Lewk's Photos

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Rugged Up

This goat is sufficiently rugged up to survive the harsh Yukon winters.

Foxes and Wolves

Again from the sanctuary near Whitehorse, an Arctic fox and a red fox.

More Whitehorse Non-Horses

The brown blobs in the distance are enormous bison.

She's happy to see me.

Arctic Critters

These little rodents from north of Whitehorse in the Yukon are perhaps ground squirrels. But who can say for sure?

Monday, October 26, 2015

One Fine Day

Most of my first fortnight in Alaska and the Yukon was under rainy skies. But it did clear up for one day in the Yukon, allowing glimpses of the distant mountains.

The road from Tok to Chicken in Alaska is known as the Taylor Highway, but is more accurately nicknamed the Top of the World Highway. Although we weren't allowed to take our rental car all the way to Chicken (since we couldn't take the unsealed section), we did have time to drive a few hours along it. Despite it being August, the autumn colours at this altitude and latitude were already evident.

Crazy Sheep

Click on this photo to zoom in and you'll see the crazy dall sheep on the side of this mountain in the Yukon. At the ranger station, they had set up binoculars and telescopes to allow us to view them from a distance.

Chocolate Moose

Heading east into the Yukon, moose families were seen crossing the road.

Still in Fairbanks

Below is the main shopping centre in the city centre, with its 21 shops, restaurant and fountain.

The sign indicates this is or was a motel.

Fairbanks Timewarp

Visiting the northern city of Fairbanks was a journey back in time. Buildings were out of the 1960s. Even the poshest hotel in town was straight out of the 1970s, with its posh restaurant having a menu seemingly unchanged since that decade.

Musk Oks

At a university large animal research station, we met a musk-ox, standing in its water trough to keep cool on a warm 10 degree day.

Bus

Taking the National Park ranger tour on their ancient bus was the only way into the park. They even supplied us all with a lunchbox, with nuts and beef jerky.

Caribooo !

And here's a Denali caribou.

Denali National Park

On day 2 of my Alaskan roadtrip, I reached Denali National Park. The landscape was stark and barren, but the lack of vegetation did allow frequent wildlife sightings. Here a golden eagle swoops on a grizzly bear.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

More Aurora

By popular demand, here are more of my aurora borealis snaps. The bright light in the bottom one is the rising moon. In Alaska, the ice in the atmosphere seems to add a diffuse appearance to the moon.

Back from the Arctic

My arctic expedition is now over, and despite the jetlag lingering, I've had time to process most of my thousands of photos. The highlight of the whole trip, and the most wondrous scene I've ever witnessed was the appearance of the northern lights. Here are some photos I took from off the coast of Alaska. Luckily the conditions were dead calm, otherwise the long exposure (8 seconds) would have resulted in blurriness.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Cute as a ...

... button mushroom.

This one resembles a plush red velvet button.

More Bunkery Bayness

Bunker Bay

What a perfect place for a picnic.

Mammoth Cave

Visiting Mammoth Cave last weekend was awe inspiring, but disappointing at the same time. When I visited with school-friends a quarter of a century ago, we were at liberty to explore the caverns on our own. We borrowed the key from the ranger and unlocked the gates, and wandered in any direction that took our fancy. We turned off the tourist lights and relied on our torches, and headed into small crevices ever downward, in search of a route down to an underground stream, and then a alternative way out. We spent half a day in there, but never did find that way out, but it was ten times more involving that merely walking along the official path. It's a shame that those days are over.