Alaska
In August 2024 Grace and I joined a 9-day National Geographic G Adventures tour of Alaska. The bus tour began in Anchorage, went to Homer for two days, to Seward and the Kenai Fjords National Park for 3 days, then to Denali National Park for 3 days before returning to Anchorage.
Homer
We drove to Homer along the Turnagain Arm of the Seward Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. The ride skirts the coast of the Cook Inlet with great views of the volcanoes on the opposite shore. Along the way we stopped to take a hike to Byron Glacier.
Byron Glacier
A few Dall sheep on a distant mountain top. The sheep are famous in Alaska lore because preservation of the sheep formed the basis for forming Denali National Park.
Mt. Redoubt, an active stratovolcano near the Cook Inlet along the Kenai Peninsula.
We stopped at Ninilchik to admire the Orthodox Russian Church and graveyard. A bonus was a bald eagles’ nest with an eaglet that had just fledged and took a flight for us to admire.
Russian Orthodox Church at Ninilchik with Mt. Redoubt in the background.
Bald eaglet
Bald eaglet wingercising
Bald eaglet
Homer
I was excited to visit Homer, because I had seen many photos of bald eagles plucking salmon out of the ocean that were taken at the Homer Spit. However it turns out that those photos were due to a woman who would collect salmon parts from the fisheries every afternoon and throw them into the sea. It turns out that the woman has passed away and it is apparently illegal to feed the eagles so they no longer come to Homer.
The Homer Spit
Driftwood at the Homer Spit
Memorial to the "Eagle Lady" of Homer Spit
Panorama of the Homer Harbor
Kachemak State Park
We took a water taxi across the bay from Homer to hike in Kachemak State Park to the Grewingk Glacier. The highlight of the trip was observing a pod of sea otters on the return water taxi trip.
Taking the water taxi across the bay to Kachemak State Park
Signs of bear
Grenwingk Glacier in Kachemak State Park
Glacial iceberg from Grenwingk Glacier
Melting glacial ice
A pod of sea otters
Otter
The Salty Dawg saloon in Homer
Seward
In Seward we visited the Alaskan Sea Life Center and took the Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise. The Cruise offers an immersive experience into the stunning natural beauty and diverse ecosystems of Alaska's Kenai Fjords National Park. We saw otters, humpback whales, puffins, and seals against the glaciers and stunning rocky cliffs.
At the Alaskan Sea Life Center, Seward
I like watching the puffins swimming through the tank and then seeing them fly during the cruise!
On the Kenai Fjords Wilderness Cruise
Sea Otter
Puffins from the Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise
Puffin love.
Thar she blows!
Humpback whale with glacier in the background
The humpback whale was identified as Morgan LeFay from the markings on its fluke as seen in my photo above.
On-line photo of Morgan LeFay's tail flukes (https://x.com/emmaluck22/status/1393616891583733763/photo/1). Apparently she is often seen in Kenai Fjords
At Exit Glacier
Denali National Park
There is only one road into the park. Unfortunately the road has been blocked about half way in by a landslide for a number of years. Basically you have to take the park service buses into the park. We took two different bus rides, one specifically aimed at seeing wildlife. By bad luck, we didn’t see a single bear on either bus ride. But we did see quite a few caribou, moose, spruce grouse and a fox.
Our only bear sighting
We visited the dog sled exhibition at the Park.
Our tour group with a selfie by Brianna
Moose
Fall colors
Caribou
Spruce grouse
Guided hike with Walt
Railroad bridge
Walt showing the location of an old Denali photograph
Spruce grouse
Spruce grouse up a tree
Red fox with dinner
On the last morning in Denali, we finally got a glimpse of the mountain, which had been hiding behind clouds.
Denali peeks out from the clouds.
Denali sighting at last!!
Iditarod Headquarters
On the drive back to Anchorage from Denali, we stopped in Wasilla at the Iditarod Trail Race Headquarters where they had a display of all things Iditarod. They also had teams of dogs that were anxious to show tourists what it was like to be on a dog sled, albeit with wheels and no snow. Video below was taken by Brianna.
Post-script
On the first day when we met our guide, or as G Adventures refers to them, our CEO (Chief Experience Officer) Brianna, she revealed an astonishing small-world coincidence: she had been a student in my Neuroscience 524 class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison!! I had to confess that I did not remember her as a student. Of course, I had a good excuse. There were more than 100 students in the class and it was over 10 years ago. I returned to Madison several weeks after the tour and I looked in my class notes and found her in my 2009 class. She had finished the course with the 3rd highest score in a class of 123 students! Back in those days, in an effort to try to get to know the students, I would take several photos of the class and pass them around the room and ask the students to identify themselves on the photo. I found this photo with Brianna sitting in the first row in an outfit designed to make it easy for me to identify her. Unfortunately, the outfit did not do its job.
During the tour. we took turns sitting shotgun next to Brianna, who drove the whole way. When I was there we discovered that we had both been to many of the same places. She had been trekking in Nepal, gorilla trekking in Africa, to Patagonia and Australia. Clearly we both loved traveling to adventurous sites, as well as Neuroscience!
Neurobiology 524, 2009
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