This photograph shows the massive scar across this beautiful girls face. I wonder how she came by such a wound. Was it an unfortunate encounter with a car, a fence, tree, or perhaps she received the injury defending her calf from another of gods creatures that just trying to survive in this never-ending circle of life. Circles within circles.
So today, I will end our weeklong journey to Alaska, with another photo of the moose that started this topic last Wednesday.
Same moose just with a new perspective.
The object of many myths and legends, this bird is highly intelligent, fairly social toward humans, and can sometimes seem downright arrogant in his bold behavior. The Raven can be found in many creation stories throughout history, including the bible, in which it says that Noah sent a raven off after the floods to see if the waters had gone down. The raven never returned.
Yet they are still here, so my guess would be that he probably found Alaska.
Stories of this bird, good and bad, can be found throughout the world.
However, to the native people of Alaska, the Raven plays an important role and I was honored to photograph this bird while there.
Due to popular demand, I am posting my last Coastal Brown Bear Photo today! The photograph below is of our 9 yr old son sitting next to a bear track for perspective reasons. If you click on the picture you will notice the ENORMITY of the track.
( it really is a word, I looked it up 
)
) this also appears to be a “front” foot!!
I am greatful that we did not encounter the owner of this track!
To pick up the story where I left of in Matriarch, We spent the afternoon in Homer; we walked the spit and saw the beautiful Seafarer’s Memorial. I had watched a special about it on television once, and had no idea that it was there, but remembered if instantly when I saw it. On our return trip to Soldotna, we drove a few back roads just to check out the country. We somehow ended up in a little Russian Village at the end of a dirt road. The country surrounding this community was covered in the soft lavender colors from the wild flowers. In this little town was an old Russian Orthodox Church that they were restoring. The bright colors in this wild landscape were fantastic.
Early the next morning we headed back to the airport and, to me, began our most memorable day yet. After fueling the (6-seat) bush plane, we were once again in the air. We flew out from Soldotna; I could not tell you which direction we went, with no sunset or rise, for me it was impossible to tell. We flew over the oil platforms in the ocean and got a brief lesson from the pilot as to the sheer volume of oil each of these platforms contains. Then we left civilization, I was thrilled as we flew over the flats before the mountain and began to see bear. I tried real hard to snap some pictures out the window, but the camera and plane movement made it almost impossible. There were a few old fishing shacks scattered here and there along the shore, and then our pilot said that he wanted to show us something special, the tide was out and as we flew along, we could see that the shore was dotted with coastal brown bear. What a cool sight to see such massive creatures out digging in the damp sand for clams. I still get chills just thinking about it. The pilot then turned the plane and lid on the beach! We walked around by the plane collecting seashells of every size, shape and color. We filled our pockets with these treasures emptied some only to replace them with different ones. We continued on a well-worn trail that led away from the beach and came to an area that had logs laid out for seats. There were three fantastic bear in near vicinity to this observation spot and several more in the distance. This particular one got quite close and as he watched us from the corner of his eye, I could see him sniffing. (The better to smell you with my dear LOL) We left this area and flew to a less “occupied” stretch of sand were we had our own lunch. I will forever be grateful to the pilot for taking this family of strangers with him to discover a part of Alaska that otherwise we would have never been blessed to see. Moreover, for helping to show a child that his dreams are reachable.
I have to say that this is probably on of the most massive and magnificent creatures I have ever been honored to see. This HUGE whale and her calf were feeding in the inlet that we spent the night in. We saw and heard her blow many times in the distance throughout the night. However, the next morning as we were moving I spotted her surface out in front of the boat, and the captain stopped so that we could watch from a safe distance. It was absolutely awe inspiring to watch mother and calf together as they fed. So indescribably huge, yet still dwarfed by the sheer immensity of the ocean around us.
I have to confess that I don’t recall if this was a gray, or a humpback, our captain told us, but I was so enthralled I don’t remember, and looking it up on the Internet didn’t help me out either.
A steady drizzling rain fell from the sky, but even that could not come close to dampening our spirits. After all, we were in ALASKA! A life long dream for many, we finally made it. Our children were euphoric, and running unknown reserves, as our bodies hadn’t yet adjusted to this land of the midnight sun. We had arrived in Anchorage 3 days ago spent one night out on the ocean fishing in a 28-foot catamaran. We saw otter, dolphin, various sea birds, and Bald eagles fishing alongside the boat, Whales, Black bear on the shoreline somewhere along Prince William Sound, and had a (pack? School?) of orca come in and take the salmon that we were fishing, they were so fantastic, and their hunting style reminded me of a pack of wolves calculating and efficient in the hunt.
Not two hours ago we found ourselves in a bush plane flying over the most fantastic country that I have ever set eyes on.( An I have seen some pretty fantastic places) Hundreds upon hundreds of miles of tundra and up and over the icy blue glaciers. I have seen all this on TV but the country has a spirit and a feel that you truly cannot imagine until you have been there and experienced it. It becomes a part of who you are. The pilot took us south to the beautiful little town of Seldovia where we had lunch and then my son was allowed to to “pilot” the plane 150 miles back to the airport. His dream of becoming a bush pilot now fueled from a spark into a roaring inferno. Our feet back on the ground we are off to see the famous Homer Spit. We spotted this beautiful cow moose feeding alongside the highway with her calf. I was shocked at their shear mass, I am no stranger to wildlife, but the body size of these magnificent creatures is astounding in comparison to our own Shiras Moose. The calf, body wise, was nearly the size of an adult cow moose back at home. I captured this photo and a few more of this protective mother before I decided that I had better move on before I tried her patients too far and became just one more item of mulch in this vegetation rich land. Didn’t get any post worthy photos of the calf, but have the image clearly engrained in my memory.
