A train trip into the Canadian Rockies has long been on my Bucket List. Mary Lou was rather reluctant as she thought that sitting on a train for two straight days could be difficult. Twice on trips to Alaska we took an observation car ride on the Alaska Railway from Denali to Anchorage and enjoyed it immensely. I finally convinced her that, since we would be staying at hotels each night there would be ample time for us to get some exercise. This was not a "wildlife tour," though it held the promise of possible sightings of bears, deer, elk, Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goats. I did not expect that there would be much time for birding. Much of our time would be spent on moving trains and tour buses. In the interest of portability and convenience I decided not to pack my big camera rig (Canon EOS 60D 18 MP Digital SLR Camera with 420 MM lens system: Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM telephoto Lens with 1.4X extender). Instead, I carried only my pocket camera, a Canon SX700 HS with 30X optical zoom. This turned out to be a wise choice. We departed at 6:00 AM from Fort Lauderdale and flew to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where we connected with the flight to Vancouver. Each leg was about 3 1/2 hours.We gained 3 hours on the clock, arriving at our hotel at about 1:00 PM, so it was a very long day. We took advantage of the daylight by ascending the Vancouver Lookout Tower, where we captured nice views of the city and the harbor. The sun was still bright at about 8:30 PM, providing some interesting REFLECTIONS: We boarded the Rocky Mountaineer train early the next morning, moving through Vancouver's extensive freight yards. Remotely-controlled switching engines scurried about. Flashing red lights warned that no humans were aboard. Reflections from the car's windows and the movement of the train ruined almost all the photos I took the first day. As bad as this photo turned out, I liked the sense of motion and the reflections of my camera and the passengers instead of the lake, my intended target, in the background: Soon we were following the Fraser River, which widened to form several beautiful lakes. As the river entered Fraser Canyon the stream narrowed and created Hell's Gate, a tremendous torrent which few boats are able to cross. If the video fails to load in the space below, please click HERE
After a night in Kamloops, we resumed the journey, continuing along the Thompson River. Now I took photos from the observation deck. Despite the movement of the train, some came out very nicely.
In contrast with the hundreds of skies and reflective lakes, contacts with "CRITTERS" were few and far between. On our bus trip on the Icefield Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper, we startled a Black Bear that was eating dandelions along the road. I had to shoot through the curved windshield from the opposite side of the vehicle, and this distorted the only image I obtained: A pair of young Bighorn Sheep blocked the highway, allowing me to get a few shots as well as a video: BIRDS presented few photo opportunities. Black-billed Magpies posed on the hotel grounds at Lake Louise: Another Corvid species, Clark's Nutcrackers, were also noisy visitors around the hotel:
My closest approximation of a MACRO photo during the Canada trip is one that shows colorful river rocks with Victoria Mountain and Glacier in the background, at Lake Louise:
This bona fide macro was taken back in Florida, showing a tiny clump of flowers, about 1.5 inches (4 cm) wide, taken from a distance of only about 3 inches (8 cm) with my PowerShot. It turned out looking like a huge bouquet:
My FENCE photos are both from the Columbia Ice Field glacier area. Here is Mary Lou in the wind and rain with the Athabascan Glacier in the background. We subsequently walked up on the glacier.
I was the only one brave enough to take the Jasper Glacier Skywalk, a glass walkway that looks straight down almost 1000 feet into the valley:
Linking to I Heart Macro by Laura ________________________________________________ Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display ________________________________________________
My weekly potpourri gathered from the archives features... Alaska! CRITTERS: No lack of interesting furry, feathery and finny creatures, all seen in the wild* during various trips to Alaska: Horned Puffin in Resurrection Bay, out of Seward (June, 2011): Sea Otter in Ketchimak Bay, out of Homer (June, 2011): Harbor Seals out of Ketchikan (June, 2014):
A Common Redpoll in Talkeetna (June 2011): Black Bear eating grass, out of Ketchikan (June 2014): Had to dig deeply in the archives to find this scanned photo of a Grizzly (Alaskan Brown Bear) in Denali National Park that I took with my little 35 mm film camera before I even knew about DSLR (August, 1996). Note that the poor bear has had an encounter with a Porcupine and its face is full of quills. I wonder whether it survived:
*OK, I lied about only including photos from the wild. This bear was in Brookfield Zoo, Chicago, Illinois (August, 2009). I had to show my picture to SOMEONE! Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS, ________________________________________________
FENCES: Look closely-- there is a railing, it should qualify. My photo "oil painting" of an old boat in Hoonah, June, 2014 (click on photo for enlarged images):
There just aren't many fences in wide-open Alaska, but this one is keeping our granddaughters safe, so maybe this will do (June 2014): Linking to GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa).
________________________________________________ SKYWATCH: Departing Ketchikan on a gray day (June 2014): Much nicer sky view from the moving train (June 2014): Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy ________________________________________________
REFLECTION: View from the Alaska Railroad train from Denali to Anchorage-- pardon the blur in the foreground as the train wouldn't stop for me! (June 2014) Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
We love Alaska and have cruised and flown there five or six times. We persuaded our daughter and son-in-law to take a family vacation cruise along with a land tour. They invited us and his parents to join them. It was not a "birding" trip, but rather a great family experience. Of course, I always have an eye out for birds wherever I might go. On day 1 of our Alaska Cruise, we departed Vancouver, Canada and sailed into the night. This is the Vancouver skyline. I really loved the photo opportunity presented by this lighthouse as a sailboat passed by. It inspired me to render the scene as a painting (thanks to Corel PaintShop Pro): Here is another lighthouse similarly textured: Hundreds of Steller's Sea Lions crowded on these rocks just past the above lighthouse as we steamed into the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. This was taken at about 9:30 PM as the Summer Solstice approached. The sky remained deep blue all night. A poor shot of a Pelagic Cormorant: Rhinoceros Auklets typically fly in single file. They are stocky short-winged alcids with heavy and often light-colored bills. A few days later, in Seward, we would get close-up looks at them in the Alaska SeaLife Center.
Pigeon Guillemots flew away as the ship approached. From our balcony 9 stories high, we caught only passing shots. At Alaska SeaLife Center, the birds were wild caught or raised in captivity. They wandered and flew freely in a large aviary. Here is a better look at Pigeon Guillemots.
The next day we cruised the Inside Passage, which weaves its way among the islands that lie just off the Pacific coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. On Day #3 of our Alaskan cruise we arrived in Ketchikan early in the morning and enjoyed mostly clear skies. Our son-in-law Roly and his dad left on a deep sea fishing trip at 6:00 AM, and the rest of us boarded a coastal wildlife cruise. Unfortunately, its main targets were large furry and feathered creatures and provided only fleeting opportunities to photograph waterfowl, most of which I missed as the catamaran moved along at cruising speed. All three wildlife excursions out of our first stops should have carried a warning "We do not brake for birds!" Ketchikan harbor: Here are Mary Lou and I departing on the wildlife cruise, heading out with our daughter and her mother-in-law and our two granddaughters. Our ship, "The Radiance of the Seas," is in the background. Many eagles were roosting along the shore, exploiting the numerous schools of herring. The salmon run had not yet begun. This sub-adult Bald Eagle retains a dark eye stripe and its tail is not completely white.. It is probably four years old. Two Adult Bald Eagles faced each other on the shore. We saw many immature Bald Eagles in various plumage phases. These are probably in their third year (about two years old). Their bills are beginning to turn yellow. We drew close to a group of Harbor Seals. They eyed us warily. I got off three shots of this pair of alcids as they were disappearing in the wake of our boat. Their brown color and short bills suggested they were Marbled Murrelets, confirmed when viewed on the computer screen. Several Red-legged Kittiwakes foraged along the rocky shoreline. This was my first "lifer" of the trip. I was lucky to get a shot of these Surf Scoters while everyone else was looking for bears. Our daughter spotted this mother Black Bear with her cub just as the captain was about to depart. To me they appeared to be just rocks until they moved. We were able to get within a few hundred yards and watched them grazing. Mother bear munching on grass. We saw two Sitka Deer, a "black-tailed" species related to the Mule Deer. They had long shaggy coats and appeared to be shedding fur. Departing Ketchikan. Next stop: Icy Straits and the port city of Hoonah. We arrived back in Florida this afternoon and I put this post together past my normal bedtime, but my OCD would not allow me skip a weekly edition!
Visit these links to view the entire series of blogs on this Alaska trip:
