Some people just don’t know how to act on vaction. 

This teenager and grampa spent the entire time on their crackberries instead of enjoying the Alaskan wilderness.

Grampa, tell us about your adventures in Alaska!

Sure kids, hop up on my knee. It was the summer of 2008 and I was limited to a 2G Network. The WAP was like molasses and my emails were slow in coming…

Grampa, what about the whales? And the bears!?

They have whales up there?

Well, you can’t help some people. So here is what they missed. 

Leaving Seward we had some spectacular views. The hills are alive…

Remember the sheep from Part 1? There he is. Yep, he’s the white spec on the large rock in the lower left. 

Of course the glaciers were breathtaking. 

And we got close enough to feel the cold and hear the ice moan. The ice calving was quite spectacular. 

I’d love to get closer, like these kayakers. 

The islands and rock formations were plentiful. 

I am not sure if there is a difference between rock formations and islands. 

The only things more plentiful are the birds. Here some puffins hang out on a high ledge. 

They aren’t out of the reach of my camera or Steve’s binoculars. 

After a dinner on Fox Island, our Captain got us back to Seward safe and sound, and on time. 

Which was a good thing, because we were gone a long time. Our crackberry addicts can only handle so much reality.

Don’t worry Grampa, you can view my photos to jog your memory.

Upon boarding we procured a sweet table on the port side with a great window. After the short safety brief we were on our way. I can swim, what me worry?

We barely got out of view of Seward when a Dall sheep wandered down the steep granite toward the beach.

It looks treacherous, but all in a days work for this guy. He was exploring the beach in no time at all.

After a while the sheep ascended back up the mountain and we continued on to the next wildlife sighting.

Like Denali, Kenai Fjords tourists have a mental list of the wildlife they want to see. At the top of the list is the humpback whale. We saw quite a few on our trip.

I guess I got lucky on the timing with that one.

And of course further down we saw lots of seals, lazing around.

Dang, they can sleep in any position.

In Part II we’ll cover glaciers, tasty dinners, skipping stones, and text messaging. In the mean time head over to the photo gallery for more wildlife pictures.

I can’t remember exactly how long it took, but I noted in my Palm T|X that we left around 9 AM and were hiking the Exit Glacier by 3. That included stopping for lunch. Not too bad.

I’ve never seen a glacier up close so I’m pretty excited. We left the parking lot at a balmy 65 degrees or so and start hiking. Along the way there is much to see. The mountains are spectacular. If I was a glacier I’d love to live here.

<mindless rambling>

All this hiking is taking a beating out on my poor shoes. We hiked this glacier on July 9. It is now late September and I’m still wearing them to work. My sister would be appalled. But she’s a freak about shoes. Something about that’s the first thing people notice…blah, blah, blah.

</mindless rambling>

As we get closer and closer the air temperature drops dramatically. It’s like sitting in front of an air conditioner. Where’s that global warming when I need it.

The ground looks like “crush & run” and the runoff is laden with silt, creating ribbons.

Up close the glacier is cold, big, dirty, and blue.

You can find more pictures from the Exit Glacier hike here in the Alaska 2008 photo gallery.

Luckily we’ll be in Seward for a few days before heading to Homer. Tomorrow is the Kenai Fjords cruise. This is gonna be awesome.

Our tour began with a trappers cabin, built around 1909.

As you can see this cabin is very small. It is a little longer than it is wide. The small size makes it easy to heat, and to build. As the life of a trapper is typically solitary, these cabins are built by one person. There is no electricity, running water, or TV. Just you and a dozen sled dogs…out in the middle of nowhere.

We moved inside for snacks and a presentation on the life of a trapper. Our speaker described how she and her dogs make a living during the long winter months. We saw pictures and video of mushing through deep snow. I didn’t realize how fast those dogs can go. Continuing the hands on approach to learning we were able to handle a pelt from every fur bearing mammal you can think of. Talk about soft. Those PETA guys have it wrong, fur is wonderful.

Then we were introduced to the next generation of sled dogs.

No, we can’t take him home.

Outside we met the current stable of sled dogs. Most of the dogs were barking and excited to see visitors. Except for this one. He is the most serious looking dog I’ve ever met. I wonder what he is thinking.

The last stop was a visit with a reindeer. You can see our friend here loves to eat.

It is mid July and our reindeer still velvet on his antlers. He also is just beginning to shed his summer coat and grow a thicker one for the winter.

He loves to get fed, but he is not a fan of the camera. Yikes!

So if you’re in the Denali area and you want a real taste of the Alaska experience look up the Denali Wilderness Learning Center.

Along the way we learned a lot concerning the native flora and fauna. Here she is describing a tree’s reaction to invasive fungus. Tree grows lots of thin branches in response to the infection, looking similar to a sea anemone.

Unfortunately the tree won’t make it. It consumes so many resources fighting the infection it doesn’t leave any to live on.

As you can see from the next photo the hike was extremely treacherous.

Well, there could have been man eating bears around the next corner.

The trail led us down toward a fast moving creek. We convinced Amy to climb out on a rock.

Amy is used to risking life and limb, she commutes north on I-95 everyday.

Wandering farther down the trail we found a octotree – half tree, half octopus.

And what hike would be complete with seeing the state flower, the fireweed.

Fireweed is a clock of sorts. The flower blooms from bottom to the top. When it reaches full bloom winter is near. It helps remind Alaskans to prepare for the impending beat down they call winter. I’ll limit my visits to July thank you.

Near the end of the hike we happened upon some permafrost.

Not much to see, mostly just moss and lichens. The real test is by walking on it. It feels very spongy, since the roots can’t get into the soil. Here the trees send their roots horizontally and intertwine with other trees. When they die, or if the ground shifts, they don’t fall over due to support from the other trees. They do however lean pretty good, giving rise to the expression drunken trees. Look an Irish pine tree!

You can see more pictures from the hike in the Alaska 2008 section of the photo gallery.

These dogs work year round. And they love it. We got to meet the dogs up close and personal.

Of course everyone loved seeing the puppies.They were a big hit, even though they slept through our entire visit. Lazy dogs.

They have a few more months to go. They’ll bulk up another 40 pounds or so before training begins.

As you can imagine, the kennel tour is very popular with families. The rangers give a good talk explaining the history and usefulness of the dogs during the wintertime. The dog sled demo is very exciting as well.

First you see the assistants hand pick dogs for that day, depending on conditioning. Notice in the picture below that they drag, for lack of a better word, each dog to the sled.

The dogs legs are so powerful and they are so eager that holding them up by their collar is the only way to control them. Don’t worry, their necks are so strong it doesn’t harm them. If you look closely you may even see this guy smiling.

Once a few get harnessed they really get excited. Here you can see them barking up a storm, just rearing to go!

Come on lets go!!!

After a team of 6 is squared away off they go with a flash. Good thing the ranger was hanging on. I think those dogs can pull about 4 Gs when they leave the line.

Conveniently our tour met a short walk from our riverside cabins. Then the bus loads of oldsters arrived. Thankfully Amy and Susan were able to throw some haymakers and knock them out of the way. (Skills learned fighting Asian tourists in Ireland) At any rate we procured some great seats.

There is only one road into the park. Just one, narrow, gravel road. Did I mention it was narrow?

The photo doesn’t show it but it is about 700 to 1000 feet to the canyon floor. And no guard rails! Our driver said they have not lost a bus yet…they always find them at the bottom!

Our tour took us about 54 miles down the park road to Stony Hill Overlook. The tour took about 8 hours and we saw amazing scenery. Thanks to the professional photographer riding shotgun we saw LOTS of animals. He and his wife spotted about 90% of the animals we saw that day.

Just a few miles in they spotted this caribou.

The goal of most visitors is to see the Big 5:

• Caribou
• Grizzly Bear
• Grey Wolf
• Moose
• Dall Sheep

We saw them all (and more) except for the wolf. But seeing Mt. McKinley made up for it. It is only visible about 20% of the time due to cloud cover. We had spectacular views all day.

Further into the park we saw a Grizzly and her two cubs.

During a bathroom break I spotted a moose trotting through a braided river.

A lot of the animals were pretty far off, like these Dall sheep. I did the best I could with the 10x optical zoom on my trusty Olympus C-750. I need a lens like the guy sitting next to us. That thing must have been about 30 inches long. I bet he got some great shots.

I used a polarizing filter on my lens to knock down the glare. The sun was fierce and it was about 75 degrees that day. The grizzlies seek out cold wherever they can find it. Here is one napping on a patch of snow.

This caribou was taking notes from the grizzly.

You can see more photos from the Tundra Wilderness Tour in my photo gallery. Don’t worry, the image quality gets better as the trip progresses. The Kenai Fjords pictures will knock your socks off!

Denali was our first stop. We were not able to visit Denali on our first trip to Alaska so I placed it high on the list of things to see. Below is Mt McKinley from the park road. The clouds are partly obscuring it. 80% of visitors never get to see this much due to cloud coverage.

While in Denali we went on a Tundra Wilderness Tour, a Discovery Hike, visited the Denali Wilderness Learning Center, and watched a dogsled demonstration.

Next we traveled south to Seward. We hiked the Exit Glacier first.

The main event was the Kenai Fjords Cruise. Spectacular!

Finally we headed west to Homer to visit Susan’s Aunt and Uncle. While there were attended a wedding and fished for halibut.

My trip by the numbers:

• Miles flown – 8,280
• Miles driven – 1,254
• Average hours of sunlight – 19.5
• Pictures taken – 534
• Elevation Range – Sea level to 3800 feet
• Flights seated next to a bathroom – 2

I’ll give each event its own blog entry. Keep watching for more.