Alaska 2017 by Verryl V Fosnight Jr
Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery
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  1. Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery
  2. Alaska 2017Alaska 2017
0 Southern Part of tour
We drove to Seattle from Sedona via our 2nd home in Anaheim. From Seattle we took a shuttle bus to Vancouver and boarded the Island Princess of Princess Cruises.
0a Mid Part of Tour
From Ketchikan we cruise further north to Juneau (center of map) and did the Group 3 "Juneau Whale Watching (#)" photos. Following that we wen up to Skagway for a ride on the Skagway & Yukon Route Railway, which is memorialized as Group 4. Outside of Skagway we stopped at Liarsville for a salmon bake lunch.
0a Northern Part of Tour
After Skagway we cruised past Valdez and Whittier and turned into College Fjord in hopes of seeing one of the many glaciers named after Ivy League colleges calve. We were there from early morning through mid-afternoon, but saw no calving of glaciers. But the sea otters, the scenery and the glaciers were beautiful. We returned to Whittier and took a catamaran to Valdez where we boarded buses for the remainder of the tour on land.
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When we got in our stateroom there was this beautiful arrangement of flowers from my cousins Fred and Sarah, our guests on the cruise. I was so overcome with emotion that I could not hold the camera steady, hence the blurred photo.
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As a wedding present, Sharon and I, and Fred and Sarah, were upgraded to a balcony stateroom. This was our balcony. Fred and Sarah's were on the other side of the ship. Our rooms were on the Lido Deck, 14, the top deck for staterooms
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Our balcony view of the inner passage looking forward toward the ship's bow. The weather was in the low 70's with a cool ocean breeze. On land it was generally in the high 70's or eighties. We went in mid August.
2 KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary (2 Sel Inv RCC B_C)
Our view of Ketchikan from our balcony.
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Island Princess; our stateroom is the last one on the top floor,aft, but other side. Fred and Sarah's were on the other side further forward.
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Just out of Ketchkan we took a rain forest wildlife sanctuary guided walk. These are wild raspberries, a favorite food of bears as they fatten up for winter.
2 KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary (13a)
There were berries everywhere. This tree (which moved as I shot it, so it was blurry). It has bear claw marks, black bears, for brown bears don't climb trees.
2 KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary (22 HiS)
Sharon beside a western red cedar tree like those used to carve totem poles.
2 KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary (16crop aS)
Wildlife cover under tree trunk. I cropped the guide off the picture on the left, but she had a road flair on her shoulder to ward off bears.
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Black bear in a tall grass meadow from elevated walk (about 30 yards away). Bears eat grass--I guess bears eat anything. We were on the elevated walking causeway above the grass.
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Salmon in still river within Sanctuary. Bear attraction, but they eat the grass and berries also.
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Chinook "King" Salmon facts; in background is a fish ladder leading to a salmon farm.
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Detail of fish ladder up to fish farm. If you look closely you can see a salmon who landed on structure when he jumped. She eventually flopped herself back in the water just below her.
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Bald Eagle visiting the river for fish; about 20-30 yards away.
2 KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary (38sharp)
Eagle quickly flew away as we started to approach and landed in a tree about 10 yards away.
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Another black bear from our walkway. It moved towards us after entering and leaving the water from the woods in the distance.
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Worker carving totem pole from western red cedar in a shop attached to the obligatory gift shop.
2 KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary (60 Crop Sa 120size)
Wounded osprey in sanctuary.
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This wounded eagle can't fly due to damaged wing, so will live in sanctuary rest of its life.
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Totem poles, background for Fred and Sarah.
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Totem poles, background for Verryl and Sharon
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Arrival at Juneau before docking
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Humpback Whale watching from smaller boat; approx 100 yards away and diving. Never saw him again, even though we expected him on the other side of the water. Whales usually stay under water to 15 minutes, but can stay under 45 minutes! And they can dive to 10,500 feet.
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Humpback whale continuing his dive. Don't know if we ever saw him http:// saw him again. We sure did not see him where we expected (on the other side of our boat).
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Thar she blows! A more typical sight of a whale blowing; we rarely saw the actual whale until most of the spray had settled
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This whale put on quite a show for several minutes, diving and jumping ans slapping the water with its flukes.
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Evidently no one know why humpbacks cavort so. There are three theories. Some of these shots are blurry, because the whale was on the opposite side of th boat from my seat. So I had to stand and lean over others and shoot between them as they stood and moved about.
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There are three theories why they dive and jump so exuberantly. Theory 1: ridding themselves of parasites that have attached themselves to their skin
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Theory 2: mating behavior--showing off for the opposite sex
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Theory 3:simply being playful
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show
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Same whale, same show. I jerked a lot for this shot, so I over-processed it to try to save it. This whale cavorted for over 1 min 55 sec as timed by the metadata my camera from the time of the first picture in this sequence to the last.
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Interior of the whale watching boat. Nice large windows, although half the time you had to lean over others to photograph on the other side. But I did have a whole seat to myself.
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Stellar Sea Lions basking in the sun on a buoy.
0 Southern Part of tour 0a Mid Part of Tour 0a Northern Part of Tour 1 OffBeatenPathAlaskaTour  (6) 1 OffBeatenPathAlaskaTour  (7) 1 OffBeatenPathAlaskaTour  (8) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (2 Sel Inv RCC B_C) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (3) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (12) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (13a) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (22 HiS) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (16crop aS) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (25 Crop) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (32) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (33) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (34a) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (37) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (38sharp) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (52b_contrast) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (57 CC) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (60 Crop Sa 120size) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (62) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (66) 2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (67crop) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (1) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (11) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (12) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (18) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (22) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (24) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (25) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (26 aS) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (26) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (27) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (28) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (29) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (30) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (31) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (32) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (33) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (34) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (35) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (36) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (37) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (38) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (39) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (40) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (40) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (43) 3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (46)
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