Cruising Prince William Sound

70208 - Humpback Whale

Down in Valdez, we went out on a Glacier / Wildlife viewing cruise with the hope of seeing some whales, and as luck would have it we were fortunate to see three of them as well as several sea otters, tons of sea lions, and a few bald eagles and puffins.
[click on any image to enlarge]
70117 - Humpback Whale
70163 - Humpback Whale
70192 - Humpback Whale
8198 - Bald Eagle
In addition to that, we enjoyed watching dozens of dall porpoises buzzing the front of the boat for about 20 minutes straight as we cruised out toward the area where we would look for whales.

69878 - Dall Porpoise
It was nearly impossible to get a good photo of the porpoises because they moved so quickly and were so close, only popping out of the water or an instant at a time.

From the bow of the 75 foot Lu-Lu Belle we were looking straight down at them most of the time.

70287 - Ice field near Columbia Glacier
70286 - Iceberg
The ride out was comfortable but got quite chilly as we rode toward Columbia Glacier. Overall it was a great day out on the water, and Captain Fred Rodolf and his crew only added to our enjoyment. I met a young woman working on the boat wearing a Florida Gators hat I and had to ask about it since we are die-hard Florida Gator fans. As it turned out, Brittney is a UF student spending her summer working in Alaska on the boat.
70304 - Fred and Brittney

We had some good laughs and got a photo of her doing the "gator chomp" in front of an iceberg out near Columbia Glacier.
8438 - Brittney does the "Gator chomp"
The ride back was more scenic than the ride out as the skies cleared up a bit and the conditions were more conducive for photography.







70338 -
70352 - View from the Bow

Finally this last photo is "Oscar" the sea otter, who is often seen around the harbor in Valdez. We spent quite some time watching and photographing him as he would dive for mussels and then resurface to eat them.
69202 - "Oscar" the sea otter

Denali National Park, Day 3 - Small animals



67977 - Snowshoe Hare





67930 - Snowshoe Hare

 Day three was uneventful as I took a bus back to the Toklat river station (mp 53) but did not see much wildlife. It began to rain a couple hours into the ride, but I did manage to snap a couple photos at a reflecting pond just west of Toklat, and of the braided river as we crossed the bridge. It began to rain a couple hours out and this would have made photos difficult anyway.



67935 - Snowshoe Hare



67646 - Mew Gull calling



7358 - Arctic Ground Squirrel

 Upon my return from the day's trip, I rode out to Savage River and photographed some snowshoe hares on the wayback. I was able to take time and approach them very slowly, and one of them allowed me to get within about tenfeet and photograph him as he was chomping on some roadside vegitation. I was watching a mew gull sitting on afence post and he began calling, which made an interesting photograph.
Below is an arctic ground squirrel that I actually photographed on Thursday near the Eielson Visitor Center (mp66).



7327 - Grey Jay

 The last photo is a grey jay photographed at Wonder Lake on Thursday.

 The next post will deal with animals encountered while out hiking some of the trails inside Denali National Park. It will include photos of a fairly rare bird that I photographed yesterday while hiking the Rock Creek Trail, as well as several others during three different hikes. I hope to post it tomorrow if I can find internet access. Tomorrow is a travel day as we will be driving down to Valdez (approximately 10 hours away) and camping out, then taking a cruise on Prince William Sound Tuesday, hopefully to photograph whales. Please check back for updates.