Monday, July 30, 2007

Lovely trip to Anchorage


Last week I spent a couple days in Anchorage, rained the entire time I was there. Felt sorry for the tourist that were missing out on the beautiful mountains that surround Anchorage.
Saw Dahl sheep along the Seward Highway, stopped by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where I got some REALLY good pictures of elk (they used to be in Alaska 1,000 year or so ago), buffalo (yep, they are here naturally, they are NOT plains buffalo but are what are called forest buffalo and caribou. After Martina had taken me to AWCC we stopped by Bird Creek to fish for silvers (salmon), they weren't biting, but the coolest part, my picture made it into the Anchorage Daily Newspaper the day before yesterday!!!! I'll have to see if I can scan it and post the picture. On the drive back to Fairbanks, I saw a really pretty shot of fireweed, the Parks Highway and a mountain, AND a little further down the road was a cow moose. I felt like I was in Yellowstone, for when I came upon about 5 cars pulled off to the side of the road, I HAD to slow down to see what they were looking at. I was so excited because the only animal I'd seen so far on the Parks Hwy was birds. Some of these folks HAD to be tourist, for I find it hard to believe that an Alaskan would stand between their car & the moose!!!!....a lot of biologist consider moose to be more dangerous than a bear.
On my trip back to Fairbanks, I'd noticed that there was more snow on the mountains than 4 weeks ago....I can't believe that there are already signs of winter showing up!!!

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!!
O.k., to night is going to be another first for me...first time I've not seen fireworks on the 4th of July. For some reason, it seems a little depressing. Though I do have to say there were fireworks several time during the winter. They have a HUGE display for the New Year here.
Take a look at some of the pictures that I've posted on Picasa...
--When I back in Alaska, the wild iris (aka in the Midwest as Siberian Iris) was in full bloom. Most places where I saw it was just a couple plants here & there, but when I got to Fairbanks, I was in awe, a fairly large area just covered in it. Everyone here that has them in their landscape went out to the outskirts of town and dug up their plants.
--On a day off last week, I drove all the way to the end of Steese Highway....well, to the end of the pavement, if I had a decent car, I'd drive to the end of the gravel road to see what is out there. I've got some pictures of fireweed (not good ones, but I'm on the look out for better plants) and some Alaskan Cotton.
Plans for the next week or two (not in stone yet because census is high right now and I might get to work more overtime):
--Botanical Gardens
--bus trip in Denali Park, hoping to find some one to go with me, if i can't, I'll be headed down there solo.
Things that I'm wanting to do before September:
--Anchorage...fishing for halibut & silver salmon
--Nome...see the tundra's flora & fauna...and see Sara, too!
--Fall trip to Denali, everyone has told me that Denali is GORGEOUS in the fall
--explore a couple more of the highways till they run into gravel roads
--hoping to be in town when the fair is in swing so I can take pictures of the ginormous veggies...can't wait to see 20-30 lb cabbage!