Katmai National Park and Preserve

Travel Photo Challenge Day 3

I’ve been nominated by some fellow bloggers, Tony and Margie with Back Roads and Other Stories as well as Jyothi with Travel Explore Enjoy, to post one favorite travel picture a day for ten days without explanation, then to nominate someone else to participate.  That’s 10 days, 10 travel pictures, and 10 nominations.  It is my understanding that the idea behind the challenge is to expose audiences to new bloggers and vice versa.  I’m always up for helping fellow bloggers, so I have accepted the challenge. 

That said, my rule following self is going to follow Tony and Margie’s lead and break a handful of them.  First, while a picture paints a 1,000 words, I’m incapable of posting a photo without some explanation.  Sometimes the story makes the image that much more special.  Second, though not specified, I think the intent is to post 10 days in a row.  I’ll be lucky if I post 10 weeks in a row.

TAKE THE CHALLENGE!

From Cooper Landing to Homer, Alaska

After a day of crummy salmon fishing in Cooper Landing (try trout fishing on the upper Kenai instead), I planned a leisurely day of driving from Cooper Landing to Homer with scenic stops along the way.  Very close to Cooper Landing is the East entrance to Skilak Lake Road, an 18-mile gravel road which travels through Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

EXPLORE!

A Day Trip to Seward

After our backpacking trip and time in Anchorage, Ross and I went to Cooper Landing for a day of fishing and then to Seward for a day of sight seeing.  While very nice, if there were a next time, I’d just go straight to Homer as similar activities may be found in Homer including bear watching which makes for less moving around.

Having said that, we took the scenic hour drive from Cooper Landing to Seward in the rain and entertained ourselves with a short hike and a six hour boat tour. Continue reading “A Day Trip to Seward”

A Day Hike to Crow Pass

Crow Pass and Eagle River Traverse was supposed to be our next 26-mile backpacking trip in Alaska.  The rain forecast, however, precluded us from completing this as our gear was still soaked from our Resurrection Pass backpacking trip for the last four days and it was supposed to continue for the next three.  We needed time to dry out our stuff which wasn’t in the plan, so we made a new one.

Instead of backpacking and crossing the river, we took a day hike up to the pass to view the nearby glacier.  I think a day hike turned out to be a better option as I later found out from my fishing guide that he thought the river might have been too dangerous to cross with all the rain.  The trip was planned in August which we knew was the rainy season to give the river time to drop from all the snow melt, but it has been an overly rainy/windy season for Alaska this year. Continue reading “A Day Hike to Crow Pass”

Top Things to Do in Talkeetna

With our second backpacking trip aborted due to so much rain, we spent the next three days taking day trips from Anchorage.  Our first day trip was to Talkeetna, approximately 2.5 hours away unless they are doing road construction in the summer which makes the trip over 3 hours.  An alternative to driving is taking the train, though it is very slow moving. Continue reading “Top Things to Do in Talkeetna”