Female Brown Bear
Hallo Bay - Katmai National Park, Alaska

Seven days, 1600 miles. To include the likes of Denali National Park, Fairbanks, Paxson, Copper Center, Valdez, Homer and then over to Katmai National Park. An amazing time on a grand scale. Obviously a lot to sort through both in images and in thoughts. And a little over the week before I’m gone again. It’s summer on a grand scale.

After four years of long arduous work and among much hype, the National Park Service recently held the opening of the Eielson Visitor Center on June 8th. The redesign of the visitor center began in 2002 when the National Park Service determined the the 2,000 square foot center could not accommodate the rapidly expanding number of visitors to the park.

Taking a step into environmentally friendly construction, the new center offers indoor and outdoor viewing areas as well as new exhibits and interpretive areas. Utilizing the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) the design encompasses a low profile building that blends into the landscape and offers sweeping views of the valley below. (panoramic from top of center)

With my recent journey into the park and stop at Eielson, I was in awe of those views as well as enchanted by the overwhelming number of furry residents that inhabit that area. Those of the arctic ground squirrels. On that particular day I spent most of my first 45 minutes of my break sitting outside with them while their emboldened curiosity would drive them up to tug on my hiking boot laces and sniff at my ankles.

One particularly cute ground squirrel reached up and put his tiny paw on my hand. I was in love. Believe me, if I could have adopted one and brought him home I would of.

With its creation and recent opening, Eielson definitely meets its goals of showcasing new technologies and educating the public about environmentally friendly practices. It is a site I look forward to visiting again and again.

With the arrival of Friday while most are turning their eyes towards weekend and the sense of anticipation begins to build for their two days off, I find my eyes turning to the sense of anticipation and the arrival of my next vacation. In which I shall depart later today and head on what I shall deem my “birthday trip” since that day arrives on Monday.

My plans for the coming summer are indeed busy ones. But in the coming days I shall enjoy the likes of Denali National Park and Wonder Lake, Valdez including Columbia and Mears Glacier and a trip down to Kachemak Bay and over to Katmai for the first of my bear photography trips.

Hopefully the wildlife will be prevalent, mother nature’s weather calm and the relaxation factors immense.  And of course I can’t let this day go by without congratulating my very good friends Cristine and Alex on their wedding.  Congratulations you two.  May your live together be full of enrichment.

Viva la vacation!

Two years ago the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center whose home is in Portage Alaska inherited two abandoned brown bear cubs by the name of Sadie and Haines. Sadie was found near a landfill in Kotzebue Alaska while Haines was found abandoned and roaming among houses and porches in Haines, Alaska. A year later they were joined by a spritely little bear named Kenai whose mother was shot by a hiker in “self-defense”. Since I was an annual passholder of this wonderful organization I spent quite a bit of time watching them grow up and into three beautiful sub-adults.

When April of this year rolled around they were shipped off to their new home at the Minnesota Zoo. Obviously for someone like me who has a love of wildlife their presence and antics are greatly missed. The few times I have been to the AWCC since then I have asked how they were doing in their new home, only to be told they are “adapting”. But alas for me I have found the AWCC quite simply isn’t the same without them.

With the loss of Sadie, Kenai and Haines I decided to do a bit of searching to obtain more information about their new home. Call it curiosity. I will be the first to admit I’m really not a fan of zoos. I find the animals spaces tend to be very confinding and the quality of life they tend to have to be less than superior. However that is another rant for another time. But during my research imagine my surprise to find these animals new home being listed and being sold as “Russia’s Grizzly Coast Animals” using bears of the Kamchatka Peninsula as a basis for their new display.

Last I looked Alaska was not Russia. Granted Alaska was bought from Russia in 1867 but my question remains why sell these animals as being from somewhere they are not? And while the answer is no double lost in the mire and muck of politics and advertising of which I am not a fan, I shall hope that they grow up healthy and strong.

Because they are certainly missed by me.

There are those moments while traveling that you encounter such a breathtaking location that its memories burns deep within your mind. There has been one particular place that has held special meaning to me over the last few years and that is a place known as Liberty Falls on the road to Kennecott/McCarthy near Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. I first came across this gem while traveling in 2006. At the time I was in a water flow frenzy when it came to photography and someone told me about this beautiful waterfall off the road to Chitina.

On a whim I decided to stop by there to take a look. Situated on the shores was a quaint little campground known as Liberty Falls State Park. I was devastated to hear of a flood that hit the area and virtually destroyed it later that fall and when I was again in the area during my 2007 journey there I knew it would be awhile before it opened. But I never gave up hope. After all it is a beautiful setting and offered not only a calm and serene place to rest your head at the end of a long day but also offered some wonderful hiking trails in the surrounding area.

Last night while I was planning my fall trip in which my friend C will accompany me I began to piece together an itinerary. I thought it would be great to add a journey to Kennecott/McCarthy to the agenda for some fall foliage photography before heading north to the Top of the World Highway. However as I began to plan the agenda was coming to 7 days over the Labor Day holiday. Which would require us to take one day off more than planned. Now I don’t think this is a problem to me because I have a solid banking of vacation time saved. But it might be an issue for C who is relatively new to her job. So it came to me today. Why not leave an evening after work instead of the following morning and we could camp at Liberty Falls?

So I went to the state website to see if it was open. Only to encounter the dire words “Closed for summer.” In further research I found out that not only was it closed temporarily but is closed permanently. Apparently during a land survey it was determined that the area fell on Ahtna native land an they have closed it for good. And those hiking trails I mentioned? Are now on private property and can’t be used without a use permit.

This is one Alaska treasure that I’m just saddened to lose. I shall remember my time there last summer while hiking and the beautiful views we encountered. I shall relish that trip just a bit more in knowing that they can’t quite be encountered as easily again.

Last September when I was scheduled to take my typical solo round trip around Alaska, I was two days into it and I had to cut it short to return to Anchorage where I was diagnosed with a case of strep throat with a double ear infection. In that time I haven’t had more than two days off until last week.

Three days into THAT vacation I came down with - you guessed it. Strep throat and a double ear infection. I have been laid up the last 5 days expending as little energy as possible This is not a sense of Deja Vu I wish to repeat.

This has just not been my year thus far. I want a do-over.

Spring Coyote
Southcentral Alaska

While each animal is beautiful in their own way if there is one time of year they are certainly not at their peak it’s the time between winter and summer when they are shedding their winter coats and summer coats are growing in. That and I have run into more animals lately out in the wild that are sporting some ugly cases of mange. This girl simply was having a “bad hair day”.

With most people around the country raising their eyebrows in a bit of alarm at the constantly increasing gas and fuel prices, I found myself swept up in a bit of this concern as well when it came to summer travel. With one of my vacations to Southeast Alaska already axed by the exorbient transportation costs, I found myself with a week off and nothing planned. And with being budget conscious on the brain, I found myself trying something a bit different this Memorial Day weekend and that was playing tourist by riding the train down to the coastal community of Seward for some time out on Resurrection Bay. It has been years since I have been on the train and with it being speculated that the trip between Anchorage and Seward is in fact one of the most beautiful, I decided “Why not?” and found myself reserving a spot.

Of course as I left Anchorage bright and early Friday morning the weather wasn’t looking to promising. I had earlier watched a beautiful sunset with the hiccups of pinks and purples enveloping the skies a little after 4:15 that morning. But by the time I hit the train station at a little after 5:45 that morning the clouds had rolled in and the rain and wind began in earnest. By the time I reached Seward a little after 11:30 in the morning with the gale force winds there was horizontal rain “welcoming” all of us to Seward. Not exactly a welcome promise given I had to walk a little more than a mile and a half to my hotel carrying two cumbersome bags. And what was worse - I had 4 hours to “waste” out in the elements before I was able to check in to my hotel. With that in mind I found myself stowing my bags on my friend Jennifer’s boat and then walked over to Ray’s restaurant for a leisurely lunch of halibut and a salad. You ever notice when you’re trying to spread time out you actually seem to get these tasks done more quickly? I set a record I think for being in and out of Ray’s in under an hour. In the end I found myself taking refuge on the M/V Arctic Enchantress for the next few hours while I cozied up and read my book. Thank god for friends. Finally the afternoon passed to where I could check in and wait for another friend to arrive in town that evening.

Our plans were really quite simple. The next morning we were to head out Mariah Tour’s “Captains Choice Tour” for a day of wildlife watching and of course some photography. But of course as was already the established habit, the following morning we were met with very low cloud cover that promised more “liquid sunshine” from the elements. I packed extra carefully that morning by bringing gloves, rain pants and my Gore-Tex shell. I was so glad I did. Now how the Captains Choice Tour differs from the other tours that occur in Kenai Fjords National Park is that these tours are geared towards photographers and birders. Limited to 22 people the boat is smaller which will allow one to get closer to the wildlife. Our vessel that morning was to be the M/V Misty which is part of the Kenai Fjords fleet. After meeting the captain, crew and fellow travelers, we set out for our days adventure with a light rain falling which would continue throughout the remainder of the day.

Now I have always heard the best time to encounter marine wildlife was when it was raining out. Little did I know at the time how true this was. We started out by seeing the sea otters right beyond the sea wall in the bay which is quite the norm for Resurrection Bay. But as the hours progressed so too did the encounters with the wildlife including a very large number of Orca whales that came right up to the boat. Now if I would have been on the ball and quicker with the camera it is likely I would have been able to capture a shot of an orca breaching completely out of the water. As it was I think I was still standing with my mouth agape at having seen one surface directly off the port side of the boat. Now I have seen Orca in my years of living here but they have never been that close. And the wildlife sightings continued as the minutes ticked into hours — the remainder of the afternoon brought us encounters with stellar sea lions, puffins, feeding humpback whales, dall porpoise. Quite simply the list is endless. Despite the long day and feeling quite frigid by its end I was definitely sad to see it end. There is no doubt at this point that the only boats I will sail with when it comes to Resurrection Bay wildlife tours is Mariah Tours. They come highly recommended.

Sunday’s adventure was a return to something I haven’t participated in in many years — that of sea kayaking. I caught my morning transport with the M/V Chugach and was dropped off bright and early for a rendezvous with the Sunny Cove gang and our agenda for the day was to paddle over to Sunny Cove and Starfish Rock before eventually returning to Fox Island for a salmon bake before I would catch the M/V Greatland back to Seward and then eventually on to catch the train where I would return home to Anchorage and back into my own little world. Now even though it has been years since I have been sea kayaking it was much like riding a bike. The moment I geared up and my kayaking partner and I sliced through the water it was a true reminder of how much I had missed it over the years. Now Resurrection Bay is notorious for having storm systems swing through the bay as quickly as a by your leave.

And that day was no different. The storm system that had swept through the bay less than 24 hours before had dissipated and now we were enjoy an afternoon of paddling under sunny skies. I had warned my kayaking partner early on that it had been years since I paddled. Of course I got the typical “don’t worry about it - I’ll handle the paddling and rudder.” I have always been something of a power paddler and I have a very quick front stroke. One that seemed to take even my kayaking partner by surprise. So much so that less than an hour later the guide was joking with him about taking the “easy way out” and letting me do all the work. Obviously I’m paying for it today with sore musles.

In all serious though Sunny Cove Kayaking is yet another one of those great Alaska oufits that is recommended. Ilya and Gunner who were our guides for the day were completely professional and made those that had never even kayaked feel completely safe on the water.  Plus both had a very good sense of humor.  I will be going back for one of their longer guided tours later in the summer. In the meantime the gear head inside of me is now plotting the purchase of a tandem necky. Double rather than single because I am one that thinks the doubles are more fun.

In the end it was a great weekend and a wonderful start to my week off. And a wonderful step in to the summer ahead.

Sea Otter
Kenai Fjords National Park
Seward, Alaska