Check out parts 1,2,3 and 4. Part 1 starts as of May 26th, 2009
June 10th, 2009
Suns out and looking like another good day. Soon I’m at a place called Coopers Landing, I am now on Highway #1 North of Homer about 100 miles. What beautiful country this is.
I came to a road that went to the town “Kenai” eleven miles off the highway and wish now I had taken that road to see the Kenai Peninsula. Well I just have to go back. There are a hundred places I wish I had visited or stayed a bit longer. But, I was a lucky guy to see and go where I did. I came to area that was looking over the Cook Inlet nearer Homer and could see Mt. Redoubt the Volcano across the inlet. I’ll put the best picture up here, but it is not very clear. Yes, there is a plume of ash rising from it. Look Hard.
Soon I could see Homer and the Famous Homer spit. The road takes one straight out on the spit where all the restaurants, shops, docks and fishing boats are. A bit windy that afternoon, but over all a very nice day. Thought I had better have a Halibut lunch since I’m at the Halibut Capital. Picked good looking restaurant and had very nice Fish and Chips Lunch. After lunch I walked around and took some pictures. The Salty Dawg Saloon was closed for some reason, so I didn’t get to check it out. Watched some fellows cleaning fish for a while, looked like they each has a fairly good catch.
There were quite few people fishing in a small inlet off the Spit. I watched for about 1/2 hour but did not see anyone land a fish. http://www.akms.com/
Now here were some Halibut, they were weighing the big one and it came to about 150 pounds. The woman who caught it was standing next to it and she was about 5 1/2 feet tall and it was still bigger than her. You can see her standing the right of the fish in a Yellow sweater. The record there is 450 pounds, I can’t imagine the size of that fish! I walked around a bit more and almost wished I was a fisherman. I can see this little town will really come alive when the fish start coming in soon.
The photo above shows people fishing the other side of the inlet. Than I came across this Ice Cream place, really liked the building. Stopped at a Russian church to take a couple photos. Not an Old Russian like you might find a little farther north say in Sitka. I enjoy the drive back North and then south towards Seward and find a nice camp just north Seward. On the way there I come by Kenai Lake, What a beautiful Lake. Miles traveled now 3946. Averaging 22.4 mph.
June 11th , 2009
After a good nights sleep I head for Seward and the Exit glacier. Weather is over cast, and it was doing the Oregon Drizzle, not great for taking photos, plus it is a bit cool ( 55 degrees and windy ). I was a bit disappointed with the glacier, maybe it was the weather. One was able to get up pretty close and there was trail that took one higher up on the glacier, but it was in the fog, so I skipped it. I should not have done that since I was right there and had the time. The Exit glacier is only one of a few glaciers that you can drive right to: http://www.nps.gov/kefj/index.htm
After the Exit glacier I headed for Seward. Was thinking about taking a boat trip from there to see some Glaciers and hopefully some Orca’s. But again the weather was a bit on the low cloud side. Once in Seward I went to an internet Cafe and got on-line to catch up my e-mails. After that I walked about town and took some pictures, Seward has many murals painted on their buildings. Seward is a very nice small town and looks like it is depends on the tourist trade. I checked at the dock about the weather, but the forecast was not good. Tomorrow was going to be cloudy, windy and rain. I either had to go in the rain, wait it out or move on. Not being one for staying put I took off back North towards Anchorage.
The photo of the fish above is a little out-of-place, I took this nearer Anchorage. I saw some natives fishing on the river and went down to see what they were catching with their nets. They called them hooligans (we call the Smelt here in Oregon) they look very much alike.
The photo above is of Jeremy Lake South of Anchorage. The weather there was beautiful and the scenery could not have more perfect. A few miles north again and started sprinkling and was very cloudy.
Another drop dead gorgeous view near Jeremy Lake. The last picture of the day was taken about 9:15pm of a glacier that I believe was coming from the Marcus Baker Mountains. I stopped briefly in Anchorage for gas and then headed east on highway 1 (ALCAN HWY) towards Tok. I pulled off the highway around 10 pm and slept in the jeep again that night.
June 12th, 2009
I awoke about midnight and took this photo of a Coyote standing in front of the Jeep. As you can see there was still was plenty of light. He wondered around a bit looking a bit like he didn’t see the Jeep. Than he slowly moved towards the back of the Jeep where my food chest was, so opened the window of the Jeep and yelled at him. I thought he was going to jump right out of his fur. I don’t think he came around again that night, but I still put the food chest up on top of the Jeep.
June 12th, 2009
I came upon the next three photo’s during the day at some point. All have a message for someone. Maybe that person will see this Blog/story and get a little smile.
Once again I was back in Tok Alaska, but now I was heading southeast not northwest. I think this is about where I really felt I was heading back home. Shortly after leaving Tok for the second time I came upon a fairly large pond that I spotted a beaver at work. He or she was not happy that I was there taking pictures. It would go to the far end of the pond when it could see me. When I moved around the pond to see if I could get a better shot it would slap it’s tail on the water, dive and swim to the opposite side. Finely it went way over to a corner where I couldn’t see it. Thus leaving me alone with the mosquitoes who seemed to really like people from the USA.
Soon I was back at the Border again entering Canada’s Yukon. Stopped at a couple of camping spots looking for place with shower but none seemed to be equiped with them and not very good spots for tents. They did have a lot of mosquitoes. Finally I pulled of the road into a Gravel Pit and crashed in the back of the Jeep. After killing a few thousand mosquitoes I got a pretty goods nights sleep. Total miles now traveled 4593.
June 13th, 2009
The photo above left is what the view looked like in the morning , than I came upon this Memorial to a First Native Indian. This was a very interesting spot and the person doing the carvings was very good. These three Photos are a small amount of stone and wood craving done or in progress.
A few miles afer leaving the Native memorial I pull over to check my map as I am now coming to a very large lake. ( Kluane Lake Klune National Park BC . While looking at my map I glance ahead just in time to see two small grizzly bears cut across the road ahead of me. They were moving towards the lake, but I was able to get a couple photos, not great but ok. The last bear spotted me and then sped up to the other and into the brush they went. I drove down to where they entered the brush and followed a 4×4 trail for ways, but no sign of them.
Shortly after seeing the bears I met some people from Texas at a pull out. Wish I had taken a picture of the rig they had. A newer RV about 35 feet long with New Ford 4×4 3/4 or 1 ton four door pickup being pulled with two 4X4 off road vehicles stacked on the trucks bed. They had three children and had been on the road for 3 months and planned on traveling for nine months. When I mentioned that I had just seen a couple grizzly bears about 1/2 mile back the lady rounded kids and made them get in the RV. These last 50 miles or so has been gravel again and one has to watch out for not only wildlife, but wild gravel truck drivers flying down the middle of the road. Just south past Haines Junction where highway 1 and 3 meet I came to Dezadeash Lake on Highway 3.
A few more miles down the road I came to a sign that said; Native Village. Not sure of the name. I drove down the dirt road and could see small poorly constructed homes. I do not know how they would keep them warm in the winter. Income for this village looks far below average for the area. As I drove through the village housing I only saw a few people.
Back on the road and heading south towards Haines the town I once again cross from the Yukon in to BC Canada. As I approach some of the most Beautiful Mountain scenery I come upon the Moose in the above photo. I believe it thought it was a race horse, he or she even had that proud look of a race horse and this Moose could run. I was trying to get this photo as it ran about 25 to 30 miles per hour up the road. The next two photos are from the summit before dropping down to bay at Haines.
I locate a Motel ( The Thunderbird ), check in and grab my dirty cloths and find a laundry. After a couple hours at the laundry mat I find the locale grocery store and resupply my food. Pick up an extra quart of milk and a package of raisin cookies go back to the motel, shower, shave, eat cookies and watch TV.
Continues with part # 6
More Photos at www.donsiebelphotography.com
