I was at work, walking from one building to the next, when I heard Dave, Facilities Manager, clapping his hands and yelling at me from across the parking lot. How weird, I thought.
Continue reading “Seward, Alaska: My near-miss bear encounter”
We’re on the prowl for bears.
It’s an obsession, really. I talk to coworkers and monitor Facebook pages, looking for the best places to see bears. We drive unpaved roads and rural neighborhoods at a crawl, perhaps slower than we should, considering that Alaska is a place where people value their privacy. We scrutinize creeks where the salmon are starting to run and peer into the forest that lines the roads, hoping to glimpse the round, dark shape of a bear.
In our last post, I talked about a boat tour that we took across Resurrection Bay and into the Gulf of Alaska and Kenai Fjords National Park.
In today’s post, I want to share pictures of the animals that we saw from the deck of the boat. The region is extremely rich in wildlife: ten marine mammals live in these pristine waters, and dozens of species of birds nest along the coast. While we didn’t see all of the wildlife the area has to offer, it’s astounding how much we did spot in just an eight-hour boat trip:
Continue reading “Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise, part two: The animals!!!”
To celebrate Earth Day, here are a few of our favorite pictures from our time in Alaska and from the road trip that brought us here. These photos plainly illustrate just how quirky, fragile, and beautiful our planet is:
Continue reading “Happy Earth Day! A few photos from our beautiful home”
A new job, a new home, a few bear attacks, and musings about the wonders of butter
We’ve been in Seward for a little over a week, and it’s been an eventful few days. Here are the highlights:
Tips for hiking in Denali National Park
This is one in a series of articles about our trip to Denali National Park.
We expected Denali’s alpine landscape to be bleak and monochromatic. After all, tundra is supposed to be a vast, perpetual wasteland, right?
Wrong.
Continue reading “Denali National Park: Hiking the colorful Alaskan tundra”
Denali wildlife, small and large: From bear burritos to bull moose in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve
This is one in a series of articles about our trip to Denali National Park.
Riding on the Denali National Park shuttle in search of wildlife was usually an all-day affair. We had plenty of time to meditate on the scenery and get to know our neighbors as the bus lurched along at 10 miles an hour.
Our contemplations, however, were often interrupted by urgent, single-syllable cries of “Moose!” or “Stop!” that brought the bus to a jolting halt.
Continue reading “What animals can you see in Denali National Park?”
An older couple stood at the guardrail, their car parked on a shoulder not wide enough to accommodate it. It was an act so reckless that a semi blared the horn at them as it passed.
I could see what they were risking their lives for–beluga whales, two of them, swimming in a protected cove near the road.
Traveling the Alaska Highway (Alcan), part two
This is one of three posts about our drive on the Alaska Highway.
The weather forecast for our time on the Alcan showed nothing but rain. For days, it was supposed to rain. We were going to miss some of the stunning scenic views that make the Alcan legendary, all because of rain.
Continue reading “Will you see wildlife on the Alaska Highway?”
Fourth stop on the Alaska road trip
This is one of three posts about some of Canada’s spectacular national parks.
There are no words to adequately describe Banff National Park, and as a writer, it’s really, really frustrating when my vocabulary comes up so short.
I guess if I had to choose an appropriate adjective, it would be ridiculous; what with its UNESCO World Heritage Designation and pristine ecosystem and dense evergreen forests and towering mountains, and oh yeah, its immense glaciers, Banff is just plain ridiculous.
Continue reading “Banff National Park, Canada: There are (almost) no words”
