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....

So the countdown has begun....10 More days of work!

It is hard to believe that this is the final two weeks here in Juneau.

We arrived here in April amidst snow storms.

In May were went through training, started greeting the ships and moved into our apartment.

June brought many hikes, adventures, tourists and whales!

By July we had already had a month of sun, the salmon were running, the bears were eating and the fireweed was in full bloom.  Native folklore states that summer will end six weeks after the top flower on the fireweed blooms....

August had us wondering if it would ever rain again.  Which it did.  We also started to realize that not only is our time in Alaska coming to an end but so is the summer season.   The fireweed is gone, the salmon runs are getting slower and smaller and the sun is setting sooner and sooner.

 

We just have 10 more days to enjoy this amazing area.  On September 14th we will start our two week drive to join all of our many friends and family in the lower 48...