Here it is, folks: the end of the Alaska trip series. The last day was mostly travel, and before we left my brother, sis-in-law, and I only had time to get down to the kennel where they keep the sled dogs that still patrol the park in winter for poachers and signs of motorized traffic. Dogs are still more efficient than snowmobiles for this purpose and less invasive. The Alaskan Husky is not bred to an AKC (or any other) standard but for the qualities--both physical and temperamental--that make them good sled dogs. So they all look a little different. These dogs are also bred for friendliness to strangers, as they spend a good part of the year as a visitors' exhibit. Even so, the dogs all have their own space and can choose to interact with people or not, as they wish. They seemed pretty happy when I was there.


( +6 )

The only motorized vehicles allowed in Denali are buses that take tourists partway into the park, to a nice (and new) visitor center with a lovely view of the mountain. Which is really, really big. Interestingly, though I'd always heard it called Mount McKinley, the local name is Denali and I heard that used more often while I was there. Since the McKinley moniker was stuck on there for political reasons, this seems a rational choice as far as I'm concerned.

The bus trip is described here. The photos from said trip are below. I strongly urge anyone who can to make this trip someday; it's breathtaking, even if my photos don't do it justice.


( +17 )

More photos from the train ride to Denali. We took the Alaska Railroad, a slow-ish, sight-seeing train with viewing areas and all that. These were all taking from windows of the moving train.



( swans! mountains! clouds backed like a weasel! )

Also, anyone I've not yet friended on flickr, please let me know!

Day two, part four (and final).


My brother, his wife, and... yeah, I don't know.
( you otter see this )

Does anyone know how to turn off the blue borders permanently? I've tried adding css to the journal style, but it doesn't work and I have to manually add border="0" to everything.

Alaska, day two, part 3: sea lions. Steller Sea Lions, I think. They're a fractious lot, let me tell you; they sound exactly as though Mr. Darcy (the dog) and his girlfriend Sacha have been slowed down while fighting. Our caption knew where they hang out, and we got pretty close, as you'll see--partly because they were worried and sent out young, hale "sentries" to check us out. That's what it seemed like, anyway.


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I'm sorry there are so many, guys. I think I took about ten times this.

Including Whittier (and approach) and a day cruise we took on a small boat that usually serves as a taxi or kayak conveyor. It was somewhat overcast most of the time, hence the darkness of some of the photos. I've brightened and played with contrast, but any more takes away the feeling of what it actually looked like.


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Sometimes I think posting photos of Alaska is cheating.

I'm slowly working through these. Here's part one of day two of my trip last August. They're all at a wildlife center, not in the wild, but I still found them interesting. Though yeah, there are bars in the way.


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Here's the first batch of Alaska photos, corresponding to day one of my diary. I'm overwhelmed by how many there are (1,337, seriously), so I'm going to take it a little slow and hopefully be a little conservative about what I post.

Side note: this is the first trip shot with my new Canon XTi. Thoughts? I haven't adjusted any of them.


The B&B we stayed at in Anchorage is just out of sight.
( day one )