Have you ever sat at the foot of a glacier and listened to it talk? How about watching it calve? Well we have and I can only tell you it is absolutely breathtaking!
My wonderful mom on the boat at the foot of the glacier.
Icebergs in the water near the glacier.
Sea kayakers. Maybe I will have to try this soon! Marsha or Kat...are you game??? LOL
I had a feeling these would not post in the order I wanted them to. While we were on the riverboat we spotted this eagle. It has a large salmon in it's talons and was attempting to fly with it. Because the salmon was too big it was unable to go any distance at all and eventually got pulled almost under the water and started swimming with the fish. It made it to the sand bar and got smart and started tearing off pieces and flying those smaller pieces to the nest. I wish these were in the correct order, but hopefully you will be able to see the progression from the water, then swimming, then to the sand bar and then eating the salmon.
This fire started the night before we went to Talkeetna. It was and I guess is still growing. The smoke covered any view of Mt. McKinley and eventually settled over the city of Talkeetna. We decided we better head home because there were rumors of some highway closings. None happened, but we didn't want to be stuck in the smoke. It actually formed a huge storm cloud over the fire. I wish the picture was better. Looking at it was incredible.
We drove to Talkeetna to see if by chance Mt. McKinley was showing, but since it wasn't and was completely covered by a fire in the area (pictures will follow) we opted to take the Mahay's Highspeed Riverboat upriver out of Talkeetna. It was fun, but nothing I couldn't live without experiencing. My mom had a blast, even when the riverboat did 360s in the middle of the river. You should have seen her! Here are a few pictures. The first is the damage to the trees done by the huge Alaskan beavers in the area. Some are up to 100 pounds!
This is our guide. Along with the ride, we stopped to look at a replica of a trapper's cabin. In order to keep us safe from the things that are higher on the food chain than we are, she had her shotgun with her. She said she had never had to use it. I was certainly glad she didn't have to use it on our tour.
Furs that had been trapped by local trappers. The Otter pelt was just incredible.
Mom getting ready to ride the boat! Can you believe she will be 80 in November??
Stacey modeling a young black bear fur!!
This is Portage Glacier, one of the smaller glaciers in the area. The drive there is so wonderful. On our trip we saw the following, along with many other sites:
The World's Largest Dandelions!!
A beautiful waterfall just near the glacier in Portage Lake.
A young Dall Sheep ram and lots of other Dall Sheep.
These are two shots of the grizzly we saw. Again, VERY far away and the photo is blown up as big as I can get it.
Some of the icebergs that have calved off the glacier.
I will let you all guess what this is!
One of the first things I did with my friend Stacey and her husband was to take the Knik Glacier airboat tour up to the glacier. You can see the airboat here in the picture. This glacier is very near our home and we have ridden four wheelers out to it, but never boated up the river. The river is sometimes as shallow as 4 inches so it requires and airboat to go all the way up to the glacier.
Knik Glacier with the ice field.
On the river going up, with the sweet peas in bloom. 
While sitting at the camping area at the foot of the glacier, we scanner the hillside for bears. Along with these 3 black bear (a sow and 2 cubs) we saw 2 grizzly bear also. They were too far away to get a picture, as are these bear, but hopefully you can see them just a bit.
They were pooped, but really happy and had a great time serving the camp in many different ways.
And a week later here they are returning to Anchorage's Merrill Field.
This the plane they flew in. A 9 seater.
Here they are leaving for camp.
This is Richard, our friend and the one who taught Ralph and I how to fish for salmon in these Alaskan waters. Richard caught his 5 King Salmon yearly limit in 5 days! Not many fisherman can say that.
This is Jim. He and his wife Mikey, pictured below are good friends of Richard's and have become my friends and fishing buddies. They are wonderful people and so much fun to hang out at the fishing hole with!!
Mikey, who caught a King Salmon last week also.
My fishing buddy Richard and I weighing my fish.
Okay! I did it! On June 19, 2007 I caught my second King Salmon! Last year on June 19, 2006 I caught my first. My first fish was 25 inches and 11 pounds. This year's fish was 41 inches and 25.7 pounds!!!! You have no idea what a rush you get catching a fish like this unless you have experienced it. I think it took me about 5 long, arm burning minutes to land this male King Salmon. Tomorrow I go on the hunt for one more before the season dies out and the Silver Salmon season arrives. Yippy for ME!!!!!
These pictures are of a Red Necked Grebe family. The dad was giving the kids a ride on his back and the mom was hunting underwater for food. She would come up and feed the kids and dad would just ride them around. They are beautiful birds.
I have wanted to see an American Dipper for YEARS. They are located in many different areas around the US. I finally saw this one at the salmon viewing area near Portage Glacier. I was very excited to be able to get some a nice shot.
These young gulls were just right off the parking lot. I hope they will be okay.
The momma gull came with fish in her tummy and regurgitated them up for the little ones. It was pretty gross, but really cool at the same time.
I think this may be my favorite picture this summer. This is an Arctic Tern. If you don't know much about them it would be worth looking up. They love to hover over the water watching for things to eat in the water. This one hovered for a good minute and allowed me some great photo opts.
