Gerard M. Foley
Travel & Photography Collection
Alaska
My first trip to Alaska began on September 1, 1998. With some difficulty caused by weather in St. Louis, I flew from my home in Columbus, OH, via Seattle to Anchorage.
Approaching Seattle-Tacoma Airport our TWA captain gave us a great view of Mt.Rainier.
On our third day we spent a couple of hours close to the Hubbard Glacier, the largest in Alaska. It flows directly into the sea, in a fiord between Cordova and Skagway. Click on the image to see it up close, but be prepared for a wait, since there are a lot of pixels to be shipped to you.
Hubbard Glacier
The Mendenhall currently ends fairly far up in the mountains. Like all the Alaskan glaciers it has been receding during recent decades. It can be seen from a number of places in Juneau, including the campus of the University of Alaska Southeast.
Close to Juneau, the capital of Alaska, is the Mendenhall Glacier.
The Mendenhall glacier from campus of the University of Alaska Southeast.
After I had made arrangements for the cruise, I was lucky enough to run across a posting on the DigiCam mailng list fromLarry Buzzell who is a long time resident of Juneau . Larry was kind enough to give me good advice on what to see there. As a result I visited a private salmon hatchery during the spawning season. Mature salmon breed and die (almost immediately) in the fresh water in which they are hatched, but spend their lifespans of several years in the oceans. The hatcheries use the water from the spawning streams, but are much more efficient than the natural habitat in replenishing the salmon population.
The hatchery had a beautiful aquarium. Larry tells me the next picture is a King Salmon in spawning colors. In the ocean the same fish is brilliant silver with purple reflected tones and a pure white belly. The nose becomes deformed as the fish nears spawning time. Ocean condition fish don't have this hooked jaw.
Larry also tells me the splotchy white bellied one below is either a Pink (humpy) or a Chum (dog) salmon in spawning colors:, and the one with the pink dots is a Dolly Varden, a type of Arctic Char. They are all lovely fish.
These photographs were all taken with my Olympus D-600-L Digital Camera, and processed with JASC PaintShopPro 5.0, and, in the case of the panoramas, PhotoVista StitchIt.
King Salmon in spawning colors.
Splotchy white bellied one is either a Pink (humpy) or a Chum (dog) salmon in spawning colors:, and the one with the pink dots is a Dolly Varden, a type of Arctic Char.
Dolly Varden, a type of Arctic Char.
The anemones, star fish and other animals that inhabit these northern waters are just as beautiful to me.
Aerial Tramway ascending Mt. Roberts
Larry Buzzell, Gerry Foley, and Mt. Juneau. A kind stranger took the picture. To keep cameras from banging against each other, I hung his camera around my neck. Then we had a good lunch and great views.
Looking up the channel above Juneau. Even on a cloudy day, Alaskan views can be great.
Mt. Juneau
"Norwegian Dynasty" from Mt.Roberts
The beauty I saw during this short stay in Alaska was stern and rugged, for the most part, like this view from our ship as we sailed along the "Alaska Marine Highway".