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After having a photo selected for the Schmap! Edinburgh guide, I’ve now had two photos included in the guide to Anchorage The first was showcasing the shuttle bus the zoo operates from downtown to the zoo which is a pretty cool deal as it wasn’t exactly the easiest place to find otherwise! The original photo can be found here on Flickr, and the photo in the Schmap! guide is here

This second one is of a dall sheep within the zoo, a pretty good closeup given the camera I had at the time! Here’s the Schmap! page with the featured photo, and the original on Flickr. One of my friends on Flickr also has a photo or two listed which is pretty cool.

The mail has been a little hit + miss the last few days with the weather a bit rainy, so Photoshop Elements hasn’t arrived yet - looking forward to touching up the photos from our trips around Anchorage from a couple of weeks ago when it does as really want to get the photos online I’ve also just redesigned iainfoulds.com, the side-arm with a selection of prints available for purchase.

The last few days we were up in a nice log cabin along the Nenana River around Denali National Park which was a great experience. We had a very early morning for the full day, 13-hour tour into Denali and to Kantishna Roadhouse, but was amazing to see so much wildlife! It was kinda sad the bus driver seemed to keep missing the fact Denali was clearly in a view though (a very rare occurence, only 20% of visitors get to see it) and would stop the bus to show a ptarmigan flapping away that no-one got to see. The terrible road conditions and converted school bus without the aid of suspension really didn’t help, and the park ranger greeting us and welcoming us to the “last great wilderness” seemed ridiculous when the first time we stopped inside the park was more like a bus terminal with over a half a dozen buses already parked up herding visitors around and serving lukewarm tea + coffee along with cookies and fruit out the back door…

But, there were some fantastic views of the Alaska Range:

And also views of some of the mountains around Denali lit up in the morning sunshine (which turned to rain by mid-afternoon on our return trip which wasn’t too bad):

The driver finally stopped the bus so we could get a shot of Denali which was pretty cool. Not quite as a clear or distinctive as the flightseeing tour Kat + I took a couple of years ago, but still nice to see although the swirling cloud make it difficult to distinguish in this scaled down photo:

Just as we were taking photos of Denali, we noticed a bear down at the bottom of the valley, so headed down to see how close we could get. It was the second or third grizzly bear we’d seen, and this one really gave us a show! We got a ton of photos as it came to within 40 feet or so, and then wandered along the road in front of us as if leading the way! The driver had to radio in to check what she should do! It finally got off the road where we saw it stand on it’s hind legs before pouncing and chasing after a ground squirrel. Very cool!

We went on to see another couple of bears, though none quite that close, along with a caribou with a fantastic set of antlers before we passed Wonder Lake and headed to the Kantishna Roadhouse, by which time the weather had closed in and the views were over, but we’d got the best of it anyways. After a quick lunch, we then went out panning for gold in the creek where we all ended up with a small sliver of gold (no-one even suggested they might have been planted there…), but a fun experience:

After a long haul back along the park road, we came across a couple of moose very close to us, and again one of them crossed right across the road in front of us and gave us some fantastic close-up views. The mist just added to the atmosphere:

The day after we had a bit of a rest day without too much planned, so Kat + I headed on a little hike up Triple Lakes Trail where we got some fantastic views of the little lakes up in the hills:

This morning we got an early start and started heading back down towards Anchorage, calling in at Talkeetna along the way which was a cool little town where all the downtown area was still small log cabins and no brick-built structures in sight which was really pretty:

Kat’s choice of activities was to check out the Sun Dog Iditarod kennels, home of musher Jerry Sousa who took us on a tour around the kennels, gave a talk and introduced us to the puppies, and also took us on a sleddog ride around the woods with the dogs pulling us on a trailer kinda thing.

It was pretty fun, and was cool to get pulled around by sled dogs, who really had a ton of power! It also broke up to the drive to Anchorage, though we were still in town by 2p.m. Gave us plenty of time to get all the food we wanted to pack the cooler and a rubbermade box, and also mailed off some more food and bites + pieces. Kat + I are heading out in the morning to get Mia and then flying out to Bethel around 12 noon, with a chartered Cessna 207 to take us back to Tunt around 3p.m. Hopefully everything will go okay! Mam + dad don’t leave until a little later, flying down to Vancouver for a couple of nights around 2.30p.m

Overall, it’s been an amazing trip with so many highlights. No-one can really decide on a ‘best moment’, just a list of their favourites! Sure once we all get home and just let it all soak in and go back over photos it will start to hit home just how much we’ve done.

A few weeks ago I was e-mailed to ask if one of my photos on flickr could be shortlisted for inclusion in a Schmap! guide to Edinburgh. I agreed not thinking much of it, as it wasn’t really one of my best - it was taken from a moving tour bus taking us around the city! But, the latest guide was published online and my photo was included for the Dynamic Earth center. It includes a few other photos too for the area, but is still pretty neat to be on there.

They’re also working on an updated guide to Anchorage and another couple of my photos have been shortlisted for inclusion (better ones from the Alaska Zoo this time, so I’ll be quite happy to see them included!) which should be fun to see what happens with those.

Yesterday we headed out with Kenai Fjords Tours on their wildlife glacier cruise and it was just fantastic! Again, we got very lucky with the weather which although was a little overcast, the rain held off and blue skies appeared towards the end of the afternoon. This was our boat, the Chugach:

Just after leaving the habour we came across three sea otters just hanging out eating on whatever they’d found at the bottom of the bay. The captain recognised them as being regulars that hang around causing trouble, and they seemed very okay with the boat getting right up to them.

Further on by No Name Island, a large group of Stella Sea Lions were lying on the rocks along the shore enjoying the sunshine. Again, they didn’t seem too bothered by the boat, and let us watch them for quite some time:

After passing Bear Glacier and Pederson Glacier, we then came upon the massive Aialik Glacier:

This was very impressive, and with clearer weather than last year at Portage Glacier, Kat + I were also very impressed. Quite a few chunks were calving off, and you really got to see just how blue the glacier ice is. We managed to get a cool group shot of us all too:

Heading back towards Fox Island, we came across humpback whales for the second time - we’d seen them going out to the glaciers, but they seemed a little shy. This time, one came up not more than 30 feet from the boat as I was standing at the side and surfaced a couple of times right next to us. It then headed away a little before diving down beneath the water:

We ended up seeing a total of five humpback whales, including a cow and a calf (which were very shy so we only got a couple of glimpses!), but it really was just fantastic to see them. Mam was very impressed and said it made it worth the trip just for that! An hour stop at Fox Island gave us a nice 15 minute park ranger talk about the Kenai Fjords area, along with a delicious grilled salmon dinner. We all would definately recommend the option of stopping at Fox Island for the salmon dinner as it was a nice end to the day.

Overall, it really was an amazing day, and just like the railroad ride, for $130 a person, a well-worthwhile trip. The weather was kind to us, we just have the Denali trip for it to stay nice for now Today we’re walking up to Exit Glacier, then driving round to Kenai, before heading down to the halibut fishing capital of the world, Homer, on Tuesday.

We’ve had a busy few days Feels like we haven’t stopped moving, but we’ve seen so much no-one’s really complaining. First up, we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center which showcased the five main native cultures of Alaska. Alongside indoor displays and photos, they had recreated the dwellings of the different cultures around a small lake, letting you wander around between them and talk to the local guides. This was an interesting one of a traditional Yup’ik settlement:

They also showcased native dancing and games which Kat + I had seen a few times at school but was still cool to see, and mam + dad really seemed to enjoy it.

After a good few hours there, we then headed to the Anchorage Museum back in downtown where they also had a showcase exhibit on the Yup’ik culture with a ton of photos and objects from the area which was again nice for mam + dad to see more about. They also had an exhibit on the Iditarod which was fun to look over.

Yesterday we took the railroad down to Seward which was just awesome! Made for a very long day with being at the station by 5.45a.m and not getting back into Anchorage until 10.15p.m, but worth it. We were very lucky to have good weather on our way down which gave us fantastic views of the mountains, valleys and glaciers along the way.

Up through the mountains was fantastic, and we got to see moose, along with a couple of calves, and I also saw a bear on our way back.

Whilst in Seward we headed to the Sea Life Center which is well worth checking out (Kat got in for free as she’s a teacher up here!), and the area with the sea birds such as the puffins was great. The underwater viewing ares for the seals and sea lions were also fun just to sit and watch.

Today we then drove the highway down to Seward, stopping off at the Alaska Animal Conservation Center, another place worth checking out. The drive along Turnagain Arm was pretty cool with the clouds hanging around the top of the mountains, and again we were lucky with the weather.

Down at the animal center, my favourites were the the moose:

And then the brown bears:

One of the members of staff was feeding them as we were there and so the bears were standing up on the hind legs waiting for the food, and I really wouldn’t want to come across one of them in the woods! They were easily 7+ feet when stood up, and I was pretty glad there was an electric fence between us

Seward itself is pretty nice, though clearly mainly a tourist + fishing town. One of the cruise ships we saw yesterday was massive, and there’s a number of small ships that sail down the bay and around the Kenai area.

We’re off tomorrow morning on a Kenai Fjords coastal explorer with Fox Island tour which should be good - our hotel looks right out over the habour and the Kenai Fjords tour boats are right outside the window! Shouldn’t be too late a finish, so will try to get some photos up of the glaciers and any wildlife we come across, hopefully including whales!

Me thinks the weathermen were right about a storm coming…

Still, least it’s a little cooler now!

The rains this morning were obviously a sign of things to come - Kat + I got out for a walk with Mia earlier this evening whilst it was still quite nice, but now it’s heavy rain, thunder + lightning. Mia is not impressed! The sky was definitely threatening in places whilst we were out:

I guess the locals thought so too, as there were a lot of boats anchored up, obviously not wanting to get stuck out on the river in any bad weather.

Still, the fish hut right by the river across from the school has obviously been seeing a lot of use. The smoking hut was going, the outside wire-enclosed drying racks were full, and this was the rack used to hang the nets from I photographed a few times last winter. Must be running out of space to dry them!

And something else I photographed last winter - the abandoned yellow truck starting to get buried by the long grass. These past two photos ended up having the only bits of blue sky in the whole area conveniently right behind them!

The storm seems to be easing up a bit now which is keeping Mia happy. Really didn’t like the thunder! We had to get her booked in to see a vet first thing on the Tuesday morning after getting in to Anchorage to have them stick needles in for her booster shots to get into the dog resort kennels without any fuss. Thankfully we’re picking the rental car up right away on the Monday so will be easily able to move around town getting her sorted Don’t know whether she’ll be too happy about it though!

Two days of warm + dry weather gave way this morning.

After heavy downpours, it’s now back to 70F and sunshine.

Most Alaskans are probably lying if they say they have no difficulty sleeping during the summer. These photos were taken at 12.30a.m, and there’s easily another hour or so of this twilight period before the sun will finally dip below the horizon.

By 5a.m, it will be back. These are the houses around the lake silhouetted to bring the sky colours out. It’s no-where near this dark.

Not sure how the “red sky at night, sailor’s delight” idea works, since technically it’s already morning… But, hopefully today’s warm weather is a sign of things to come

Look, no rain! Up to 75F earlier this evening as we took a walk, enjoying the greenery here by the Russian Orthodox Church.

We were then swarmed by dive-bombing mosquitoes as we headed out across the tundra in search of close-up photos of a pair of beavers in one of the lakes, but a watering moose caused them to slap the tails and head under water, hiding out of sight