It was a busy week and a half! Mom & Dad packed a lot in with their time here in AK and hopefully they have a few lasting memories to show for their time here. Their trip started out on a 2am flight into Anchorage waaaay back on June 8th. We couldn't resist calling Kelly for a birthday wake up call and take advantage of the four hour time zone difference.
The first few days here in Girdwood checking out my home turf and a few of our sights along with a few restaurants. Some of our highlights were the dinner at Seven Glaciers up on the Tramway, the Wildlife Conservation Center and showing off the rain forest on Winner Creek Trai. The first clip here is of our time in Girdwood and Portage.
After shaking off any jet lag we headed south to the Kenai (keen-eye) Peninsula with the fishing town of Homer in our sights. We were lucky to have some fantastic weather and really soak in the long days of June. We stayed at the end of the Homer Spit, which is like a natural jetty sticking out in to the Kachemak Bay.
A couple days later we packed up and drove to Seward on the Southeastern side of the peninsula for a 4.5 hour boat tour, the Sealife Center and a glacier hike. Some weather moved in while we were there, but we still managed to see the vastness of Alaska and have a little king crab too!
The final leg of the trip took us north to Talkeetna and the Alaskan Mountain Range, which is home of Mt. McKinley. The idea behind seeing this town was to get a glimpse of the the Alaskan Interior and hopefully check out the big mountain on a flightseeing tour. After a little weather delay we were able to take advantage of a weather window and get as close as we could to the mountain.
It was a great trip and hopefully you'll enjoy the pictures too!! Cheers!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
New Found Classics
Last night I found a few shots of Mako as a puppy. Sandy had been hiding or rather misplaced these photos, but I couldn't resist putting them up.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Safari Training
This past week I had some training for my new job as a "Trip Leader" for Alaska Wildland Adventure's (AWA) Safari Trips. There are nine of us in my department and we traveled on a mock trip to be sure we were all familiar with the locations where we will be guiding this summer. The weather was unbelievable and didn't rain once the entire week, which will probably be the last time that happens all summer.
Our trip started out in Cooper Landing at the Riverside Lodge on the Kenai Peninsula. This is home base for AWA and where most of my trips will begin. The lodge located on the Kenai River with world class salmon fishing and some fun rafting trips out the backdoor.
From here we went southeast to Seward to catch a ferry out the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge(KFGL), which is located in the middle of Kenai Fjords National Park. KFGL is actually on 1,700 acres of Alaska Native land that is surrounded by the park and my company was lucky enough to be selected to build and operate this brand new lodge. The lodge is on the shore of a protected lagoon off the deep fjord of Aialak Bay. There are a couple hiking trails that have been developed, but the big activity is kayaking the upper lagoon that is fed by the Pederson Glacier. One afternoon we were able to kayak through the icebergs and get fairly close to the toe of the glacier. Black bears are prevalent and when we were not in our kayaks we needed to announce ourselves around any forested corner to scare away any unsuspecting bear.
After two nights in the wilderness we traveled north to Anchorage for a night and then conintued on to Talkeetna, the gateway to the Denali. We were up early and made the 3.5 hour trek in time for a flight seeing tour of Denali, which at 20,320 feet is the tallest mountain in North America. With a beautiful day on hand we were lucky to circumnavigate the mountain and land on a glacier inside the park. We flew in an Otter Plane and I was able to ride shotgun for half of the trip!!
Later we had dinner with the Denali Arts Council, which is a group of locals that cook dinner for small groups visiting the town. The family that took us in was amazing and avid hunters. There was a huge Grizzly that was mounted in the middle of their living room. We learned later that is was the 84th largest ever recorded and the 15 year old daughter had killed it! She already has some pretty amazing travels and stories to tell.
After dinner we enjoyed the midnight sun at the local tavern, The Fairview, but the next morning was early to rise. We were up by 6 and broke camp to head to Denali National Park. Here we finished up our training and camped at Savage Basin before heading back home. It was a pretty amazing trip; hope you enjoy the pictures!!
Our trip started out in Cooper Landing at the Riverside Lodge on the Kenai Peninsula. This is home base for AWA and where most of my trips will begin. The lodge located on the Kenai River with world class salmon fishing and some fun rafting trips out the backdoor.
From here we went southeast to Seward to catch a ferry out the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge(KFGL), which is located in the middle of Kenai Fjords National Park. KFGL is actually on 1,700 acres of Alaska Native land that is surrounded by the park and my company was lucky enough to be selected to build and operate this brand new lodge. The lodge is on the shore of a protected lagoon off the deep fjord of Aialak Bay. There are a couple hiking trails that have been developed, but the big activity is kayaking the upper lagoon that is fed by the Pederson Glacier. One afternoon we were able to kayak through the icebergs and get fairly close to the toe of the glacier. Black bears are prevalent and when we were not in our kayaks we needed to announce ourselves around any forested corner to scare away any unsuspecting bear.
After two nights in the wilderness we traveled north to Anchorage for a night and then conintued on to Talkeetna, the gateway to the Denali. We were up early and made the 3.5 hour trek in time for a flight seeing tour of Denali, which at 20,320 feet is the tallest mountain in North America. With a beautiful day on hand we were lucky to circumnavigate the mountain and land on a glacier inside the park. We flew in an Otter Plane and I was able to ride shotgun for half of the trip!!
Later we had dinner with the Denali Arts Council, which is a group of locals that cook dinner for small groups visiting the town. The family that took us in was amazing and avid hunters. There was a huge Grizzly that was mounted in the middle of their living room. We learned later that is was the 84th largest ever recorded and the 15 year old daughter had killed it! She already has some pretty amazing travels and stories to tell.
After dinner we enjoyed the midnight sun at the local tavern, The Fairview, but the next morning was early to rise. We were up by 6 and broke camp to head to Denali National Park. Here we finished up our training and camped at Savage Basin before heading back home. It was a pretty amazing trip; hope you enjoy the pictures!!
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