Drive to Valdez, Alaska

/ Ed Armstrong
Alaska is filled with beautiful sights! On the way to Valdez, I pulled off the road to marvel at this river. While I was there, I met an elderly couple and the wife told me this was her favorite stop on the way to Valdez.

The power of the water rushing through the rocks was impressive! The mountains, rivers, lakes, sea, and wildlife of Alaska are true marvels!

The churning current was strong and dramatic!

The Bald Eagle Came for a Visit!!

/ Ed Armstrong
This bald eagle landed near our campsite. He found some fish to enjoy.

He watched carefully to ensure that nothing tried to get his fish!

His wingspan was impressive!

It was amazing to watch him take to the air holding a large piece of fish.

And away he flew with his yummy meal!

It is impossible for a day to pass without enjoying Alaskan flowers and scenery!

Alaska is gorgeous! The haze in the background is smoke from a lightening initiated forest fire.

This is one of my favorite Alaskan flowers. It grows everywhere.

Flowers are abundant in Alaska!

Kenai Fjords National Park

/ Ed Armstrong
We had a wonderful boat tour to see Kenai Fjords National Park!! It is a magical place with glaciers and wildlife!! The tour was all day and provided lunch and dinner. It was cloudy for the entire day and rainy at times. It was quite cold for most of the day while we were outside on the boat deck enjoying Alaska. Having lived so much of our lives in Arizona and Texas, being cold on July 12th is quite a novel experience!

We cannot get enough of seeing the amazing glaciers in Alaska!

We were amazed to see the cave that had developed in the base of the glaciers. Several chunks of ice feel into the water while we were there.


There was quite a bit of ice that had fallen into the water.

It is amazing to look up at the wall of the glacier!

At one point this glacier reached the water below, but it has receded a little each year recently.

The tour company fished out a piece of ice from the water and Charlene had fun touching the ice with her tongue!! Apparently, some people collect glacier ice for margaritas.

Out of all the people on our tour boat, Charlene was given the honor as the person who threw the ice back into the water!

Here the ice goes back into the water!!

When parts of the glacier break off and fall into the water it is quite loud and seems to echo all around!

It is amazing to look up at the wall of ice towering about you!

Sea otters are bashful creatures. We found this cute guy merrily floating along.

The sea otter turned around to look at us and then quickly went under water.

The Alaskan scenes of water, mountains, and greenery truly amaze me!

The overcast skies and low clouds gave some interesting scenes. Alaska is beautiful!

The waterfalls into the sea are gorgeous!

These tiny islands do not seem to have much soil, but the trees grow right out of the rocks!

The boat captain pointed out that this small island looks like an elephant!

The misty scenes is Alaska are beautiful to behold. Although we could have gone inside the boat and warmed up, we simply needed to stay on the open deck to enjoy God’s creation in Alaska.

We were delighted to have found two humpback whales enjoying themselves!! Here they are both spouting water into the air.

It is truly inspiring to catch a glimpse of the whale’s tail as they leisurely swim along.

It is a photographer’s delight to actually catch a view of their tail!

The boat captain was gracious and we waited to see if the whales would lift any part of the bodies up out of the water.

The whales moved around and I was able to see it in time to capture this special moment. I love seeing the water flowing off of the end of this tail.

The whale gave us a fun show and lifted his tail a little higher into the air.

Then the whale shifted and started to swim deeper.

He tipped his tail as he went along

He waved goodbye as he swam below.

Here is another time when the whales spouted water into the air.

While we were waiting to see if the whales would surface again, the beautiful tufted puffin bird stopped by to visit. I love the orange coloring!

We captured another glimpse of a whale tail above the surface!

Amazingly, the whale then rolled over and showed us his fins!!

This whale scene was breathtaking!

The people on this boat were shocked when the whale came to the surface right next to them!!

This was a final view of the whale. Everyone on the boat concluded that the whale was waving goodbye to us!

We next saw sea lions! This guy was proudly perched high on a rock looking out into the sea.

We were amazed to see so many sea lions!

It was fascinating to watch this awkward and amazing creatures in the wild!

This big guy was unbelievable huge!!

There was a large variation in the size and color of the sea lions.

This big guy seemed to be barking at everyone telling them to not panic that a boat was drifting by. The captain asked everyone to be quiet so we would not frighten them.

The small black sea lions are the babies. The colony is doing very well in Kenai Fjords National Park.

Earthquake!!

/ Ed Armstrong

I was awakened at 11:30 pm by the motorhome being shaken back and forth. I first thought some pranksters were pushing on the motorhome to make it rock. However, no one was outside. I then thought it must be very windy and the force of the wind was making the motorhome rock. After a minute or two, the rocking stopped and I went back to sleep. The next morning I learned that the rocking was not from the wind but a 4.7 magnitude earthquake near Soldotna (Nikiski). I stayed in Soldotna just about 10 days ago!! Seward is only two hours away from Soldotna, so we were close enough to have been impacted by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake. Charlene peacefully slept through the entire episode. I was a little “shaken” by the force of the rocking!

Seward Helicopter Ride!!

/ Ed Armstrong
Today we had an amazing experience!! We had our first helicopter ride! Seeing beautiful Alaska from the air was an amazing experience!

We love this photo which shows the icebergs, the mountains, and the deep green of Alaska on a cloudy day!

Believe it or not, but the small black dots are seals as seen from our helicopter! They enjoy resting on the icebergs.

The blue color of the glaciers is amazing to see!

We saw several black bears during our helicopter ride! This fellow was fun to watch!

The glaciers are huge, gorgeous blue, and impressive!

This distance photo shows the immense size of the glacier flowing down the entire mountain.


The depth of the crevasses is incredible!

Alaska is such a picturesque setting!

The fresh water from the glacier melt is separated from the salt water on the far right by a small sliver of land. You can tell the difference by the different colors of water.

The icebergs and mountains in the distance are beautiful!

Each iceberg is like a individually crafted fingerprint! No two are alike.

It is difficult to tell perspective in this photo, but this glacier is enormous!

It was amazing to see the depth of the crevasses! They have a rich blue color and are very deep!

The pure water of the glacier melt appears blue and is very clear!

The glaciers are simply stunning!

Sometimes the icebergs turn upside down. When this happens, the now exposed previous bottom, is strikingly blue.

This is our helicopter pilot’s favorite iceberg. We flew around until we found this massive blue ice-cube floating in the water.

It was a serene, beautiful sight, to see the icebergs floating peacefully in the water.

The icebergs were carved by the elements into unique art.


After our helicopter ride, we returned to our campsite and this is the view of the mountain directly across from where we are parked. It is spectacularly beautiful!

Seward is known form having many beautiful murals around town. Charlene and I especially liked this mural near the harbor master office.

Charlene is testing out the dog sled and preparing for the next Iditarod race!

Sitting at our campsite, we noticed this bald eagle eating dinner atop this pole.

Drive to Seward!!

/ Ed Armstrong
On the drive from Anchorage to Seward, we stopped in Moose Pass to buy a coffee on a cold day (yes it is July 9th and it was less than 60 degrees!!) Inside, Charlene discovered the largest rabbit I have ever seen. His name is Alabaster Snowball and he weighs 15 pounds! 15 pounds!!!!! This rabbit weighs more than our dog Zoe!

The drive was beautiful! We stopped about 5 times to enjoy the scenes. I love seeing the flowing river, the colors of the trees and the low clouds. It rained off an on the entire day.

Another photograph of Alaska flowers. I love the rich colors. We think the name of the plant is “Fireweed.”

Charlene has quickly fallen in love with Alaska. The mountains and rivers are beautiful!

Charlene discovers the huge size of a grizzly bear! The sign says “caution: do not touch, he may bite.” Charlene was not afraid!

However, the fear statement need to be reconsidered once Charlene notes the massive size of the bear’s claws!

Bald eagles are quite impressive! They have a very large wingspan! Watch out Charlene! The eagle is coming for you!

We went to Ray’s restaurant for dinner and were seated at the best corner table with a spectacular view of the harbor and boats returning from the day on the Gulf of Alaska and Pacific Ocean. While eating dinner, we saw a harbor seal playing in the water just outside our window! Earlier in the day we saw two bald eagles just outside our campsite! Alaska is amazing!

Muskox Farm!!

/ Ed Armstrong
I visited a muskox research facility while in Fairbanks and found it very interesting. When I learned there was a muskox farm in Palmer, I added it to my list of things to see. These are interesting creatures. They seem to literally enjoy butting heads. Both males and females, but especially the males. The farm has metal poles covered with old tires to give the muskox other things to butt into besides each other. The muskox farm trims their horns a bit so that they are less likely to injure each other.

These are the 3 sisters because they like to spend time together.

Their horns are tough and this is how they butt into each other.

The horns of the females are not as thick as the males.

She is a bit hidden in the grass, but this is a baby female muskox. She does not have any horns at this time.

This girl is not super friendly. Our group had to carefully walk by and not antagonize her. She was giving me “the eye” when I took her picture.

This one is younger and does not have fully developed horns. The muskox farm tends to separate the animals roughly by age and sex.

This huge male muskox liked to mostly live separately from the other males and he was not too excited about being moved to a new pasture.

I continue to be amazed by the rick colors of the flowers in Alaska. These were growing at the muskox farm.

Boondocking near Seward!!

/ Ed Armstrong
I love this campsite! What a wonderful view!

I met a couple that was traveling while we both were in Homer, Alaska. They told me about a great place to boondock camp near Seward. It took me three tries to find the correct entrance, but it opened up to a dry riverbed section of the Resurrection River. It is surrounded with beautiful mountains! This was a treat to enjoy! The photos show the 4 directions around my campsite. The only downside is that there was no cellular service at this location. I guess I can survive without internet access for a day. 😉

This is a small branch of the river. The main flow of the river is to the left.

I love these clouds behind the mountain!

This view is toward the town of Seward.

Katmai National Park!!

/ Ed Armstrong

This brown bear caught this huge salmon flying up the falls!!

Alaska continues to amaze me. Today I flew on a float plane for 90 minutes west of Homer, Alaska to visit Katmai National Park and its famous Brooks Falls. What makes it so well known are the brown bears that live in the area and spend time fishing for salmon. It was an incredible experience! Yes, it was expensive. Yes, it was worth it!

These bears are huge and they own the place!

The bear is on the prowl for salmon in the river.

He is carefully searching for fish.

Look at the size of their claws!!

The other bears watch with envy as one bear catches a fish!

This salmon was jumping to get over the falls and he survived without being eaten.

The search for fish is on!

Despite this bear’s best effort, these salmon were out of his reach!

This salmon was grabbed out of the air!

This bear is tearing bites out of this fish that he caught swimming in the river.

This bear has a different strategy. He is standing at the base of the falls and waiting for the fish to get close and then catch the fish as they are getting ready to jump.

This bear was successful catching this salmon as it tried to jump over the falls.

Another successful catch!

Very happy bear!

This mom is teaching her two kids how to fish.

This bear is on the lookout for more fish!

Dinner is served!

Baby bear is looking for his meal too.

A bald eagle is looking over the scene to see whether he can find any fish scraps to his meal.

I was amazed at how well the bears swim. They are fast!

This is one of Alaska’s newer volcanoes. This photo was taken from the float plane on the way to Katmai National Park. The cloudiness and early morning light gives it interesting coloring.

Here is our float plane that brought us to Katmai National Park. You either need to fly or take a boat to visit this extremely interesting national park.