Traveling with the Stanfords 2025

Alaska Bears   Kenai Peninsula Denali National Park   Alaska Highways Haines   End of Vacation  

Wow, what a trip!! The Alaskan license plate on their cars says “ Alaska- the last frontier” and that just about sums it up. Everywhere you go in Alaska you are surrounded by beautiful mountains. There is wildlife everywhere but not always immediately visible. Alaska is so big that the wildlife has plenty of room to move around; however, it is everywhere. We saw some beautiful moose right in a forested part of Anchorage.  Alaska is a total outdoor environment. That is why people live there. They love the outdoors. If you are into cities that is not the state to move to. When we were in Anchorage we went to REI ( an outdoor gear store ) and that particular day REI was having a sale and the entire parking lot was full. The hunting and gun culture is alive and well in Alaska. The tip off was seeing trucks full with dead animals and antlers sticking out. We also noticed as we were driving around that practically all the road signs had bullet holes in them. Sara asks me “what’s up with...

We reached Haines late Monday evening after a relaxing four hour ferry ride. We got up early on Tuesday morning and met with Ron Horn who is a minister in Haines and also is a superb photographer. Ron spent the morning showing us around Haines and pointing out all the hot spots for photography.  Haines is famous for their eagle populations especially in November when the chum salmon make their final run up the Chilkat River. What we did not know was all the other photo opportunities in Haines . They have a very good bear population and the scenics are fabulous when the weather is good. So we were lucky enough to see quite a few eagles and bears. Unfortunately, the weather was somewhat cloudy, windy and rainy during our visit so there were no scenic opportunities. However we found plenty to do.  Haines is a cool town. It has a permanent population of around 1,600, a little more in the summer. It is only 39 miles from the Canadian border, and Tuesday we took a drive up to...

We had problems uploading these photos of the float planes we saw in Juneau, so here they are now.  

On Friday we drove the Denali Highway from the west Parks Highway, to the east Richardson Highway. The views were beautiful with the fall colors coming on strong and the tundra turning red. We also found a very cooperative eagle that let us get very close for photographs.  The drive took us over seven hours since we could only go 25-35 mph and made numerous stops to take pictures. The road was in good condition for a gravel road, although with the rain and dust we totally covered the car in mud. Hunting season has started, and the road was full of hunters on ATVs, consequently we didn’t see any moose who wisely were hiding.  The next day we drove down the Glenn highway and decided to stop at the Matanuska Glacier. The Glacier is massive and very cool but looks somewhat dirty from all the glacial debris produced by the glacier. We camped at the glacier for the night, and in the morning walked onto the glacier and hiked around a bit. Then we headed back to Anchorage, managing to...

We just spent four days inside Denali National Park camping at the Wonder Lake Campground which is 87 miles inside the park. It takes a long six hour bus ride to get there along a small gravel road, however the views are gorgeous and usually there is some wildlife along the way. Mount McKinley (called Denali by the Alaskans), is normally only viewable 20% of the time. The mountain is so big (20,320 feet) that it can actually create its own weather system, and is typically obscured by clouds.  Denali has the highest vertical face in the world, even larger than Everest, since the base of the mountain is at 3,000 feet. We were treated to clear views for three days and had beautiful autumn weather, although the temperatures in the tent at night were around 32F.  Here is the link to the photo album: Denali National Park The bugs were pesky; however we got a tip from an Alaskan hunter that if you break off a bush branch and hold it above your head it helps keep the bugs away. We t...

On the way out of Talkeetna we stopped at a lake to take pictures of some float planes. On the spur of the moment we decided to take a scenic flight of Mount McKinley on one of the float planes, the weather was beautiful, and the mountains were all clear, unusual for this area. View of the glaciers Mount McKinley   It was an amazing unforgettable experience. Today we head into the park to Wonder Lake. We have enough food and equipment for weeks, should be a fun experience.

After leaving the bear lodge on Wednesday, we drove down the Kenai Peninsula and found an old historic Russian Orthodox church which was unique and interesting. We then drove down to Homer which is on the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. Homer is the Halibut fishing capital of the world and is a prime spot for eagle photography in the winter, although not many this time of the year.  When we were over at the bear lodge we mentioned to the owner we were going to Homer and were planning on camping on the “Spit” (the beach on the end of the peninsula). He said “oh, you are going to be “Spit Rats “. He was referring to the Hippies that lived on the beach back in the late 60s and early 70s. Apparently they were pretty rowdy and pretty much trashed the place. The Spit Rats are still there but in much smaller quantities.  That night (Wednesday) as we were sleeping in our tent at about 2:30 in the morning we were woken by a bunch of loud, drunk “Spit Rats”. Someone out in the ocean was in ...

We've just finished our last day at this amazing location. Our guide Drew did a wonderful job driving us around and finding bears for us to photograph, he is a Texas boy who grew up in Denton, and moved to Alaska eight years ago. We can't say enough good things about him. We spent most of our time photographing with some lovely New York chaps, and one from San Diego. The whole group was a lot of fun.  As promised here is an album of some of the 4,000 photos John took. You can also see this on the main blog site. C lick on the top slide show button or individual images to see the full size pictures. Alaska Bears   Tomorrow we fly back to the Kenai Peninsula, and then drive to Homer which is on the tip. More to come, John and Sara

We have had an amazing several days photographing bears in Clark National Park. We are staying at Silver Salmon Creek lodge with a great group taking care of us, and have already seen a bunch of bears, some that passed by us within 20 or 30 feet. The bears are mostly fishing for salmon and today we were treated to a fine fishing display by a mother bear, watched closely by her cub. To get here we rode in a Cessna 207, a small six seat plane. Our first flight in Alaska was what we consider to be very sporty, we had to drop off one passenger at another location, and little did we know that we were going to land on a narrow beach next to a cliff, with one wheel in the water and one on the beach. Our landing at the lodge was not quite as exciting, but still on a beach. Yesterday we went to Duck Island and spent several hours photographing Horned Puffins, which are rather colorful exotic birds; it was a very special opportunity. The weather yesterday was beautiful, sunny all day an...

As we flew into Anchorage, looking out of the airplane it was totally overcast to the east, but we could see beautiful totally snow covered peaks sticking above the clouds which reminded us of Nepal. It was a long day of traveling with long delays, missed connections and missing luggage. However we finally made it to Anchorage, have all our gear, and managed a trip to REI. We are off to Soldotna, and will fly to the bear camp tomorrow. Our goals for the vacation are: Don't get mauled by a bear Don't require any medi-vacs or rescues See beautiful Alaska and get lots of good pictures Stay tuned, more to come.

We are struggling with our usual problem, how to make everything fit and still meet the baggage  limits with the airline....      All our clothes fit in the green bag, everything else is equipment, and we still need to add a carry on for John's camera gear.

We leave for Alaska on Thursday, can't wait. We are busily preparing and packing, should be ready in time. John has a few more things to build, including a new light weight carry on suitcase. It gets harder each trip to get all our equipment on boad the plane. Here are our plans: Thursday 21st fly to Anchorage, pickup the car on Friday and drive south to Soldatna Saturday 23rd - Tuesday 26th - Bear photography at Silver Salmon Creek lodge http://www.silversalmoncreek.com/ Wednesday 27th - Sunday 31st - drive up to Denalia National Park, with a definite stop in Talkeetna. http://www.alaskatravel.com/talkeetna/ Monday Sept 1st - Friday 5th - camping in Denali at Wonderlake Campground http://www.nps.gov/dena/ Sunday Sept 8th - fly to Juneau, and take the four hour ferry to Haines Tuesday 9th - Thur 11th - hang out in Haines and photograph the eagles. Friday 12th - Final trip home to Dallas We don't know what sort of Internet access we will have on the trip, but plan to try and upd...