2009 Alaska Trip: Miscellaneous Photos from Denali to Homer, AK

Here are a few photos we shot between our time at Denali Natl Park and Homer, Alaska. While in Homer we took a small bush plane to Katmai Natl Park to get up close and personal with the massive brown bears that live there. This was, without a doubt, the highlight of this entire trip. I'll do a post on that adventure as soon as I wade through the 1000+ photos we took. For now I just have these few to show.

I took this picture during a local news broadcast in Fairbanks. It was a couple days after the summer solstice. You can see that the sun rises at 3AM and doesn't set until nearly 1 AM. When the sun "sets" it doesn't actually get dark. The sun hides just below the horizon for a couple hours and it's like dusk outside. It's plenty light enough to read a newspaper.

Here's a better shot of Mt. McKinley (20320 ft.). I took this from the town of Talkeetna, about 60 miles away. The air was very clear but 60 miles of air still creates a visible color cast in the photo (no, I didn't Photoshop it). Talkeetna is the jumping-off point for most people who attempt to climb Mt. McKinley. They hire a small bush plane to fly them to a glacier on the southern flank of the mountain. They set-up base camp nearby and wait for favorable weather to make their summit. I'm told that the mountain is not a difficult technical climb but the weather is so unpredictable that the mountain claims several lives each year.

I really wanted to get a picture of a Musk Ox and here it is. Nothing says arctic like a prehistoric creature. These guys were hunted to extinction in Alaska back in the 1800s. Their fur is extremely warm so it was highly sought after. A few dozen animals were brought from Greenland early in the 1900s and a new herd was formed. I think there are something like 2000-3000 now. The only way to see them in the wild is to hire a small plane and a guide to fly you around the arctic tundra for a few days looking for them. My budget couldn't handle that expense so I did the next best thing, I went to a wildlife rehab center. They have a small herd that they use as part of a captive breeding program. They've been very successful at expanding the wild herds and maintaining genetic diversity.

We shot these 2 grizzly bears kissing at the same wildlife rehab center. I believe that these bears are brother and sister. These are really tiny (~300 lbs) compared to the bears we saw at Katmai NP. Those pictures are coming soon.

A little closer shot of one of the bears. Doesn't he look comfortable??

If you ever get chased by a black bear, don't climb a tree. They are incredibly good climbers and are very at-home in trees. You'll notice that this guy is fast asleep. Kathy and I have seen black bears sleeping in trees many times so it's pretty normal behavior. We've even seen female black bears sleeping in trees while her cubs played in the tree. This bear is about 25 ft up in a very large tree. I love the way he's resting his snout on that branch.

This was the view out our back window while we were camped in Homer, Alaska. How would you like to wake up to this every morning?? Homer is at the extreme southwestern tip of the Kenai Peninsula (find Anchorage on a map and go southwest till you fall in the water). The water in the background is Kachemak Bay, and the mountains are the Kenai Mountains.

Here's another picture from Homer. I liked the lupines in the foreground for color.