.

For those who like high vistas this is the coach trip for you. This shot is taken out the right side window as we met another coach on a road barely wide enough for two to pass. It is about 800′ nearly straight down. As our Ddriver/guide put it, ‘It is about thirteen rolls to the bottom, but I can do it in eleven, I think!” He also told us if the coach went off the road not to worry, “They are easy to find. They don’t move!”

Now we are off to Wasilla to see Sarah and Todd before heading on to Anchorage on Monday. Right now I’m going outside to play …… in the rain!