12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (60) by Verryl V...
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
  3. 12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark (60)12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (60)

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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.)
1 OffBeatenPathAlaskaTour  (6) (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.)
1 OffBeatenPathAlaskaTour  (7) (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)
1 OffBeatenPathAlaskaTour  (8) (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.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (3) (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.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (12) (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.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (25 Crop) (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.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (32) (Salmon in still river within Sanctuary. Bear attraction, but they eat the grass and berries also.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (33) (Chinook "King" Salmon facts; in background is a fish ladder leading to a salmon farm.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (34a) (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.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (37) (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.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (52b_contrast) (Another black bear from our walkway. It moved towards us after entering and leaving the water from the woods in the distance.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (57 CC) (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.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (62) (This wounded eagle can't fly due to damaged wing, so will live in sanctuary rest of its life.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (66) (Totem poles, background for Fred and Sarah.)
2  KetchikanRainForestWildlifeSanctuary   (67crop) (Totem poles, background for Verryl and Sharon)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (1) (Arrival at Juneau before docking)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (11) (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.)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (12) (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).)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (18) (Thar she blows! A more typical sight of a whale blowing; we rarely saw the actual whale until most of the spray had settled)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (22) (This whale put on quite a show for several minutes, diving and jumping ans slapping the water with its flukes.)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (24)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (25) (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.)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (26 aS) (There are three theories why they dive and jump so exuberantly.  Theory 1: ridding themselves of parasites that have attached themselves to their skin)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (26) (Theory 2: mating behavior--showing off for the opposite sex)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (27) (Theory 3:simply being playful)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (28) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (29) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (30) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (31) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (32) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (33) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (34) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (35) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (36) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (37) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (38) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (39) (Same whale, same show)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (40)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (40) (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.)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (43) (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.)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (46) (Stellar Sea Lions basking in the sun on a buoy.)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (48) (This one wanted to share the buoy, but one of the others kept forcing him back into the water. The others just ignored his plight)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (52 HiS) (It finally got up on the buoy after several tries and being  pushed back into the water each time.)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (56 aC) (Mendenhall Glacier just north of Juneau. I have a lot of pictures of it and many of a bald eagle that posed for me in a tree only about 20 above me. See the SlickPic Folder "Yukon Territory and Alaska Aug 2013 Part II.")
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (57 aC) (A photo in the opposite direction showing how large a body of water we were on. The distant shore must have been 5 to 10 miles away. The whale watching boat probably took us out about 20 or 30 miles from Juneau)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (58 aC) (Back to Juneau. Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles out of Juneau)
3 Juneau_WhaleWatching (60 S) (There are huge rushing steams/rivers/waterfalls rushing down the sides of mountains all over Alaska)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (2 HiS BC aC HS) (The Island Princess docked in Skagway. To the left is the White Pass & Yukon Route train we were to take back from Frazier, B. C. (Canada). We took a bus up the White Pass.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (6 aS) (The train passing over a raging stream. This was  taken from the bus.  The road generally takes the side opposite the canyon and river from the train.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (7haze_levels aS) (Wider view showing the stream just after the train has passed)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (10color aS) (The chasm that the road and the train follow. Don't distract the driver!)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (11 aS) (World's only single tower suspension bridge. This is the road we just passed over.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (12color BC aS) (World's only single tower suspension bridge. This is the road we just passed over. The route of the road, and the train, and not incidentally, the 1898 gold rush train from Skagway to the Yukon. This was one of two routes by foot. The other was up the Chilkoot Pass. Canada required one ton of supplies to enter from Alaska, so it took many trips by foot. According to Wikipedia: Those who landed at Skagway made their way over the White Pass before cutting across to Bennett Lake. Although the trail began gently, it progressed over several mountains with paths as narrow as 2 fee and in wider parts covered with boulders and sharp rocks. Under these conditions horses died in huge numbers, giving the route the informal name of Dead Horse Trail. The volumes of travelers and the wet weather made the trail impassable and, by late 1897, it was closed until further notice, leaving around 5,000 stranded in Skagway.

An alternative toll road suitable for wagons was eventually constructed (con't next photo))
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (23 SGB) ((con't from last page) ...and, by late 1897, it was closed until further notice, leaving around 5,000 stranded in Skagway. An alternative toll road suitable for wagons was eventually constructed and this, combined with colder weather that froze the muddy ground, allowed the White Pass to reopen, and prospectors began to make their way into Canada. Moving supplies and equipment over the pass had to be done in stages. Most divided their belongings into 65 pounds (29 kg) packages that could be carried on a man's back, or heavier loads that could be pulled by hand on a sled. Ferrying packages forwards and walking back for more, a prospector would need about thirty round trips, a distance of at least 2,500 miles (4,000 km), before they had moved all of their supplies to the end of the trail. Even using a heavy sled, a strong man would be covering 1,000 miles (1,600 km) and need around 90 days to reach Lake Bennett.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (27 SGB) (This photo and the last one shows a black bear and her 2 cubs foraging. All three can be seen in the previous photo (The second cub only shows its black face looking directly at the camera and about 1/3 of the way from the left hand cub to the mama bear.
   Why do I say it was a black bear? See next image.)
4 Black vs Brown(Grizzly) bears (Black vs Brown(Grizzly) bears)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (34) (We had assigned seats in an assigned car on the train. We were in the next to last car. We boarded at Fraser, B. C.,Canada, about 2/3 of the way from Skagway to Lake Bennett, B. C. (See map ahead)

The coaches were real ones preserved from 1898!!)
WP&YRRR (Our train ride was from Fraser, British Columbia back down to Skagway, a distance of 27.7 miles on the railroad. The 20.4 miles to the Summit climb is almost 3,000 feet, with steep grades of almost 3.9%. Because of the tight curves it was narrow gauge, and was built to suplant the Chilkoot route and the foot path White Pass routes to the gold fields in the Yukon, which was about 550 miles by build it yourself boat from Lake Bennett. Note we went into British Columbia, Canada.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (35) (This is probably Bernard Lake at Summit, BC, Canada)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (42) (This may be Summit Lake at the summit of White Pass.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (43) (There are numerous ponds near the summit like this that never dry up, because of no channel to drain them. Consequently they have no fish, because in the winter they freeze over shutting out the water's absorption of oxygen.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (46) (Even on level ground the foot path and the railroad had to contend with boulder strewn open spaces. Pack horses were used, but about 3,000 died due to the harshness of the train and the inexperience of the men driving them. Note the rounded character of the rocks due to glaciers sliding over them.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (57) (The US-B. C. boundary at White Pass Summit, 2,885 ft. Here the Royal Canadian Mounted Police stopped gold stampeders if they did not have the required 1 ton of supplies to enter Canada.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (58) (A good example of why the RR was constructed, so that the prospectors could ship their one ton of supplies required by Canada, rather than taking 30 or so trips by foot. Beautiful country, but rugged.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (59) (Trail of '98 (1898).)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (60) (Trail of '98 (1898).  Imagine carrying 50 or 70 pounds of supplies over such a trail 30 or more times. And who guarded your supplies at the top end? The Mounties?)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (63) (Trail of '98 (1898).)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (64) (Trail of '98 (1898).)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (66) (The railroad has a fleet of 20 diesel electric locomotives, ALCO (1960's) and GE (1950's). The GE's have been modernized the last few years)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (68) (This steel bridge was built in 1901. The steel portion of it replaced the original wooden bridge used when the railroad was completed July 29, 1900.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (70) (Part of the original wood section was used. When used it was the tallest cantilever bridge in the world. It was used till 1969, when it was replaced by the tunnel at MP 18.8.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (73) (Imagine having to hike up that narrow canyon carrying 60 pounds or so. Now imagine 20-30 trips to accumulate your 2,000 pounds. Gold fever!!
 All these shots were taken through the train car window. The train generally reached speeds of 25 MPH (my guess), so there is motion blurring in the foregrounds.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (77S_H) (Now imagine building a 10 foot wide roadbed and tracks on the side of these mountains. Finally, imagine doing so in the winter at -60°F!!! Most of the work was done by prospectors to earn a grubstake for their one ton of supplies.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (79S_H aS) (Beautiful country, though. Rugged, but beautiful.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (85Tone Shad) (The car and bus road across the canyon at a wide spot)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (87) (The right of way was originally set to 10 feet wide because the steepness of the cliffs.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (90) (This is near Inspiration Point, a favorite for early photographers. It is 17 miles up into the mountains from Skagway, with a view of Lynn Canal, Mt. Harding, and the Chilkat Range.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (103s) (Looking back at the Tunnel Mountain tunnel. The tunnel portal is at the left end of the trestl, which means I just missed it.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (103s) (Looking back at the Tunnel Mountain tunnel. The tunnel portal is at the left end of the trestle.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (106) (Skagway River shot from inside the window.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (117) (Crossing the East Fork of the Skagway River)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (119) (East Fork of the Skagway River. The milky water is because it is saturated with glacier pumice ground off the glacier's supporting rock.)
4 Skagway&YukonRouteRR  (122) (Crossing the East Fork of the Skagway River, the greenish milky color of many rivers is caused by sediment particles from rocks ground off by glaciers as they scrape the underlying rock as they slide down the mountain inch by inch, year by year.)
5 Liarsville_SalmonBake_Skagway Panoramas (1) (Liarsville, Just inland from Skagway, so named for the journalists dispatched to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush who fabricated tall-tales from this very location. We had a salmon bake lunch at the Liarsville Gold Rush Trail Camp, and Sharon panned for gold.)
5 Liarsville_SalmonBake_Skagway Panoramas (10) (Included with lunch was a wild and woolly stage show in 1890"s dress, and gold panning. Sharon got 3 fairly large gold flakes (~3/32" diameter))
5 Liarsville_SalmonBake_Skagway Panoramas (11) (Skagway panorama from hill. Airport runways in foreground. Island Princess is larger ship at right of photo.)
5 Liarsville_SalmonBake_Skagway Panoramas (12) (Closeup of Island Princess, our cruise ship.)
5 Liarsville_SalmonBake_Skagway Panoramas (15) (Skagway is narrow and extends just over one mile up the canyon.)
5 Liarsville_SalmonBake_Skagway Panoramas (17) (Closeup of our ship.)
5 Liarsville_SalmonBake_Skagway Panoramas (18acolor shad) (Tomorrow's route out of Skagway)
Map of College Fjord (From Skagway we cruised overnight arriving at College Fjord early in the morning. We entered the Fjord and stopped in front of several tidewater glaciers in hopes of seeing a calving event. After spending the morning thus, we sailed on to Whittier, where we left the ship for a catamaran to zip back to Valdez.)
6 College Fjord  (1) (Calm Waters of Prince William Sound and College Fjord. This is the first of many tidewater glaciers (a glacier which reaches down to the sea).)
6 College Fjord  (3) (Early morning fog shrouds island. College Fjord is between Valdez and Whittier, Alaska, about 50 miles south of Anchorage and nearly 200 miles north of Glacier Bay National Park. See map of College Fjord next image.)
6 College Fjord  (8) (We cruised College Fjord, then on to Anchorage, Where we took a catamaran back to Valdez, to start the bus part of the tour northward on land.)
6 College Fjord  (9 crop aS aS Resize 175) ("Sea Otter. The year was 1899 when millionaire railroad tycoon Edward Henry Harriman set sail on an ambitious expedition to Alaska on which he would discover, chart, and name many Alaskan glaciers. Worn out from hard work, his doctor had recommended he take a vacation, and that voyage was his answer — a 19th-century quest to rejuvenate.

On May 31, 1899, 126 passengers and crew — 23 of them esteemed scientists — boarded the well-appointed George W. Elder for a highly publicized, excitement-filled departure. The New York Times called their destination the ""American Eldorado,"" because of the concurrent Alaskan gold rush. Two months later, however, Harriman returned with natural treasures: more than 100 trunks full of specimens and over 5,000 photographs and colored illustrations. They are still considered a precious scientific collection.)
6 College Fjord  (10 aS crop resize 150) (Same otter as we glided past. 

On June 26, 1899, the Elder navigated College Fjord, and the party of scientists (which included John Muir, an Amherst College professor and glacier expert, and Harvard mineralogy instructor Charles Palache) named the glaciers there after their Ivy League alma maters and their sister schools. Those names include Amherst, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Harvard, Smith, Vassar, and Yale. The glaciers of the northwest side feature the names of women's colleges, and the glaciers of the fork and the southeast side sport the names of men's colleges. What of Princeton? It is said that the men took delight in ignoring it!)
6 College Fjord  (11) (Wider angle view of tidewater glacier.)
6 College Fjord  (13) (This dual riverbed down from a mountain top has melt water in only the northern branch, but higher up it is fed by two branches.)
6 College Fjord  (15) (Numerous gulls flew in long loops near the ship with a long side near it, I suppose waiting for food to be tossed to them. Probably not a good idea to feed the wildlife, but it would have been fun to see how they reacted to a piece of bread throw overboard. This is a good bird shot, because it shows the eye.)
6 College Fjord  (16) (A good view of the valley scoured by a glacier. Obviously it has receded greatly as evidenced by the bare walls that formerly were covered with ice. It has been only a few years since the ice receded, because a fair amount of brush has grown over the scraped areas. For the official Park brochure showing a map with ice limits marked starting in 1784 see https: //http://+bay+national+park+map+of+receding+ice&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

To use the link, delete the first blank space following the first "https:"

I recommend all look at that map; it is scary as to global warming.

It was still overcast, so colors are not at all vivid.)
6 College Fjord  (17) (A glacier further up the mountains. No doubt this was formerly a tidewater glacier.)
6 College Fjord  (18) (A huge tidewater glacier)
6 College Fjord  (19) (Fred and Sarah's stateroom was on the opposite side of the ship from ours, so we could observe and take photos from "our own" balcony whatever the orientation of the ship to a nearby glacier. Many others photographed from the outside deck just outside of the passageway doors to the deck, as shown. This shot is from Fred and Sarah's balcony.)
6 College Fjord  (20) (Still overcast, but the clouds starting to break.)
6 College Fjord  (21) (Note the hole in the clouds and a beautiful, sunny day in promise. 

This wide shot shows blue ice, which is caused by light emerging after internal reflections within the ice. The ice absorbes the red end of the spectrum leaving only the blue light to emerge.)
6 College Fjord  (22) (Closeup of some blue ice. The black bands on the ice is ground up rock collected by the glacier's slow advance down the slope.)
6 College Fjord  (23) (The black stains on the ice is is ground up rock collected by the glacier's slow advance down the slope. The blue ice is prominent here.)
6 College Fjord  (24)
6 College Fjord  (25) (The black bands and covering of the ice is ground up rock collected by the glacier's slow advance down the slope.)
6 College Fjord  (26) (These are black rock dust covered sections of the glacier that has broken off or "calved" and is floating away.)
6 College Fjord  (27) (This is Harvard Glacier, the largest in College Fjord. All the glaciers flowing down to College Fjord are named after US colleges. Each one was staked out by that university for research. Note how little floating ice from breakoffs there is in all these photos, especially for mid August.)
6 College Fjord  (28) (Close up of the left edge of Harvard Glacier.)
6 College Fjord  (29) (Blue ice of Harvard Glacier. See #23, 6 photos back for what causes blue ice.)
6 College Fjord  (30) (Is this a sea otter riding on some ice?)
6 College Fjord  (30 enlarged) (Previous picture enlarged. Looks a lot like an otter, but hard to tell. Black outline is very sharp for black rock dust stained ice.)
6 College Fjord  (32) (One of the many melt water streams rushing down the mountain. It looks tiny here, but some were raging torrents.)
6 College Fjord  (39) (Harvard Glacier with a far mountain through the breaking clouds.)
6 College Fjord  (48) (That's it. Turn your head, so I can get your eye.)
6 College Fjord  (49) (This is Yale Glacier, just to the South (right as we face it) of Harvard.)
6 College Fjord  (54) (Leaving Yale Glacier. Fred and Sarah had a stateroom with balcony on the starboard side, and Sharon and mine was on the port side. We ran back and forth to view the glaciers on both sides.

The different colors of water are said to be from suspended glacier "flour," that is fine particles of rock. They must be really fine to give such a sharp boundary to the colors.)
6 College Fjord  (56) (A smaller cruise ship in close to one of the Women's college named glaciers. As a large ship we had to stand way off. Again note no large pieces of ice floating (no recent calving events??))
6 College Fjord  (57) (The glacier we were sharing with the smaller ship.)
6 College Fjord  (58) (A closeup of the last picture. At first glance this protuberance of ice looked like a giant calf that had very recently broken off, but actually it was just a bulge in the ice, probably supported on a finger of submerged land.)
6 College Fjord  (59) (Closeup of the same glacier winding all the way up the mountain. Whether this was ice or just the track of a moving glacier, I could not tell. See the next photo.)
6 College Fjord  (60) (Hard to tell, huh?)
6 College Fjord  (63) (From this picture it appears that this is a "skid mark" of a glacier that has finally melted. Like science says, global warming is real. 
In the foreground well out from the glacier are kayakers who paddled past us as we stood in the water hoping for a calving event. I am sure they stayed well away from the ice cliffs of the glaciers to avoid being swamped by any calving event.)
6 College Fjord  (64) (Close up of kayaks.)
6 College Fjord  (66) (Closeup of ruggedness of the glacier, typical of all.
When I first saw glaciers in 2013, I  was surprised to see that they were not smooth. I suppose the sun and wind erodes them to the sharp shapes.)
6 College Fjord  (67) (Another closeup of ruggedness of the glacier, this time of the upper surface. This is typical of all.)
6 College Fjord  (71) (Another mid sized cruise ship. Authorities limit the number of ships per day, probably for safety and to not disturb the water creatures.

It finally cleared up to a very nice day. This was taken 8/7/17 at 10:06 AM (if my calculations are correct on this first day of no daylight savings time, and if my camera clock shows AZ time (it showed 1:06 PM).)
6 College Fjord  (73) (This was a close to a calving we got. It was fairly recent, probably earlier this day (before we arrived), and it is a small one.)
6 College Fjord  (80) (This is the location of a recently (in the last few 10's of years) melted glacier. You can tell by the new growth on the slope, and the paucity of trees. (There are also very few trees. ))
6 College Fjord  (82) (Gottcha! 

Nikon D80, 70 - 300 mm Promaster lens, taken at 70mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec, manual mode mode, auto focus, centerweighted-average metering)
6 College Fjord  (88) (Another sea otter, taken into the sun (couldn't move the ship or the otter).)
6 College Fjord  (89) (Glacier we passed leaving College Fjord.)
6 College Fjord  (93) (Smaller cruise boat, probably a College Fjord only half day or full day tour.)
6 College Fjord  (95) (Sailing for treats. Nikon D80 with 70 - 300 mm Promaster lens set at 70mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, manual mode mode, auto focus, centerweighted-average metering)
6 College Fjord  (97) (Spectacular scenery)
6 College Fjord  (104) (Sharon and I were married May 8, 2017, and our travel agent must have let the news out. We returned to our stateroom and these had appeared. Nice touch by Princess Cruises.)
6 College Fjord  (110) (On the way out of College Fjord, glaciers everywhere you look.)
6 College Fjord  (128) (College Fjord scenery.)
6 College Fjord  (139) (ADG--Another darn glacier, two, actually, or more.)
6 College Fjord  (142) (Tired of glaciers yet? Well, then, I am glad I skipped a lot of them.)
6 College Fjord  (145) (This one, shown immediately before, had a n extensive network of streams out of it. Not to politicize the photo, but notice how the glacier has receded (global warming?) in the immediate past, probably the last few years, as evidenced by the lack of new vegetation on the area just below the glacier.)
6 College Fjord  (164) (I am fascinated by waterfalls and rapidly running water. Again, Not politicize the photo, but notice how the glacier has receded (global warming?) in the immediate past, probably the last few years, as evidenced by the lack of new vegetation on the area just below the glacier.)
Prince William Sound Bligh Reef Valdez Oil Spill (Bligh Reef just outside of Valdez. Using "Calipers" software, it is about 24 miles from the NE shore (along the road) to the leading edge of the Reef. The Exxon Valdez sure did not make it very far after filling up in Valdez. 
I have only a blurry shot of it taken from the high speed catamaran, and it is not worth showing.)
8 Catamaran to Valdez (12) (Oil loading facility on NE shore of Valdez harbor.)
8 Catamaran to Valdez (13) (Tanker at loading facility)
8 Catamaran to Valdez (14) (To the left of the previous picture is Valdez, Alaska. A very small town, mostly tourist trade and oil port workers. Our tour took us here to catch the bus for the land part of the tour.)
8 Catamaran to Valdez (15) (Valdez, Alaska. A very small town, mostly tourist trade and oil port workers. The harbor is not large enough for a large cruise ship. These are typical berths, and the catamaran was not much larger than these boats.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (18) (After lunch in Valdez we boarded the bus and drove to our next stop. This waterfall was along the Richardson Hwy To cross Thompson Pass to Princess Copper River Lodge. This was the longest bus ride, and it took all afternoon to get the the Princess Copper River Lodge.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (19) (They reserved the right front seat for photographers, but I took this from the next seat back. Later I used the front seat often. Thompson Pass is a 2,805 foot-high (855 meter-high) gap in the Chugach Mountains northeast of Valdez, Alaska.[1] It is the snowiest place in Alaska, recording http:// inches (1,401 cm) of snow per year on average.[2] In the winter of 1952–1953, http:// inches (2,474 cm) of snow fell—the most ever recorded in one season at one location in Alaska.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (21) (Thompson Pass was named in 1899 by U.S. Army captain William Abercrombie "in compliment to Hon. Frank Thomson, of Pennsylvania", but he spelled the name "Thompson" on his sketched map, and that spelling stuck. The pass had been used by Alaska Native Ahtna people for generations prior to Abercrombie's arrival, but he marked and defined a trail through the pass for use by Klondike Gold Rush miners. This is near the summit.

Big outdoors. The Colorado Rockies are beautiful, but higher, and the peaks are more horizontally adjacent to each other. In Alaska, the whole country is big and spread out over a tremendously large space.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (30) (Worthington Glacier)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (31) (Worthington Glacier with a big network of streams out of it. Note the surrounding rock that has been scoured relatively smooth and rounded by the formally advancing glacier, and the very few trees that have sprouted since the glacier retreated from the bare rock.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (53) (On the Richardson Highway on the way to the Princess Copper River Lodge we passed 4 large mountains in the distance. This is two of them.
 I have their names on a later photo.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (54) (This is the third mountain, as seen across Willow Lake. This was taken very soon after the previous one.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (55) (and the fourth one. The names of these mountains is in a photo ahead about 14 photos.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (61) (The same mountains from the lobby of the lodge.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (62) (Fred and Sarah on the rear patio of the lodge facing the four mountains.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (64) (More congratulatory decorations in our Princess Lodge room.)
9 RichardsonHwyTOThompsonPass to CopperRLodge (65) (And a notice in the lobby that we were celebrating our honeymoon. It was hard to focus in the dim light. Honest, I did not have the shakes.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (1) (We took a bus trip to a wilderness walk past the Alaskan Pipeline. This is a shaky photo taken from the bus.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (2) (Alaskan Pipeline. North of the Brooks Range, the pipeline is entirely above ground (except for short underground sections to allow reindeer to cross). The above ground construction was to avoid burying the pipe in permafrost which heaves and creeps as the seasonal temperatures change.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (3) (Map of the 800 mile pipeline. As an indication as to how huge Alaska is, we drove nearly all afternoon the previous day from Valdez at the bottom of the sign to get here.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (6) (48" diameter pipeline. On top of the posts are heat exchangers to dump heat to the atmosphere in the summer. As the permafrost below the pipeline warms, the liquid ammonia absorbs the heat from around each leg and vaporizes into an ammonia gas, which then rises to a radiator on top of each leg. When it reaches the top the radiator cools the amonnia gas and it condenses and falls back down the hollow leg and the cycle repeats itself.)
Anhydrous amonia temperature compensation (Scan of pipeline passive heat exchangers showing design to allow for wide temperature variation of support, pipe, and passive heat control system of legs into permafrost ground (which may melt in summer so legs settle down into ground).

There are many old buildings built on top of the permafrost throughout Alaska and the Yukon that have 
settled from the seasonal warming and freezing.)
Pipeline supports (Scan of pipeline passive heat control system of legs into permafrost ground (which may melt in summer, so legs settle down into ground).   There are many old buildings built on top of the permafrost throughout Alaska and the Yukon that have settled from the seasonal warming and freezing.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (7) (Wrangell-St. El;ias National Park and Preserve. Like I said--BIG!)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (8) (It's not easy being a photographer's assistant. A wind blown and cold Sharon holds up a photo our bus driver had showing the 4 large mountains of the Wangell Range, left to right, Mt. Drum (12010 feet), Mt. Sanford (16,237), Mt. Wrangell (14,163), and Mt. Blackburn (16,390).)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (10) (Across Lake Willow was a plane and van between two houses (not in picture, about a few hundred yards in each direction).)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (12) (Lake willow is several miles long.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (13) (Finally on the wilderness walk via the bus, we saw lots of berries, which the bears eat all summer to fatten up for winter's snooze.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (15) (More Berries. Alaska, like all of the Pacific coast from So CA northward, was suffering from a drought, which all the locals are convinced is related to global warming. Seeing the glaciers melted way back, and Glacier park in Montana, which we visited a couple of years ago, it is hard to argue against global warming. But then, I am not an oil rich billionaire like Charles and David Koch.

Heck, we hardly see each other.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (17) (Witches Broom in a tree. A dense mass of shoots grows from a single point, with the resulting structure resembling a broom or a bird's nest. It is sometimes caused by pathogens, insects, fungi, or viruses.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (24) (I always wondered what a willow tree looked like.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (26) (Off a well worn trail through the woods. I wondered about bears, but figured our bus driver, guide knew what she was doing, especially when she mentioned when alone she carried a firearm. I asked what caliber, and she said, "45." Oh, well….)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (32) (This river, is the boundary of the park. We are looking into it from this ridge.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (35) (Our guide, who was a volunteer for this nature preserve, led us to a tent full of furs and skulls of local animals. All the proceeds from our day tour went to this organization.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (37) (This was #1 of her presentation, an ermine skin. It was soft and very small, so I guess that is why ermine is so expensive. She passed around this and about 8-10 other pelts in increasing size.)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (39) (Bear skull)
10 WildernessWalk from CuRLodge  (44) (Dahl sheep skull)
11 To DenaliPrincessWildernessLodgeDenaliHwy (1) (Beaver lodge in a pond on our next leg of the tour, this a bus ride to Denali Princess Lodge just outside of Denali Park at its main entrance.)
11 To DenaliPrincessWildernessLodgeDenaliHwy (7) (We stopped for a lunch of soup and home baked bread at this family run outpost (obviously built by a very short carpenter), OR an interior floor and porch were added to raise the interior above the permafrost, or the building settled because of the permafrost. But usually they settle non-uniformly, so that one end sags.)
11 To DenaliPrincessWildernessLodgeDenaliHwy (8) (The (low ceiling!!) dining room was combined with the kitchen and a small gift shop area. A small  mom and pop outfit, pretty typical of our last tour (Holland American), but unusual by the big tour company Princess which used their own facilities, except for this one.)
11 To DenaliPrincessWildernessLodgeDenaliHwy (14) (Leaving the lunch stop, we climbed out of the valley filled with ponds with beaver lodges. The Black Spruce is a sign of permafrost. White spruce, cottonwood, birch, and certain willows will live where there is approximately 4 feet of soil above the permafrost. Black spruce, with wide spreading and shallow roots, can live where there is only 18 inches of ground above the permafrost.)
11 To DenaliPrincessWildernessLodgeDenaliHwy (20) (Driving into the Denali Princess Lodge in a small but crowded commercial area of hotels, restaurants, food stands, and souvenir shops. It was just outside the south entrance to Denali Park. It was an overcast, and windy fall day, 8/11/17 at 5:36 PM, fall in upper Alaska.)
11 To DenaliPrincessWildernessLodgeDenaliHwy (22) (Many condos on the surrounding hills. We were only about 3 miles from the Park Visitor Center)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (3) (Moose)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (9) (We got off the bus for a short loop walking tour to see a well preserved winter cabin that rangers use on their winter dog sled patrols of the park. This one was built in about 1930, and they still use them and dog sled teams. To make their winter patrol rounds.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (10) (Sled Dog house. There is one very near each cabin.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (12) (Interior of the cabin.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (13) (Interior of the cabin.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (15 B&W) (Sign about road crew cabins built from 1924 on to shelter the road crews that built the road through the park.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (17) (Wooded area around the loop walk to the cabin.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (20) (Lichen (the white stuff), an important food for the caribou (reindeer).)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (26) (Teklanika River, near the end of the paved part of the park road.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (27) (Teklanika River, near the end of the paved part of the park road.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (31 Crop) (Alaska’s state bird, the willow ptarmigan, lives in Denali National Park and Preserve all year-round. They are members of the grouse family and though they are capable fliers, they spend most of their lives on the ground. You can judge the large size by the bus tire tracks on the road.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (35 crop) (Caribou on the tundra. Both males and females have antlers.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (38) (ADR (Another darn river) in Dinali Park.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (40) (Speaking of wild life. Sharon and I have been married since 1974 (except for 18 years from 1988-2006).

Well, nobody's perfect!)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (45 over cor focus) (Another Ptarmigan, taken with 300mm lens, handheld while leaning over others on the bus. (On this tour, every animal seemed to be on the opposite side of the bus, so I had to stretch, shove, and lean to get a shot) .
This one is over processed to get the semblance of sharpness.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (45) (Same blurry photo.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (51) (Solitary caribou with some velvet still on antlers (date: August 14, 2017). I'm guessing it is a female.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (57) (This native girl (one of the 5 Original Peoples of Alaska) gave a long talk and sang songs and did dances of her native peoples. I guess it was interesting; it was so windy and with my hearing I could not understand much of it.)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (60) (Artic Ground Squirrel. Larger than those in the lower 48, they are Obligate hibernators that spontaneously, and annually, enter hibernation regardless of ambient temperature and access to food. Their body temperature varies as they periodically shiver to raise it, but a body temperature of -2.9 degrees C has been recorded, although the brain temp never goes below freezing (0 degrees C).)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (74) (Bull moose)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (69) (Bull moose head and shoulders)
12 NatHistoryTourDenaliNatPark  (85 Crop) (Caribou, laying on stream bed to cool itself.)
13 RiverWalk DenaliPrincess  (1) (Cold and windy, but Sharon was happy to have coffee.)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (5) (Up towards the building of our room on the River walk behind the lodge. To the right between the signs is the  River Walk and entrance to the hotel's wilderness walk, which I chickened out in doing alone. I got about 15 steps in the dense woods, and remembered you are safer from bears in a group, so I turned back.)
13 RiverWalk DenaliPrincess  (4) (The Princess Denali Wilderness Lodge borders the Nenana River. There is a nice boardwalk for about 150 yards along the top of the bluff overlooking the river. This view is looking down river.)
13 RiverWalk DenaliPrincess  (6) (Looking up river.)
13 RiverWalk DenaliPrincess  (5) (Up towards the building of our room on the River walk behind the lodge.)
13 RiverWalk DenaliPrincess  (8) (It is a big hotel, especially for Alaska.)
13 RiverWalk DenaliPrincess  (9) (Our room.)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (3) (The Lobby. Note the mountain climbing ice axes used for the rope posts.)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (9) (Bush plane complete with removable skis)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (10) (Verryl attacked by a bear.)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (12) (Denali (old: Mt. McKinley) is beyond the sign and clouds)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (13) (Flowers at main entrance)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (14) (More flowers and wolves)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (15) (More flowers)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (16) (More flowers and two mountain sheep dueling.)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (17) (Closeup of rutting season.)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (18) (Plaque about Denali, or Mt. McKinley by its former name.)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (19) (Flowers)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (21) (Bear and cubs)
14 Mt McKinley Princess Lodge  (23) (Wolves)
15 Alaskan (1) (On the train to Anchorage. Each car had a bartender, and a tour guide who also sold souvenirs.)
15 Alaskan (5) (Swans in the marshes on the way to Anchorage.)
15 Alaskan (22 Over PP) (An overprocessed (grainy and still blurred) photo of young osprey in a pole top nest.)
15 Alaskan (24) (Ready to leave Alaska Tour, and on to eclipse.)

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