Scavenger Hunt: July 2015 ~ Alaska and the Inside Passage

I'm sorry I missed June's scavenger hunt,
I didn't get the post finished before a long trip
to isolated places with questionable or no internet.

Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
See the splash from ice breaking off the glacier.
You can hear the ice crackling and popping as it moves!

I hope that these past two months 
have been good ones
and that you've had lots of fun
hunting down photographs!

Yours Truly Caught in the Act

by my niece Heather in June

Plains Conservation Center, Aurora, Colorado

1.  D is for Denali

 Tundra in Denali National Park and Preserve

Scratch off another bucket list item!

I made it to Denali National Park and Preserve

in the interior of Alaska.

It's hard to imagine the sheer size of this wilderness

with 6,000,000 acres or 24,500 square kilometers

of taiga, tundra, and glaciers.

Denali is magnificent!

Wikimedia

skole.hr

The Taiga Forest in Denali

The Polychrome Glaciers in Denali

Everyone wants to see animals in Denali.

We saw grizzly bears, dall sheep, and caribou,

but most of them were quite far away.

Caribou 

Mount McKinley

Mount McKinley is the highest mountain in North America

with an elevation of 20,237 feet or 6,618 meters.

It is the largest mountain in the world entirely above sea level

with a base-to-peak rise of about 18,000 feet or 5,500 meters.

Wikipedia

2.  Wide

Wide Waters on the Inside Passage

More Wide Waters on the Inside Passage

Sailing through the Inside Passage 

from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seward, Alaska

was spectacular!

We were able to move through the narrow Grenville Channel

which squeezes to a width of 1400 feet or 427 meters.

bcferries.com

Moving Into Narrow Waters on the Inside Passage

Grenville Channel, British Columbia

Inside Passage

3.  Edge

Denali Road on the Edge

To drive more than 14 miles or 24 kilometers into Denali,

you have to ride a Tundra Wilderness or other bus.

Negotiating zigzagging, narrow, dirt roads

overlooking steep drop-offs in a bus

is a scary experience if you don't like heights!

I couldn't look out the window when I took these photos,

I just held my camera by it and clicked!

Braided Rivers Loaded with Glacial Sediments

  

4.  Cylindrical

Seward Coal Loading Facility

When I see something interesting,

I want to know what it is and how it works.

This long cylinder moves coal on a conveyor belt

where it is loaded into the holds of coal transport ships.

Railcars bring coal to the facility.

It is stockpiled and then moved to a transport ship

when one arrives at the port.   
alaskarailroad.com

Since no coal transport ship was at the port, 
I used a Flickr photo to show the ship loader at work.

Loading a Coal Transport Ship
Flickr:  Tom Brady Edited   License

5.  Feelings

Trippy Feeling

What a triply feeling it is to ride 1800 feet or 550 meters

up the side of Mount Roberts in Juneau, Alaska!

If you ride the cable car, you land at a restaurant, theater, 

shops, nature center, and hiking trails about halfway

up the 3,819 foot or 1,164 meter Mount Roberts.

One popular hike is to Father Brown's Cross.

In 1906 Father Brown, a Jesuit priest and avid hiker in Juneau,

began building a trail up Mount Roberts with other volunteers.

They finished in 1908 and erected the cross 

to commemorate the trail's completion.

The original cross has been replaced a number of times.

This is one of my first attempts

to take a selfie with my camera.
More practice needed!

6.  Mysterious

Bridge Windows on the Zaandam

I longed to see what went on behind 

the mysterious windows of the bridge.

It would be such fun to tour it.

I found some stairs that led to a window

where I could peek inside,

but a smiling sailor inside chased me away.

 

Bears on the Bridge

7.  Weed

Clover in Ketchikan

Fireweed on the Way to Denali

        

8.  Joke

Creek Street, Ketchikan

9.  Pile

Shavings Pile Up on a Carver's Floor
Potlatch Park, Ketchikan

10.  Speed

A Float Plane Gathers Speed for Take-Off
Ketchikan, Alaska

11.  Night

 A Ship Passes in the Night

At the beginning of July this far north,

the night sky doesn't get completely dark

although the sun does dip below the horizon.

12.  Whatever You Want

The Elephant in the Room

Towel Elephant on the Zaandam

Breathtaking Glacier Bay

An Eagle in Glacier Bay

Tidewater Glacier

Happy hunting in August! 

August's List:

Walk,  Horizontal,  Square,  Diversity,  Rough,  Bow,  Joy
Forgotten,  Crowd,  Colourless,  Friendly,  Whatever you want

Thanks to Jill (Greenthumb) 

and her Made with Love blog 

for setting up the scavenger hunt.