Mushers

Patti got to hold one of the musher's puppies and of course we took seventy-leven photos. The mushers use many types of wheeled vehicles to provide resistance for the dogs when they train in the summer, the ATV is preferred because it has brakes to slow the dogs when they get carried away. On the trip back to the hotel we spotted a Mosses with its calf. Some fool stopped his car a got out whereupon our driver quipped " tqke his picture, it could be the last one of him alive". Moose are not known to be very friendly:)

Denali

We were blessed with a clear day for our bus trip from Seward to Denali. We stopped at iew point and wer very lucky to get some shots of the mountain. Normally its covered with clouds. They paint the tour busses with nature scenes indigenous to Alaska. Ours had bears on it.

Salmon Bake

This is an Indian village on a nearby island where they host Salmon Bakes for the tourists. very Yummy.

Mendenhal Glacier

Our tour was called the best of Juneau and included a stop at the nearby Mendenhal Glacier. An up close and personal view of the glacier

Bubble Netting

Humback whales in Juneau have developed a skill called bubble netting where they form a circle below a school of Herring and then all exhale at once. This frightens the fish into a ball as they swim upward to escape the bubbles. The whales then charge upward through the fish, mouths agape, breaking the surface as a group. These photos show this extremely rare occurrence performed by a gam of Humpbacks. Gams are groups of unrelated whales brought together by the calls of one whale that assembles the gam and coordinates its activities. This gam has as many as 25 individuals feeding together.

Whale Watching

We took a Whale watching ride and saw several Humpback whales and several glaciers in the valleys overlooking the channels were the whales were feeding. The boat had three levels with the lower two enclosed with comfy seats.

Juneau

Juneau is a modern town and the jumping off point for some of our most fantastic visitss.

Ketchikan

 Quaint Ketchikan with its touristy main square to its fish ladders and harbor seals was a welcome relief from the the narrow inside passage and the gloomy fog. We took a duck tour in the craft dwarfed by the mammoth Oosterdam at the dock. Float planes abound in Alaska. There must have been 30 in the immediate vicinity of the boat.