Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
Today I felt like doing something a bit different, and went back to some of the images I flagged from my 2023 Alaska trip. All of these images were from an excursion I did, taking a train trip along the White Pass for a day trip in the Yukon. I have shared some images from this trip before (search Alaska if you missed these and want to take a look).
I had some photos flagged to edit from my 2022 trip to Alaska, so I followed the path of least resistance and worked on those, rather than selecting images from my latest adventure. Back to Africa images next week 🙂
I’m still in awe of how beautiful a trip it was, and how I really lucked out with the most amazing weather you could ask for.
Taking a break from African wildlife to work on a few images of the wildlife that I saw during my Alaskan cruise. That trip was far more about landscapes than wildlife, but after the brutally cold weather and recent dump of snow we’ve had, I just didn’t feel like editing snowy landscapes.
I’d previously posted some whale images, which you can find here if interested. The whales were definitely top of the list of what I hoped to see on my cruise, so I couldn’t leave them out of this post. These sea lions were spotted on the same whale watching cruise.
While on a combination train and bus journey of the White Pass into the Yukon, our group spotted a family of 3 black bears along the roadside (a mama and 2 older cubs) and then a second sighting of a solitary bear. Getting photos out of the window of a bus isn’t the easiest, but at least I captured a decent shot of one of the bears.
Bald eagles are incredibly plentiful in Alaska. Before I left the ship for my tour in Juneau, I spotted a half dozen, along with probably 50+ gulls, swopping around the waters just off the side of the ship, going after whatever small fish were in the harbour. After a sight seeing trip to Mendenhall Glacier, our group headed to a smaller marina to get onto a whale watching boat, and this bald eagle was hanging in the parking lot, not even remotely concerned about the people or cars coming and going.
My trip to Alaska was very early in the season, and the majority of the humpback whales that summer in the region were still in transit. Even though the chance of seeing whales was lower, heading out on whale watching trips was still high on my list of things to do. While I didn’t have the opportunity to see dramatic breaches or bubble feeding, I did get to see multiple individuals, including right from the top of the cruise ship while entering and exiting Yakutat Bay, during our day of scenic cruising to see Hubbard Glacier.
As you can see from the images, I was very fortunate to have amazing weather whilst in Alaska. I took scenic whale watching excursions in Icy Strait Point and Anchorage, and saw multiple whales on both excursions. In speaking with some people on my trip that had done over a dozen Alaska trips, they said May carried a good chance for nice weather, and July & August better opportunities for whales, but more rain. I’m pretty happy with the choice that I made.
Today I selected a few images from my time cruising around Hubbard Glacier during my trip to Alaska in May. I’m guessing in a month or so, when the snow has settled in here at home, editing images of snowy landscapes may not have much appeal, so I wanted to tackle a bit while I was inspired.
As for this day of scenic cruising, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect blue sky day. While it was very foggy while out in the open water, it cleared dramatically as soon as we entered the bay, and stayed that way until we left again in the afternoon, and then we were back into the fog.
As for home, there has been a brief glimpse of the winter to come, but thankfully for the next few days at least, we are to be above zero each day.
One of the days on my recent cruise was a scenic cruise to the Hubbard Glacier. While I was told that it is not as impressive as cruising in Glacier Bay National Park, I thought the scenery was breathtaking and beautiful.
Similar to most mornings when we were out at sea, I awoke to pea soup fog, and I thought that perhaps we wouldn’t see much of anything. I took in the morning talk by the onboard naturalist, and then headed to the coffee bar for a mid-morning pick me up. I got to chatting with some people while having a coffee, and it was explained to me that as we headed into the bay, and got closer to the glacier, the weather would shift very dramatically. At noon, we headed into the bay, and sure enough, we left the fog in our wake and had gorgeous sunny blue skies and beautiful scenery (and, when we left the bay, the fog closed in as rapidly as it had lifted earlier in the day). There were some whales spotted from the ship, both on our way to and from the glacier, which was wonderful to watch.
I took an enormous number of photos during this scenic cruise, and since I am behind in my cataloguing a bit, I just selected a few that appealed to edit and share.
Without a doubt, the favourite excursion I did while on my Alaskan cruise in May was take the White Pass rail trip from Skagway, Alaska, to Fraser, BC. After disembarking in Fraser, we carried on by bus into the Yukon (my first time in one of the territories). I had hoped to be able to do a longer rail trip all the way to Bennett, but it was too early in the season.
There was still significant snow at the higher elevations, and a definite chill in the air on the 8:00am departure, but I spent as much time as possible on one of the outdoor platforms, watching the scenary and taking lots of photos. I was quite fortunate as only two other people in my rail car had any interest in being outside for any length of time, and there was enough room for three on the platform, so I had a great view to entire way. I’d duck in for few moments when my hands got too cold to warm them next to the heater, and then back out for more photos.
I recently returned from a trip I had wanted to do for some time – a cruise to visit Alaska. I found an itinerary that worked with my schedule and booked it, and hoped for the best weather wise, but anticipated the worst. I packed a toque, gloves, scarf, fleece, rain coat, rain poncho… all the things to deal with excursions in damp and cold weather, and instead needed to apply sunscreen at each stop and spent my time outside in t-shirts. Many of the people that I met on board, some that had done Alaskan cruises on multiple occasions, agreed that we had strangely amazing weather (and not to expect that if I should go again).
I’ve not yet done a full review of my images, but this one caught my eye when importing. I took this from my balcony as we left Sitka, heading for our next port of call. I’m looking forward to sharing more images from this trip, and especially interested to start looking through the images I took while whale watching, to see if any turned out.
