The "Best of Juneau" have returned home!!!

We have seen the sunrise and the sunset on many mountains, highways and locations.

Sunrise on Ha Ling peak near Canmore, BC.

Sunset over the Konza Prairie near Manhattan, KS.

We were also able to spend some time with friends and family.

Friends Dale and Korbin on the Konza Prairie.

CAUTION:  birthday cake or bonfire in Minnesota.

Our Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law celebrating their Birthdays.

Happy birthday, Tammy and Othelmo.

I don't think the cake faired as well as the two celebrities did....

I was also able to visit some of my favorite Kansas photography locations.

Ward-Meade Park in Topeka, KS

Konza Prairie near Manhattan.

Some of the wildlife that we were able to see on the way.

Our younger son, Gideon.  Have I seen that pose before?

Our final sunset on the road was in Santa Fe, NM.

Saturday September 28, 2013 at about 4:30pm we arrive back at the RV in Tucson.

All that Gwen could say was, "Home again, Home again, Jiggidy jig"

2 Countries, 8 states, 339 hours, 5,253.9 miles and we are home.

Yes, in my opinion, the "Best of Juneau" has returned to Tucson!

Why no crosswalks...?

 I just drove part of the Alaska Highway, the Cassiar Highway, part of the Yellowhead Highway and the Ice Fields Highway.  We realized we have driven over 2,000 miles since we left Skagway, AK.

It seemed like every other kilometer we saw Caution signs for Moose. We have now shortened that term and refer to them as "Moo".  Caribou we now call "Boo".  Then, last but not least, Caution signs for Bear.  I was going to call them "Arr" but when you are driving down the road yelling for "Boo" or "Moo" that is one thing.  If you start calling out "Arr", I was afraid a logger or miner with a wooden leg and eye patch might walk out into the road.  I am not sure how many points I would get for hitting one of them?  Plus, a moose rack or caribou rack would look more impressive on the top of the car than a one legged, one eyed miner, I think.

Anyway, the only wild animal that we saw( besides a marmot and a squirrel) was in Jasper, Alberta in a store.  Yep, there was a sparrow in the store...and no Caution sign for it either!

 It flew off into another part of the store. Less than two minutes later we walked out of the store.  What did we see in the front window...?

Yep, it was our buddy, the sparrow, that did not make it out alive.  Maybe that is why we did not see any "Mo" or "Bo".  We didn't want them ending up with their feet up like the sparrow, in front of our car.

My honest conclusion is that by each and every one of those thousand-plus Caution signs we saw, there were no Crosswalks.  There were no marked areas for any of those animals to safely cross through the traffic.  How were they to know where to walk across the busy (most of the time it was just us) highways of Canada?  Every town has them for pedestrians...why not nature's pedestrians?

Well, with that experience behind us, we headed to Banff and Canmore.  We were almost in the clouds most of the day.  The peaks were hidden and the glaciers were barley visible.

When we did arrive in our Canmore hotel, we were told that we were upgraded to the Pullman Suite. 

This is a two room suite with sliding french doors, fireplace, hot tub and TWO sofas.  Gwen has been without a sofa for over five months.  She was almost as excited about the sofa as she was the hot tub.

Then this morning as she was enjoying her sofa again I headed out to capture the mountains... still in the clouds. 

It was worth it.  This area between Jasper and Canmore is one amazing stretch of God's country.

Heading north to go south..? Only in Alaska...

We left Juneau on Saturday at about 7:00 AM on the Alaska Marine Highway, aboard the Taku Ferry.

Just when we thought we were on our own, we found some friends we had worked with this summer! (They work for the bus company that takes all our tourists to their Whale Watching Tours.)

Now we had some Traveling Buddies for the day.  It took the sting out of having to say "goodbye".

Once we left Auk Bay we turned north up Favorite Channel.

Our final destination on the Alaska Marine Highway was Skagway.

The farthest northern port on the Alaska Inside Passage.

Once in Skagway we headed up to the Canadian border.

Up being farther north and up in altitude.

After a night in Whitehorse YT, we headed east on the Alaskan Highway.

Then at about 3:00PM on Sunday we finally started to head south on the Cassiar Highway.

This is an amazing area.  We would recommend the drive to anyone.

However, it was not till Monday that we were finally driving south of Juneau's latitude.

We were just on the opposite side of the Juneau ice fields.

From: Rick & Gwen; heading south.

Farewell to Alaska.....

This is one of the first images that I took in Alaska this summer.... 

Followed by one of the last images that I will take in Juneau....

 

What are the odds that they are both of boats?

From: Rick & Gwen

Yes, Alaska still Rocks!

Tomorrow is our last day working in Alaska for 2013....

Yes, this summer has flown by.  It is hard to believe that in three days we will be embarking on our long trek home.
It was made even more apparent that summer is over this past Sunday, when we visited the Mendenhall wetlands.  One of the last images that I took of the wetlands was when the fireweed was in full bloom.  This was back on July 22.

Now the color in the fireweed is gone.  Many of the seed pods are now breaking open, making it look like many dandelions have exploded.

To be fair to the fireweed... all of the plants, including the Wild Celery, have died and are losing their seeds. 

It is that time of year; when Winter is starting to wake up and it is evident that Summer is heading south.  

There are not many trees with leaves up here to change color as the temperature starts to drop.  But those that do are in full color.  Some started changing back in July. 

This may be our last post from Alaska, but we will keep posting from Canada, or wherever we are in the USA.  Where will we be next..?  Stay tuned.

My adventures with Gastineau Guiding in Juneau AK.

Last week I want on a Photo Safari with Gastineau Guiding, Juneau's Premier Guiding Company.  I figured that I would spend today's post showing some of the images that I got and explaining a little of what they do.

Why did I decide to do this excursion?  Mainly to see how other excursions operate and to see what photo options there were on the small boats.

Allen Marine, has large 78 foot 140 passenger multi deck catamarans.  Nice for moving people, but not so much for photography with a large group.

Gastineau Guiding has small 30+ foot 20 max capacity boats.  The sides actually open up for better shooting visibility.  They are a more agile and better maneuverable boat.  

That being said, there is something to be said for the stability of larger vessel and the wide stance of a catamaran.  The small boat did rock more, even with the rubber flotation bladder on the outside.  This made it harder to stay focused on the subjects when using my 70-200 lens with a 1.4 teleconverter.  

The bus ride to the harbor was in a small van/bus with a guided tour and multimedia presentation  on all legs of the trip.  Allen Marine uses 53 passenger Gray Line Alaska coaches.

On the tour we were able to see quite a few glaciers:

Mendenhall Glacier from Brotherhood Bridge.

Eagle Glacier from Faust Rock Buoy, with a Sea Lion.

Eagle Glacier from Favorite Channel.

And my favorite image a humpback whale tail with a sea lion breaching.

Then we headed to Mendenhall Glacier where we hiked the Trail of Time.

Where we passed through groves of Devils Club.

Viewed many types of mushrooms and moss.

Got a few perspectives of the glacier.

A couple glances of a Bald Eagle perched outside of the visitor center.

Last but not least we were able to view some Glacier Ice...

where we found out that people take pictures of glacier ice in many different ways....