Today we have the first of several sets of photos taken by reader Joe Dickinson in Alaska. His notes are indented:
Here is the first of perhaps four sets of photos from a trip to Alaska about five years ago. I’ll start with a landscape, a crystal clear Denali seen from a train going from Anchorage up to the National Park. The mountain was in full view for the entire trip. I believe that is unusual, and I know that on a previous trip we never saw the mountain in about four days in the park.
We had a nice “game drive” in the park and saw many grizzlies (Ursus arctos) but most of my photos turned out to be bear butts like this.
We had better luck on a small ship cruise among the islands and fjords of southeast Alaska. Here is a bear fishing from a rock near the mouth of a stream where salmon were running.
These orcas (Orcinus orca) approached the ship in the evening when the light was starting to fade, so the photos are not as sharp as I would have liked.
This is a nice male Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus).
Here is a sequence with two humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) approaching our ship and diving under us.
Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) commonly haul out on ice flows near the face of a glacier. The kayak lower left gives some scale.
Here is my proof, shot by my wife from the mother ship.
That had to be a great trip. Great photos
I have only seen Denali from the air flying from Anchorage to Fairbanks. Not the same at all.
Wonderful photos! In the first photo, I love seeing the bottom of the bear’s foot.
Bear? You guys must have been drinking the “science” Koolaid! That is an obviously the foot of a Sasquatch! MAGA!!!
Yeah! That made me grin. Great photos.
At least she didn’t put you out on an ice flow, Joe. 🙂
Love the bear (bare) foot.
Love that and the bear but not bare butt.
Isn’t that as bare as a bear’s butt gets (the bear necessities)🤓
The right word for these is, in fact, awesome.
Just incredible. Love the bear foot too and those claws!
If anyone cares, the sequence of diving whales somehow got mixed. The top shot should be in the middle.
About 5 years ago we also had a very nice trip to Alaska with our good friends, Kjell and Tone from Norway. It included driving both ways from eastern Canada.
In Denali, we saw several grizzlies, but, as more usual it seems, saw only the bottom third of the big mountain.
But at Haines to begin, and at Haider, in from Stewart, B.C. at the end, we really ‘lucked-out’ with drama starring grizzlies.
In the latter case there was like a soap opera episode, with a big male chasing off a female and her well-grown cub. Ranger said the latter were well-known residents, the male an intruder.
Your pictures are great, esp. the paw.
Terrific trip and great shots.
Beautiful and fascinating! Definitely looking forward to the next installments!