On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
I have always pictured Alaska as all frozen, all the time. The movie Insomnia (2002) made a big impact on me, and that has been my view of Alaska ever since. Albatrossity apparently intends to disabuse me of that notion over the next few weeks. Whatever the details, it’s sure to be beautiful. ~WaterGirl
Albatrossity
Travel restrictions and health considerations make it tough to go anywhere these days, but I have found that looking anew at photos from trips in the past is a pretty good way for me to spend my time. So here are some pics from a trip to Alaska that we made in 2012; that was the last state on my life-list and I was happy to finally get there! I’d definitely go back.
Elizabeth had a gig as one of the contributing faculty at the 2012 Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference in Homer, Alaska, and I was happy to tag along. I’ve been to a lot of literary conferences, but none have been quite this scenic. We spent a few days in Homer; she was busy at the conference and I was wandering around looking at birds and scenery. Then we spent a couple of days at a lodge just across Kachemak Bay, where again she was busy with some intensive teaching for the conference, and I wandered around with my camera. Meals and hikes with the writers and other faculty members were all quite memorable.
We did spend more time in the state of Alaska, taking a train to Denali and then back down to Seward for a birdwatching/whale-watching/glacier-watching boat trip. Those pics will appear in subsequent installments of On The Road.
Alaska is a place where sea and sky meet mountains, and it is impossible not to be awed by the natural beauty that is all around you. This is a view from the end of the Homer Spit, where we stayed, looking across Kachemak Bay at the Kenai Peninsula. Lots of seabirds in the distant flock on the water, most of which were gulls and kittiwakes. It was often cloudy, but when you got a glimpse of the blue sky over those glaciated mountains, the rain somehow didn’t seem nearly as vexing.
Alaska is also a place where Bald Eagles are everywhere. This woman was walking her dog on the beach at the end of the spit, and both she and the eagle seem equally unconcerned.
The big salmon runs were just starting when we were there, and lots of anglers lined the beaches on both sides of the spit. This Glaucous-winged Gull was waiting patiently for his share, and he was rewarded when a lucky fisherman landed a monstrous King Salmon and hauled it up to the fish-cleaning station.
Another beachcomber on the Homer Spit was this Semi-palmated Plover. This is a common migrant in my part of the world each spring, but I have rarely seen one in this very bright breeding plumage!
The city of Homer has a couple of wildlife-rich parks that were worth a visit. There were nesting Sandhill Cranes, lots of gulls and crows, and this lovely Red-necked Grebe, which is a bird I see very rarely in my normal habitat in the interior of the continent.
Even though we were there in mid-June, it was just barely springtime as far as the plants were concerned. This is the blossom of the Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), which will mature into a delicious yellow or red berry about the size of a large blackberry. We were too early to have these as fresh fruit, but the lodge had some great Salmonberry jam at the breakfast table each morning.
These two are Pigeon Guillemots, members of the auk (Alcidae) family, loafing on a rock near the Kachemak Bay lodge. These seabirds are found on the Pacific coast of North America from Alaska all the way down to California, and on the western coast of Siberia. Those bright red feet are matched by an equally brilliant bright red mouth lining, which is visible when the birds are calling or feeding. Unfortunately these birds were silent, so I’ll have to go back and see if I can get a photo of that next time.
Finally, here is an Orange-crowned Warbler in the drizzle. All of the local birds were unperturbed by rain, and this one was singing his territorial song incessantly while getting dripped on. I learned to follow his example and just live with the rain, because it was gonna be there no matter what I desired.
JPL
Alaska is beautiful and thank you for sharing your pictures.
mvr
Nice! One of two states I have yet to visit and the one I most want to.
raven
There’s fish under them birds!
Mustang Bobby
Thank you. I spent a week last summer at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, on Prince William Sound, and the scenery and wildlife in your pictures reminds me of that magical week.
MazeDancer
Lovely pics. Can’t imagine being nonchalant about an Eagle.
rikyrah
Pictures are gorgeous ?
the antibob
If you liked Insomnia for the Alaska vibes, check out the John Sayles movie “Limbo”.
Nelle
You have two of the favorite places I’ve lived. I’m a Wichita native who grew up next door to Audubon society bird lovers. My first job was taking care of their bird bath when they were on vacation and we trekked about the Flint Hills with them in the late 50s. They ended up on Camano Island, in WA, and I was in Seattle then, so they introduced me to the birds of PNW.
While in Seattle, I met and married my husband, who was putting himself through grad school by flying as a bush pilot in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, up on the Arctic Coast of Alaska. I had about eight summers there. It was a glory of birds nesting (and caribou breeding, polar bears, grizzly, musk ox). We intended to go back last month…one last Arctic flying experience for the 76 year old guy. We waited too long, I guess.
Thanks for these photos and memories. I’m now traveling in the way I began as a child….through the words of others.
arrieve
I’ve only been to Alaska once but it was magical. I got to spend two days at a lodge at the end of the road in Denali and was lucky enough to see the namesake mountain minus its usual shroud of clouds. I’d love to go back.
Thanks for the memories! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the pictures.
Jay Noble
Having grown up in Nebraska, seeing nesting Sandhill Cranes would be weird and “Circle of Life” at the same time.
Albatrossity
@Jay Noble: Actually, we are currently in Nebraska, and yesterday we saw Sandhill Cranes (mom, dad, and this year’s chick, aka colt) in a wet meadow along the Niobrara north of Bassett. This pair has been nesting in this meadow for several years running. Sandhill Cranes have returned to Nebraska as a nesting species!
I’m collecting pictures while I am up here, and I suspect a future On The Road will feature the Sandhills (both the landscape and the cranes). Stay tuned!
StringOnAStick
@Albatrossity: I’m looking forward to your sandhill crane post!
Marcopolo
I lived in interior AK for a decade and made it down to Homer, which is viewed as the artsy fartsy place in state, twice. It’s been 3 decades but my recollection is as you drive south along the Kenai Peninsula, which is itself a glorious experience because you are hugging the coast and there are great views for the non-drivers in the car, you move inland a bit and then there is a long curving downhill into town. Kachemak Bay is lovely and from Homer you can look across it to the volcanic mountains on the other side. A central feature is the Homer spit, an about 4 1/2 mile long finger of land sticking out into the bay lined with all things touristy: gift shops, tour boat places, fishing charter places, and lots of places to eat, you guessed it, fish.
If anyone here does go to AK I highly recommend renting a car in Anchorage & heading down (it is about as scenic as it gets in the US) into the Kenai. Homer is great and so is Seward. I’d also imagine there are things to do in Kenai/Soldotna but on my two trips there I only drove through.
Albatrossity
@Marcopolo: Agreed! That is a lovely and scenic drive, and, as you say, there are other places besides Homer to spend some time in along the way.
Miss Bianca
I lived as a “Spit Rat” in Homer for a very memorable summer in 1984. I’ve been round this great big world some, but hands-down the most beautiful place I have *ever* been remains Homer. I have long dreamed about going back, and often wondered what my life would have been like if I had stayed up there at the end of the summer – I had a chance to do so, only the fact that it was my senior year in college coming up, and the fact that I had already signed a lease on an apartment, drew me back to Ann Arbor.
Is there still a big fish processing plant at the end of the Spit? That was the draw for me and my buddy back in the day. Working the canneries, baby!
Albatrossity
@Miss Bianca: Didn’t see a cannery down there. The hotel where the writer’s conference was held is right down at the end of the Spit.
It was lovely in late June, but I am not sure that a winter there would be as pleasant. Mostly because the sun wouldn’t be up until about 10 AM, and probably wouldn’t be visible through the constant clouds! I need more photons than that…
eclare
@the antibob: Seconded, Limbo is awesome. Photos are gorgeous and cooling, going to be 90’s in Memphis today.
J R in WV
Wonderful piece, fun comments, the usual beautiful pictures!
Thanks so much!
Yutsano
Alaska is definitively on my list as one of the last states for me to check off. Luckily a friend is getting stationed there in September. We’ll see if I can’t score a visit up around Fairbanks way next spring or so.
frosty
I got to Alaska with my 80-year old grandmother in 1978, picking up my 49th state. I am still missing Hawaii and I expect it will be more than a year before travel there will be opened up without a 14-day quarantine.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Albatrossity: I’ve been up to Alaska a good number of times in the Summer and Winter. The winter is the opposite of the summer, it’s cold and dark.
dr. luba
When I was in the third grade, we were given some brochure sponsored by Chevrolet (“See the USA in your Chevrolet!”) about the US sates. On the back was the address of every state tourism agency, where you could write away for more information.
I think I wrote to every single one that summer, and got all sorts of colorful brochures. The best were from Alaska….I fell in love with the state, and decided that’s where I would live when I grew up.
It didn’t work out that way. I still live in Michigan. I’ve traveled much of the world. Still haven’t gotten to Alaska for some reason (not exotic enough? Sarah Palin? mosquitoes?), but my roommate on my Tierra del Fuego cruise had lived there, and said southern Patagonia reminded her very much of it.
Someday, when it’s safe to travel again, I’ll have to finally get there. I’m thinking road trip. Thanks for the photos.
way2blue
Thanks for jogging my memory of Homer. Years ago. I served as a navigator on a research ship. and after retrieving a geoprobe off Kodiak, we ended our leg in Homer. Approaching the town from the water, with snow-capped mountains behind, was stunning. I remember checking out a ‘fisheries depot’ adjacent to where we’d docked, and seeing a large bin of prawns so fresh they glistened.
frosty
@dr. luba: My grandma and I went in September, I think. The three week window with no mosquitoes and no snow.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Cruised the Inland Passage some years ago in late May/early June and I was blown away by the birds. Along with becoming nonchalant about Bald Eagles (they were indeed everywhere !!!), seeing birds I was familiar with, but in breeding plumage was fabulous. Golden Crowned Sparrows blew me away. And seeing Arctic Terns actually breeding was amazing. (They fly all the way from the Antarctic!!)
Phein60
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I was stationed at Ft Rich in the ’70s, and that first photo is iconic: clouds creeping down the mountains, threatening to make us march out of the field back to where trucks could get us (come on, Hueys!). It was often dark in winter when there was no moon or clouds, but other times there would be a gray glow throughout the day and night. On clear nights with a full moon, it would be bright enough to read topo maps. When it got cold, there would be no moisture in the air. I’ll never forget a night jump into Ft Greeley in January in the moonlight: you could see every little individual tree on the way down, far off into the distance, all frosted, as condensation froze on your bakalava.
Denali
We went to Alaska in the late 90’s and spent some time in Homer – so beautiful! We took a day cruise out of Homer and landed for a while at the dock of a fisherman and his artist-wife. He would bring home an octopus which had been entangled in his net, and his wife would paint with the ink from the ink sacs. I looked for octopus ink for years at the local fish markets with no success, and finally found a small can of squid in its ink. The can stayed in my pantry for years until I came across it during a clean out and decided to finally make a painting. I used rice paper and oriental paint brushes and tried to paint a waterfall that I photographed in Milford Sound in New Zealand. Nobody but me can really tell what it is, the color is sepia- a greyed brown- but it brings back memories of Alaska and New Zealand.
Alaska Reader
@Albatrossity: fish plants are still a feature on the spit.