Alaska's Winter Horizon

Alaska's Winter Horizon

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Thompson Pass

Remember to click on the pictures to make them larger.

We continued to take advantage of this beautiful sunny day by stopping to investigate all the lakes, rocks, and hiking trails we could.

 We didn't see any fish in this crystal clear lake but we just enjoyed walking around it.
Greg took this pic of me and thinks it reminds him of an early 1970s record album cover!
We also took the opportunity to enjoy the stunning mountain views,
some of the mountains were carpeted in green while others in the distance wore an icy white coat.
 This pass in the Chugach Mountains is about 2,805 feet high and gets quite a bit of snow.
The day was just so gorgeous that we stayed out playing on Thompson Pass for hours.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

On the way home from Valdez

Got up and treated ourselves to one last breakfast at Totem Restaurant before hitting the road again. It was a beautiful sunny day! Everything seemed green and alive.
We stopped at Horsetail Falls which is right on the Richardson Highway, not far out of Valdez.
 We then made our way just a bit up the road to enjoy Bridal Veil Falls. The sun shone beautifully upon the waters, making them seem to come alive. It was an awesome sight.
 We began making our way further north and we were able to take in all the breathtaking scenery that we couldn't see on the way in a few days ago.
It does snow quite a bit here. You can see these snow poles high above the road that help guide the plows to clear the roads.
 The sunlight was perfect and we found ourselves stopping often to absorb the views and enjoy this
 delightful day.







Sunday, September 8, 2013

Valdez Trip, Day 2 continued

After getting all our fishing gear loaded back into the car, we drove slowly down Dayville Road on wildlife patrol. It didn't take long for us, as two highly experienced and highly trained wildlife spotters, to catch sight of a mother bear and three cubs.
We may have gotten a small clue when we saw a car pulled over watching something in the stream near the main road. Either way, we were happy to see them.
These cubs, being only a few months old, were very small.
One seemed extremely small compared to the other two.
The sow seemed to be capable of providing for them as she fished salmon after salmon out of the stream.
You can see several fish in this picture that she had pulled from the water and brought over to the cubs.
 It's no surprise that our friend, the runt, got last choice on everything.
 It seemed that he often ended up on the losing side when fighting for a fish. It was quite entertaining to listen to the growls, squeals, and cries coming from the furry pile of siblings as they battled for food.
 By now, quite a few people had pulled over to take pictures. Many perched themselves mere feet from the mom. This is a bad idea for so many reasons. For one thing, it stresses the mother. She may have stayed for a long time since the fishing was so good, if a crowd had not developed.
 As you can tell by the small size of both the mother and cubs, they needed to pack on all the calories they could find.
 Also, this a wild and unpredictable animal. She may have decided to charge at any minute if she felt threatened. Lucky for all spectators, she and the cubs fed for awhile and then wandered back into the forest.














We rolled on back to our room for the night after having a great day fishing and enjoying the bears.