Return from Valdez

I don't have time to blog this morning but I can give you some pictures.

Headed South

Well yes, today we begin the return trip, sort of. We were going to go to Homer on Wednesday and return to Palmer on Friday but when it came time to go Connie and I were both a little under the weather. She got some kind of a cold bug first and then I got it and we decided to pass on the Homer trip. In lieu of that we decided to head home today instead of tomorrow and make a little detour along the way to Valdez. It was a good call because the drive here was one of the best we have seen so far. Tonight we are in Valdez and tomorrow we will have to back track a little over 100 miles before picking up the highway home again. This is Worthington Glacier an you can drive almost up to it. My big lens picked up some people who appeared to have just ascended out of that hole in the ice. Then there is Bridal Veil falls (not such a great picture but I had to include it for the sake of Louie the roaming loon). And Horse Tail Falls. Hopefully I will get some more good pics on the way back trough there tomorrow.

Off to Denali

Today we drove to Denali from our RV park in Talkeetna. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive one way. We drove into the park 13 miles, as far as you can with your own vehicle. If you want to go further you have to take a bus tour. The various bus tours range from 4 1/2 hours to 12 hours and from $25 to over $100. They are old school buses. Neither of us really felt like doing that. I understand you can see a lot of wildlife on those tours but that's a lot of hours. The shorter tours don't take you all the way in either. We kind of knew all of this before we went but we still came away from the experience a little disappointed with their strategy. The buss fee are in addition to park fees also. The real problem though is with the amount of time all of this takes. We did some sightseeing and picture taking along the way and explored some other back roads near the park where we spotted a moose. I could only get one picture before the truck scared it away. The igloo was a closed business and no I didn't drive through it. I just backed up to the door for a photo op. The sign and the mountain are pretty much self explanatory. All in all we enjoyed the trip, just not the park arrangements.

Just Senery

Tonight we are still in Talkeetna. We had breakfast with Martin and Rebekah and some other friends before they all headed home. We just rested up a bit, did some laundry and I was able to get some pictures of the mountain since it was clear today. Tomorrow Connie and I are leaving the trailer here and driving to Denali for the day. It's about 2 more hours up the road. We will stay here again tomorrow night before heading back to Palmer. Of course 2 of these pictures were taken from the airplane yesterday. The woods are just beautiful right now with so many plants and blooms. And alas, Denali!

The Widgeon

Well I thought that if they sent a second plane to take pictures they would send a photographer too. I knew before hand that I was going to get to go on the flight but I thought it would be as a spectator. Nope, they were counting on me to get it done! As if shooting a wedding isn't enough pressure for one day. I was certainly thrilled to get to go either way. The bride and groom got up to the top of Mt McKinley for a look, which was amazing because it is covered with clouds 80% of the time and it had been socked in almost up until time for the flight. I didn't make it up to see the top because my plane took off a little later and we only had so much time to get the pictures. We needed to make it back to the reception, oh those details. We made a number of laps around the area called the Amphitheater. It's kind of a big bowl where several glaciers come together. Oh what scenery! Here are some of the shots of the Widgeon with really just a sample of the spectacular scenery that was there.

The Special Gift

Danielle's uncle, Rebekah's brother Mark is a pilot and has opportunities to fly this World War II vintage Widgeon airplane, which is a museum piece. For their wedding present he took them for a flight around Mt McKinley between the wedding and the reception. This was quite a photo op for the museum and they wanted some shots of the Wigeon flying over the glaciers, so they sent a second plane to carry the photographer............Oh yea, that's me! More on that in the next post. So we all went flying around Mt McKinley and when we returned they did a water landing and posed for some pictures on the lake. The Wigeon can land on land or water. What a really nice present and I got to be part of it!

Pictures out the wahzoo!

I have so much to tell you about and so many pictures that I am going to try to do 4 posts tonight. It is difficult to do more than 4 photos per post and I could only pear it down 16 pictures out of nearly 1000 taken in the last 3 days. We came to Talkeetna Friday for rehersal and since it is about 85 miles we brought the trailer and we're still here. The wedding went very well and in such a beautiful location. If it weren't for the clouds you could see Mt. McKinley behind the bride and groom in this picture. It was held at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge in this outdoor setting and the weather was perfect. Jeremy & Danielle were a beautiful couple as you can see. And there's the proud father, my cousin Martin, walking his daughter to the alter. I may get the rest of the pictures on my web site but probably not before I get home.