the blue jay happily eats the bear's crap to get undigested berries in it
we hiked it down which wasn't pleasant, steep and gravelly/slippery
it was empty last time I went early morning, but packed that saturday afternoon
paris over many years |
France over many years |
UK over many years |
Australia over many years |
Canada over many years |
Japan over multiple trips |
Vegas over many years |
Holland over many years |
Belgium over many years |
Belgium over many years |
Mexico over many years |
Texas over many years |
Italy in 2011 |
France in 2013 |
Indonesia in 2013 |
Japan in 2013 |
Japan in 2014 |
Taiwan in 2014 |
Indonesia in 2014 |
New Zealand in 2015 |
Japan in 2015 |
Costa Rica in 2015 |
Singapore in 2016 |
South Korea in 2016 |
Japan in 2016 |
Germany in 2016 |
Tasmania 2017 |
Japan in winter 2017 |
Great Britain in 2017 |
Australia Flying Safari 2017 |
Philippines 2018 |
Spain in 2018 |
Alaska in 2019 |
the blue jay happily eats the bear's crap to get undigested berries in it
we hiked it down which wasn't pleasant, steep and gravelly/slippery
it was empty last time I went early morning, but packed that saturday afternoon
movie under the stars, except it was pretty cold and the movie volume was a bit too low
one of the two performance stages
and low resolution picture of the front of the ship
high tea in our dining room (several on the ship, this was the closest one to our cabin)
outside of our assigned dining room with servers, there was a buffet that was just above average
but it was fun to see at times
they were quite good about trying not to spread germs and get everyone sick
we also got a tour of the kitchen
it was big, over 2000 people to feed
not sure if we were supposed to see this
wine tasting, not sure how good it actually was, though
I played the yes/no game, went first like an idiot and got close but didn't quite make it
another night, some boat staff gave us true and wrong definition of words and we had to guess who was who
didn't see wild ones that close either :)
we didn't get that lucky, but close to it :)
this would have been awesome too, but likely pretty rare
but none of those pretty harlequin ducks, even if we saw cool ones in denali
that's farther than we went :)
we actually saw more seals on the ice than sea lions
rafts of sea otters are so cute :)
would have been really cool to see this
this is not even a real duck, we didn't do that tour
several seals came up the river to eat the exhausted salmon
I was lucky to find a black bear
the seagulls were there to eat salmon leftovers
a section on how the japanese invaded part of AK during WWII
nice and quiet, everything still closed
checking the different houses that you are supposed to be able to visit when they are open (which they only were while we were on our tour)
the rich people were able to go around via boat only
I climbed up a hill for this winning shot
it sucked for people who had to get there on foot before the train was there
is that what 'bridge to nowhere' means?
the 3 story boat in front of it gives a sense of scale
lot of seals sleeping on the ice to avoid the orcas
it's visible from the road already
the nature center had already closed for the season
the placards outside were enough
note how all the vegetation has grown where the glacier used to be
the glacier looks close, but it was still a 15mn hike away on an unofficial trail
I got to peek under the glacier in a spot that may not have been super safe, so I didn't stay too long
pigeon duck, what kind of forbidden sex was this?
some fake carriages with businesses
this was used to load coal on boats
lots of seals resting on the ice, but sadly a bit out of range of my 20x zoom
the crew then made us margaritas using the glacier ice
had we had more time, we could have hiked up
sadly all the ski lifts were closed, the snow was also gone, and I forgot my snowboard. Luck was not on my side :)
they taught it to walk up and down its new 3 floor condo despite the missing leg
haha, this one was eager with its food
sadly it didn't come out to see us
the michoko bird was fighting the bears for their food
they gave us a demo of the songs and dances they have
seal guts is also used as windows
sadly the americans also tried to wash out the cultures and languages
another outfit made with seal stomach
price differences between locations
they got really close, but got stuck in ice
they didn't quite have the satellite pictures we have now
they had to abandon the boat in the ice after a year of the ice not melting, continued on foot and died off eventually
Mary sadly had to get part of her leg amputated, but that doesn't stop her from getting around
the pigs are used to clean the pipeline
oil revenue after the pipeline was built was shared with AK residents as a dividend
the owner is an expert ice sculptor and gave us a demo
we learned about more 'evacuation' camps in AK during WWII
more climbers but they don't all make it up, it's a long trip
nice view from the visitor center
ground squirrels are food for many bigger animals
some people went to try and pick berries, but they were quite far from the road
the rotor clouds were a clue that wind was hellish
from the parking lot, we got a ride in the back of an SUV, riding on top of their ATV that was in the back. That was fun and weird :)
the only wildlife we saw, The rest probably hid from the wind
I enjoyed my huge Alaskan beef jerky
they were good at diving and swimming under water
I even found a beaver cutting a tree trunk
and this was the dam they made
this was the same plane than our float plane, but it had skis instead
which don't always look good when you zoom
I wouldn't snowboard down this :)
hard to tell that all that dirt is a glacier, until you see this
and after a total of 5.5H most of which Jennifer drove (thanks), we arrived at Denali
we took some amazon prime boxes as cargo :)
the pilot was nice enough to let me sit in the copilot seat
we flew over a glacier on the way
A native gave us a quick intro of the land around katmai and the different tribes that live in the area
then we transitionned to a seaplane
our plane was already in the water
we got a briefing from the ranger on how to deal with the bears
the lodge was nice, but we didn't spend any time there, not even lunch
we waited at the lower platform
some bears wait for the fish to jump up, miss, fall back and then they catch them
we found evidence of bears being there, but no actual bears:
more salmons in the lake though
it was the end of that salmon run but from time to time we still saw a few trying to climb