travelswithkathleen

I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks

Thursday, June 11, 2026

One last glacier




This is basically a historical artifact at this point, as the glaciers in Prince William Sound, like most glaciers on our poor wounded planet, have been rapidly shrinking. So it's a flashback in every sense.

PWS waterfalls


More Prince William Sound


I wrote at the time that I was disappointed not to see whales during the cruise around the sound, but that the glaciers made up for it. I hadn't been to Iceland or Antarctica then, so these were my first glaciers, and I took far more closeups of blue frozen water with streaks of dirt than even I can find a need for.

The glaciers on the mountains were gorgeous though.

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Flashback: Prince William Sound


I uploaded this picture without realizing I'd posted a virtually identical picture in 2014. But this one has that kittiwake flying over the water, and it's definitely a view worth looking at twice.

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

And now for something completely different


At first I though this must be some kind of bison, but it's actually a muskox.

There used to be herds of muskoxen across Alaska, Arctic Canada, and Greenland, but the Alaskan population was wiped out by the early 20th century. They've since been reintroduced in several of the parks and wildlife refuges.

It's too bad the sun was behind her (I think this is a female) so I couldn't get better pictures of this very strange creature.

Another youngster




This is a young elk.

Plus a moose!




Most of the moose I saw in Alaska were at a distance, so I couldn't appreciate that strange squarish snout they have. This moose at the AWCC was a juvenile—old enough to have been abandoned by its mother, but not old enough to have turned into an asshole.

But it turns out I had more reindeer


I found a folder, cleverly named AWCC, that I had clearly never investigated. So here are some more pictures of the reindeer.

One last look at Wonder Lake


I'm done with Denali—the mountain anyway; I may find a few more pictures from the bus ride through the park. So here's Wonder Lake again; it was, without exaggeration, one of the most perfectly beautiful places I've ever been.

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