Alaska in February

[rockysummit]

Wow, pretty cool trip! Headed to Fairbanks for my son's wedding, sightseeing and such. Visited Denali NP area couple days, Chena Hot Springs area and everything in between. We saw plenty of wildlife including moose, caribou, wolves, and photographed most. Only sleeping grizzlies and the cautious wolves avoided our cameras. Definately have to return in summer with a lot more than 1 week to spend! Here are some of the pics I took. http://good-times.webshots.com/album/557744979EmFIgJ

[AlpineSummit]

WoW - I'm sooooo jealous!
Thanks for sharing. I'm eating my heart out, but thanks just the same.

[Snickers]

wow, those kids all look like you Tony. :) Great pics, thanks for sharing. :tup: Someday I hope to get to Alaska. Enjoy!!!

Cindy

[1ADAM12]

Awesome Pics thanks!!!

[rockysummit]

Thanks all, it was awesome. The abundance of wildlife was really something. There are moose tracks everywhere. I followed some tracks through the snow that just plowed over and through super thick brush, areas I would never think an animal could penetrate. We also found some skimpy remains of a caribou (fur, back, neck and ears) probably left by wolves. If you are a hunter, Alaska is the place to be.

[Jay H]

I have a picture of me with a half-set of moose antlers with one huge section chomped on by a bear or so. The half pair itself must of weighed like 25lbs.. it was huge, I never found the other half though. This was by the Sanctuary River in Denali NP the time my friend and I had a backcountry pass for that... It is a very cool state and you never have to travel far to find moose. My good friend in Anchorage always sends me pictures of moose in her backyard which is right off of downtown Anchorage... They have problems with Moose invading hosipitals, stores, homes, etc.

Jay

[pudgy_groundhog]

Fantastic pictures! Looks like you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing!

[hermit]

Tony,that looks like a place I can fall in love with very easily.
Thank's for sharing your photos.The farthest west I will be this year is Oregon,but someday I will have to go north and visit Alaska.:tup:

[mudhook]

Tony, you will have to bring the pictures up with you next time, I just can't download them on this 20 kbs dial up. The few I looked at are great.:tup: thanks.

[rockysummit]

Hey Ralph, you definately wouldn't want to leave...Hey Jim, you mean I finally figured out (with a ton of help from Nicole) how to get some shots on line, and after hiking and carrying about 80,000 pounds of camera gear over the years, that you CAN'T see them??? Not a problem, I'll be bringing up pics! Thinking of Black Head or Balsam for Saturday if you can make it. Talk to you later.
-Tony

[judgeh]

I thoroughly enjoyed my three weeks in AK in the summer of 2000. Mountains, grizzlies, mountains, moose, more mountains. I'd go back in a flash..looks like not a lot of snow on the ground...thank you for the photographs.

[rockysummit]

Three weeks sounds more like it! The park ranger told us they had record temps 2 weeks before we arrived. Low 50's with quite a bit of snow melt. Unbelievable.

[judgeh]

I've heard that AK has been undergoing some environmental stress in recent years...melting glaciers, melting permafrost, etc., etc. Not a good thing!

[judgeh]

I'm hoping to return in a year or two...before this old man gets too old to hike!

[rockysummit]

I read in the paper up there that some very small town was being invaded by a Canadian company looking to mine coal. The 100 or so town folk complained of environmental issues including loss of moose, the main food source to help these people exist. I guess there's problems everywhere.

[judgeh]

and that pipeline is simply the purtiest thing...fits right in!!!

[kwc]

you hit a warm spell up there didn't ya? hahahahahaaha ...

yesterday's high in Fairbanks was -13, the low -39 ... forecasted lows for tonight and tomorrow are -45.

we learned after our first trip up there that one week just wasn't enough time ... we managed two weeks last summer but we're limited by my wife's "lack" of vacation time.

[rockysummit]

I'm in the same boat myself...maybe I can sneak away.