This is a summer view of the rivers in Talkeetna, Alaska from the railway bridge. The town of Talkeetna is to the left in this view, as is the Talkeetna beach area. The bridge is over the Talkeetna River, and the much larger Susitna River is crossing from right to left in front of me.
Keep right ... if you can. Deep snow on the drive to Seward, Alaska, March, 2010.
Meanwhile in Fairbanks, Alaska, it’s -26 degrees this morning with a heat index that’s also at -26. There will be lots of sunshine today, with a high of -6. The Sun rises at 8:04am, and sets at 6:03pm. This image is from the Fairbanks, Alaska Arctic Cam, a product of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner newspaper.
The solitude of hiking in Alaska. This photo was taken in the Kenai Peninsula, near Seward.
This is a photo of a day tour boat in Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska
Once upon a time I came across same killer whales (orcas) in Alaska, off the coast of Seward.
I’m not sure what the proper term is for this effect, but there is (was) a glacier on the other side of this mountain in Seward, Alaska, and the resulting “cloud” came pouring in over the mountaintop one day when I was there.
The sign pretty much says it all: Cheap beer, lousy food. This sign is from a restaurant in Seward, Alaska.
February 24, 2020: Per the Anchorage Daily News, Donald Trump, Jr. has a license to kill grizzly bears in northern Alaska.
The Flying Squirrel Bakery/Cafe in Talkeetna, Alaska opened right before I moved away from Talkeetna. I used to go there for a cup of coffee while I was writing, and they also served some excellent brick oven pizza. It’s one of the rare restaurants that isn’t in the downtown Talkeetna area. If you’re leaving town, it’s a few miles down the road on your left hand side.
Photos of mom and cub polar bears. I hoped O’Reilly would use these for the cover of the Scala Cookbook — because of the whole “scalable” thing, and to help raise awareness about climate change — but whoever puts images on their book covers had something else in mind.
Back in July, 2017, a bear walked into a liquor store in Juneau, Alaska. On the video it seems to be trying to decide which candy bar it wants.
Here’s another view of Denali from the rivers in Talkeetna in mid-September. As I always add, Denali is at least 60-70 miles away in this photo.
When I lived in Alaska I was told that you can only see Denali one day out of every eight, so visitors only have ~12.5% chance of seeing it. I was fortunate to live there and see it many times.
(Not to be doubly morbid this morning, but that’s the river I’d like my ashes thrown into.)
Never stayed in a roadhouse before, pretty interesting. You can walk in off the street and buy a shower for $4. Setup is communal, like a hostel.
(a diary note from my first stay at the Talkeetna Roadhouse, October 21, 2010)
A few September colors from Talkeetna, Alaska. If you take a left at that red bush and go ~100-200 yards, that’s where I’d like to have my ashes scattered when my number comes up. (That thought is brought to you by this morning’s chest pain.)
Here’s a photo of three ravens surrounding a car in the snow in Wasilla, Alaska, on December 7, 2010. As I’ve written before, in many places they don’t plow the snow too hard in Alaska.
What happens at the motor home stays at the motor home. (I don’t think I want to know what happens in the motor home.)
Sign in a store window, Palmer, Alaska.
“Parhelions, more commonly known as sun dogs or mock suns, appear as fuzzy rainbows or bright spots in the sky ‘dogging’ the Sun. You are most likely to see a sun dog in the morning or afternoon during the winter. Records of this phenomena date all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. Famous Ancient Greek philosophers Cicero and Aristotle even made mention of sun dogs.”
(I’m pretty sure I made the photo from Google image search results, but I don’t remember where I got that text. I posted this on Facebook on November 23, 2013.)
Back on the first day of June, 2007, I moved to Talkeetna, Alaska, and just a few days after I moved into my cabin, a huge fire that was larger than cities like Louisville, Kentucky or Denver, Colorado, started to the west of Talkeetna. I took this photo at the top of the hill that overlooks Talkeetna.
I can’t remember the name of the motel where I saw this, but this is a photo of a painting of sled dogs that I came across in Healy, Alaska, just north of Denali. (I remember the motel because I used to work with a nice guy named Carson, and a guy that could have easily passed as his twin brother worked there.)
