What A Difference A Day Makes

"It's not a slam at you when people are rude, it's a slam at the people they've met before." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

From Anchroage, we took another train, north to Denali National Park.  Again, there was a vestibule to hang out and take pictures, and again there was a group of photographers making use of this vestibule.  Only this time, instead of sharing the view and talking shop, this group was uninterested...and refused to budge (dare I mention they were all *CANON* users? ;) ). 

I finally found another vesibule between the dining and club cars (less traffic) that the othes hadn't discovered and was able to get a few shots.  It was very disappointing to encounter this kind of attitude among other photographers.  There is view enough for all.

On a brighter note, Denali was stunning.  We were lucky enough to arrive just at the height of the fall foliage.  I never even thought of fall foliage and Alaska together in the same thought.  But the colors were so stunning and vibrant people keep asking me if the pictures are photoshopped!  (Which they aren't, by the way.)

We took a bus tour, which is the only way to see some of the interior, other than your feet.  We were lucky enough to see both a grizzly bear and several moose fattening up on the wild blueberries before settling in for the winter.  Like most visitors, we didn't see Mt. McKinnley as it was swathed in clouds, but it that didn't dampen my enjoyment of fall in the arctic tundra.

We saw a cute show about the first man to climb the summit of McKinnley and I had a delicious King Crab salad.  (My new favorite shellfish).  Unfortunately, my rare salmon was cooked medium, but it wasn't so disappointing that I sent it back.



Morning train from Anchorage



View from train

Denali Grizzly

Moose!

Denali Nationa Park in all its Autumn glory

 

Where McKinnley would be if we could see it.


 

Sled dog in repose



Dreams Can Come True

"You have to dream before your dreams can come true." - Abdul Kalam

Have you ever had a dream you thought would never actually happen, not in a million years?  Its always in the back of your mind, but you know it will never happen.  There is always something else to spend your money on, something else to do first.

Mine was to go to Alaska. Its on my bucket list, but way down at the bottom...

Unbelievably, I spent the first two weeks of September travelling the interior of Alaska and the Yukon, Canada.  It was so surreal.

I had some great adventures and I'll share them along with the photographs over the next few days.

The first leg of the journey took us to Anchorage.  We took the train to Whittier for a glacier cruise on Prince William Sound. 

On the train, I spent more time hanging out the open half door in the "vestibule" between cars with several other photographers than in my actual seat.  What fun.  When I wasn't snapping photos, I was talking shop with four or five other enthusiastic amateur photographers.

Despite the rain and clouds, it was gorgeous.  We saw some Beluga Whales (that I didn't get any decent pictures of), Sea Otters, several species of birds, a Salmon hatchery, some unbelievably stunning scenery and a surprising number of gorgeous glaciers.

The crew also fished a piece of glacier ice out of the water and served up margaritas on the glacier rocks. YUM.

 

 

 

I was determined to eat salmon from one end of the state to the other and had a good start at a restaurant called Sacks in downtown Anchorage.

 

More to come...