National Parks – Page 5

#32 Chunk, #747, and Other Fat Bears

September 28, 2023uniquelytheo1 Comment

Our second day was the day that was, for me, the most highly anticipated of all of the adventures awaiting us. We would take a float plane over to Brooks Camp at Katmai National Park and Preserve where we would spend the day bear viewing and photographing some of those notorious Brown Bears (grizzlies) pigging out on salmon in preparation for a winter of hibernation and generally hanging out in their natural environment.

Heading South out of Port Alsworth in our float plane of the day, despite it being a relatively cloudy day, the cloud cover was high enough and we were definitely flying low enough to have excellent vistas . Heading out of Port Alsworth we were soon winging our way over the Newhalen River and Lake Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska (77 miles long and 22 miles wide). The boreal forest of spruce and birch and the alpine tundra and in this area had a stark beauty with it’s colorful low-lying shrubs, mosses and lichen; areas of marshes, bogs, mossy terrain worthy of championship status , and lakes I would best describe as a waterlogged masterpiece of an earthscape.

Arriving at Brooks camp around 11:00, upon exiting the plane , we were advised to not head to the park headquarters via the beach trail because of a grizzly, loitering on the beach enjoying the lake vista. Once we completed the orientation at the headquarters, used the restroom facilities, and consumed our sack lunches which were prepared per our order the previous evening, we made our way to boardwalk platforms for our first up close and though not too personal encounter with some of ursine residents of of Katmai. Since this is almost the end of the season feeding frenzy, the number of bears was considerably less than in the peak months of July and August. The upside of this is that the number of human non-residents interlopers is quite low and thus no massive lines and long waits to be on the platforms enjoying the bears. Our guide said that at times in the summer there is a 3 hour wait and time-limits to be on the viewing platforms. We thoroughly enjoyed observing the bears swimming, dunking, water-walking, scavenging, submerging, and even doing a little bit of fishing in the area. By this time most of the bears have reached a high enough level of fat stores to see them through the winter hibernation and are heading into the forest to much on berries and other forest delicacies for the minerals and other nutrients they need as well.

Perhaps you have heard of the grizzlies of Katmai. The Fat Bear Week celebration has made the national news and is a fun way to celebrate the end of the season of gorging on salmon. There is high concentration of salmon in the falls area so it draws a large number of bears to it. In direct contrast to the human beauty contests which prize leanness and minimal body fat, we are celebrating these bears success to hopefully ensure their survival over the winter. People get to vote for their favorite chubby bear who has packed on the pounds before their long winter nap. Why do we as humans not celebrate our accomplishment when we pack on the pounds whether on a vacation or just have been enjoying the plentitude of food be it gourmet or fast food.

As I watched these bears such words as cute, adorable, playful came to mind but had of course needed to remind my self of the lethality that they pose if I were to jump down and try to pet or swim with the bears like I swam with the dolphins. By the way, though at times I take significant personal risks, this DID NOT enter my mind as a real possibility. Soon it was time to hike the one mile trail up to Brooks Falls where the iconic picture of bears feeding is Brook Falls is taken.

Here again, at Brooks Falls there were only a few bears but it definitely just as satisfying as if there had been a dozen plus. I have two favorites which both have been winners in the past. Chunk (#32) and #747.

Chunk is a very large adult male and quite the bully. He has a very impressive scar across his muzzle so he is easily recognizable. I had read that Chunk is consistently one of the largest and, definitely from my observation, the most dominant bears at the falls and that was the case on this day. It has been estimated that he tips the scales at 1,200 lbs before the lazy days of winter. He was determined to have sole proprietorship of the falls this day. He would chase off any other bear hoping to join the salmon feast. He frequently occupies probably the best fishing spots mid-stream and occupied the same spot and another one closer to the shore for the extent of time we observed him. Despite his fishing skills, he resolutely challenged any other bear who wished to also enjoy a prime fishing spot.. The uncanny part of this is that he did not seem to be too interested in serious fishing (he did not catch a the salmon during my observation period) despite watching many salmon leaping up the falls to reach their spawning ground, but was playfully performing for the spectator by making a pretense at it all the while playing “I am king of the castle…” He did some spectacular belly flops in his faux fishing regime.

Chunk

#747

#747 is know as the largest bear to inhabit the Brooks River and charmed the masses in 2020 to vote him the winner of chunkiest of the chunky. Thus he is quite stocky and recognizable by his size, more “dainty” short muzzle, ragged ear and a dark brown coat. It has been said that the has quite assertive disposition and he has been at the top of the hierarchy at Brooks Falls.

Bears establish a hierarchy and the most dominant bears get the best fishing spots. But Chunk had the upper hand this day. Like our human counterparts, size alone can be intimidating and bears like 747’s with its size alone will find most bears to yielding their space to a behemoth like 747. I find it curious that on this day Chunk was the heir to the throne at least for today . I definitely will vote for Chunk if he becomes one of the elected contestants in fat bear week.

Though I was dazzled by the star bears, there were many other who were just going on doing what bears do best…fish!!! Of course these bears are quite habituated to having a paying audience . Though there is no entrance fee, to get to Katmai one must shell out considerable dollars as it is only accessible by float planes or boats. At times, I would swear these massive “teddies” were putting on a show but most likely they were just being their cute growly selves swimming, slogging and prancing about.

I definitely hated to depart but but it was time to make the return flight back to Port Elsworth on Lake Clark. We were supposed to flight-see the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes but it was fogged in and the weather was deteriorating so we flew directly back to the Lodge with the landscape below partially shrouded with fog. and hauntingly beautiful.

The wind -up to this peak life experience was a beautiful sunset of pastel hues over Lake Clark.

Nature’s Skyscrapers, Liquid Turquoise, and Amphibious Planes

September 18, 2023uniquelytheo2 Comments

Most adventures that I blog include the task of getting there. Sometimes it is a tedious repetitive activity to be endured and other times it’s a stand alone episode. An so I begin the story of the latest venture in my quest to visit all of the National Parks in the USA, and in this case Lake Clark NP and Katmai NP (#53 and #54). My daughter, Tasia flew into Kenai AK and we spent three days packing up my household goods into a very tall U-Box to be shipped to Oregon and I bade farewell to my Alaska Homestead feeling more relief rather than sadness. Part of the “grande finale” of living on the Kenai for 5 summers was taking the time to comb Kenai Beach and the beach at Captain Cook State Recreation Area with Tasia, an avid rock and fossil connoisseur. The beach is littered with immense boulders that were dropped by melting glaciers. They dot the beach and mud flats offshore. A clutter, tumble and tangle of of colored rocks, of varying shades of red, green, yellow, clear, black and granite carpet the beach. The 50-60 foot eroded cliffs and the walled “canyons” that cut through the mudflats near the river outlet add a raw beauty to this area. The view of Aleutian Range of mountains across Cook Inlet is breathtaking and at that point, I did not know with a couple days I would be circling those behemoths in a float plane. This was a fitting preface for the explorations awaiting us.

We headed up to Anchorage the night before as it was a holiday week-end and I had an immense fear of a major accident closing the Sterling Highway, the only road off the Kenai Peninsula and not being able to get to Merrill Field in Anchorage for a departure the following afternoon. The next morning after one night in a shabby hotel (seems to be more and more of them since COVID all over the place.) We discussed our options for the day until our appointed arrival time at Merrill Field. Having no interest in the Anchorage city scape or shopping ops, we chose to hike the trail to Thunderbird Falls north of Anchorage. The one-mile undulating trail to Thunderbird Falls traverses a lichen and fungi enriched birch forest along the Eklutna River canyon with steep cliffs on both sides of the gorge to a deck with views of this 200-foot waterfall. The view of the falls from the overlook was not particularly impressive in my mind because the platform is quite a distance away. There was no keen sense of the power of the water cascading over the falls but it was a lovely hike.

Our more adventure spirits took us down a side trail into the canyon, hopefully to the base of the falls. It was a suitably muddy, tripping root, somewhat steep traverse . What a downer at the bottom as I would have had to climb into the frigid rushing water making my way upstream on the slick rocks to the get close enough to the base of the falls to experience the chilly spray of Thunderbird Creek or get a unlimited view of the entire cascade. Camera zooms definitely create the illusion in my photo of one being in the spray zone of the falls. Since this hike was not a time trial to be annotated in a log book but a leisurely stroll, taking time to appreciate and to explore nature’s passion for multifarious life forms was pure pleasure. The fungi on and the array of hues of the birch trunks along the trail was enchanting

After a picnic lunch at Mirror-Edmonds Lakes Park, we headed to Merrill Field and the Lake Clark Air terminal. How grateful I was that I didn’t have to deal with Ted Stevens International Airport and its massive parking mess. Merrill field is the primary field for small private wheel-equipped aircraft and the thus home base for Lake Clark Air Service which is the airline based in Port Alsworth, Alaska providing transportation for our tour to remote areas of Katmai and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Unlike most airlines when checking in for flights, on theses small aircraft they not only weigh your bags but weigh you as well. I hate to be weighed let alone in public and often refuse to be weighed at a doctors office. In this instance, rather than trying to shed anything that would weigh me in heavier, I was grateful to hang onto boots, purse and anything else that would camouflage my actual weight. Their terminal was impressive and I was fervently hoping that their pilots and planes were equally impressive.

Once aboard our largest aircraft for the trip, a nine seater, the flight took us over the Cook Inlet, with views of its oil platforms and the bays and estuaries of the western shore of Cook Inlet. I was beginning to anticipate that this was going to be the bulk of the aerial view for this trip. Though they have their own unique beauty and can be stunning, I was ready for new aerial vistas and not a rerun of those ones I experienced last year. Then almost like a bolt out of the blue we were headed towards Lake Clark Pass , so named because it is a pass through the Aleutian Range from Cook Inlet to Lake Clark and which I understand now is the primary aviation route between Anchorage and the western part of Alaska. We were flying between and over towering snow-covered peaks. I have no idea how wide and at points narrow this pass is but it seems deceptively close at time as if our wings were close to brushing the jagged edges of the faces of cliffs. We experienced vista after vista of snow covered peaks, pillows of clouds , curling white ribbons of water cutting into knife-edge crevasses in the rock faces, and ice tongues crawling there way downslope

Coming out of the pass my eyes feasted on the amazing spectacle of the glacier-fed turquoise water of Lake Clark and the low green rolling hills surrounding it, with the village of Port Alsworth coming into view below. Soon we were in a quick decent approaching one of the two parallel, gravel thousand-foot-long runways. We skidded to a halt kicking up a cloud of dust to announce our arrival. What an auspicious beginning to a week-long adventure into the mostly untamed wilderness of these Alaska parks.

I was not sure what to expect when booking our stay at Lake Clark Farm Lodge. What we got far surpassed what I had anticipated. We settled into our cozy cabin fronting the Lake and I gazed at the float planes parked right outside our door. Had I expected the quality of the Ritz-Carlton, I would have been sorely disappointed and probably would have much to complain about. But rooms were adequate, cozy, warm and had decent Keurig coffee pods instead of those lame hotel packets that brew very mildly caffeinated brown water. But everything else was first-rate. The meals were of exceptional high quality, elegantly served in a rustic dining room with several flights of stairs to climb to reach the main lodge, thus working up an appetite.

And this was just Day One of of a full week of exploring Lake Clark and Katmai National P arks.

Conk, Weeping Skies, and Fish in the Tree Tops

August 24, 2023August 24, 2023uniquelytheo4 Comments

I was determined to do a decent hike so day three became the Bartlett River Trail day. I was absolutely NOT astounded when I parted the curtains upon arising to discover there was a steady stream of wet projectiles descending upon the already drenched soil of Glacier Bay. I said to myself: “How fortunate you are Theo to be able to experience the Bartlett River Trail in this temperate rain forest during a day when a rain forest is doing what it does best. RAIN, RAIN, RAIN.” And that it did for the entire 5.88 miles and 4 hours and 20 minutes I slogged on through this.

Now I was well dressed, I thought. I would keep my feet dry by putting plastic bags over my double socks in my trail shoes. However the zip-lock variety was all I had available, so they would have to do. I had a base layer of light weight polyester underwear under my hiking pants which were under my 15 year old rain pants. My top was layered with polyester under shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a shell vest, and my bright pink flannel lined rain jacket which I had patched the hole in it with silver tape. I had a visor hat to keep the rain out of my eyes. My daypack was not waterproof but I put everything in a plastic bag inside of it, including snacks, extra clothing, a warm cap and gloves. I headed out with the spirit of adventure, feeling a bit mummified given how thickly I had wrapped myself, but was grateful at least today I wasn’t carrying a heavy backpack or returning to a tent.

To reach the Bartlett River Trail, I hiked out via Tlingit Trail. This was a easy stroll on a well maintained gravel path along the shoreline passing the Tlingit Tribal House and Raven and Eagle totems..

Upon reaching the trail head, my l intention was to hike the 8 mile round trip trail to Bartlett Lake. I merrily (though that feeling stayed only for a very brief moment) headed out but after the first half mile of jutting rocks, the complex webs of spruce roots, and puddles ankle deep, I knew it best to take the shorter Bartlett River Trail lest, at the pace I was moving forward, I would chance missing my plane the next afternoon and be charged an extra day for not checking out by noon. I really did not want to spend a night inhabiting the Tongass National Forest. This is a noteworthy choice since more often than not I do not make rational decisions. I prefer to be bullheaded and emotional and forge on. But I think that was probably the only reasonable decision of the day. By now I was also beginning to think that perhaps my solo jaunt into this wilderness wasn’t necessarily a wises choice since there were not throngs of hikers like the conga lines I experienced in Rocky Mountain National Park. Grasping at anything to validate my choice to continue solo, there was a group of about a 10 people headed out the trail to fish and there were in the first 1/2 mile two different couples returning from a much earlier morning hike. I concluded that perhaps this is after all a well traveled trail. I reasoned that if a root or a rock thwarted my forward momentum, I would not languish out there never to be found in this cell phone free wilderness. However , thereafter I saw nary a soul and might well have had to crawl out of this forest of dripping leaves and rotting trees should I turn an ankle or incur some other injury.

I had been asked “aren’t you worried about bears ?” This is definitely bear territory. Brown Bears (grizzly) occur in the Alaskan rainforest in densities that are unrivaled anywhere. My thought process (probably convoluted thinking) was ”NO” because this is the time of year when the salmon are plentiful and I imagine that any bear would certainly prefer to be down by the water fattening up on those fresh salmon fillets, preparing for their long winters sleep instead of foraging in the forest for a few measly low calorie berries and come upon me. Since I am writing this post hike, you already, I am sure, have assumed that I neither got attacked by a grizzly nor did I fall prey to the raised root and tripping rock hazards with my broken body needing to be carried out and languish in a hospital.

Actually hiking in this rain forest was a truly amazing experience in so many ways. Think about the herbaceous vegetation, under an old growth canopy of tall old coniferous trees, that one witnesses on the forest floor: the humus, understory of mosses, mushrooms, fungi, lichen, ferns and some shrubs and berries.

First it was amazingly brutal for there were very few areas for each footfall in which there were not entwined roots, rocks, moss, algae, slick mud, and waterholes to pick my way through. Now for the fleet of foot this would not be as daunting but for an older adult (who has already broken an ankle and a hip) with osteoporotic bones it might not end too well should I pitch forward , sideways or even backwards when I got it in my head to leap, swagger, prance, flounce or trot about through the mass of roots in this fairy forrest. So proceeding cautiously (which I am not know for), I at first took on the challenge of avoiding sloshing through the puddles as much as possible – an almost impossible endeavor – until I realized how absurd this was because I had the clear sensation of wet feet and assumed I now had very leaky plastic bag liners.

But by inching ahead so slowly I could begin to really appreciate the dramatic landscape that a rain forest is. The forest floor is covered with ferns and mosses, and epiphytes abound (mosses, lichens, ferns, and other plants that grow on other plants.)

Mosses were every where crawling up the trunks and out on the limbs, hanging down from the branches, hugging just about every surface, enveloping every stump, coating rocks, fingering ferns, carpeting the forest floor, sponging up nutrient and water, basting the bark of trees…these robust soggy mini-forests are lush pioneers that can just grow about anywhere in the rainforest and oft are the first to colonize an area.

The root base of tipped trees I found eerily haunting. Because of shallow soils and high water tables, the roots of very tall trees do not often extend deeper than 24 inches into the soil so they thus are particularly prone to tipping over during the windy and rainy fall season when soils are saturated. Stumps and downed trees proliferated and were rotting back into the ground or standing sentry in their green velvet coats. They seemed stalwart if doing their job of decaying and decomposing to provide feed for the detritivore community.

I had read that fallen trees in a temperate rainforest are known as “nurse logs” because they provide shelter, nutrients and in some cases a platform on which young trees can grow.

I marveled at the myriad of stumps and logs raggedly rotting back into the ground. About one mile into the hike, I experienced a loud “thwunk” 6 inches in front of me. A good sized chunk of rotting wood from a tree above had come barreling down and on impact exploded into chips fit for a good garden mulch. I was thanking that mysterious guardian angle of mine that it was not my head that got cracked and had I not tarried for a couple seconds at some point it most likely would have been. This did give me pause to think about this other unforeseen danger hiking in this weeping rainforest. In fact this rainforest was totally distraught and sobbing heavily. But not to be derailed the wild tree climbing child in me took over and soldiered on.

They were hard to ignore and I was fascinated by the conks which are shelf-like fungal growths of artistic beauty on trees (aka shelf fungi or bracket fungi) and are members of the fungus kingdom which includes mushrooms, molds, and yeast. Unlike mushrooms, most conks are inedible because they are tough and corky or woody. They can be seen growing on tree trunks and limbs, stumps, fallen logs and are important recyclers in forest ecosystems in the process of decomposing woody material. Some were “hatless” and others wore cloches of moss and lichen. Cloaks of lichens also were draped over many other surfaces and varied from bright green to olive drab.

Mushrooms have a captivating appearance. I wonder what these open parasols were sheltering whatever creatures might be hunkering down to wait out the drizzle. Other s were inverted parasols catching the raindrops creating a shimmering pool. They could be seen dotting the rain swollen floor with a diversity of shapes size and colors and hues.

The shimmering veil of rain continued when this forest trail ended at an estuary near the mouth of the Bartlett River. I made the executive decision to stop here as I could already tell that I would be mired in deep mud should I have proceed a few hundred feet more to the actual mouth of the river. Wet is one thing but mud oozing into my shoes was not a necessary part of this rain forest experience. So it was time to plunk down on a large lichen covered boulder , with much of my “carefully wrapped” body draped in sodden attire and attempt to enjoy a lunch which was also getting quite sodden as I tried transporting the food to my mouth. The most successful piece of attire I had chosen was my visor in keeping the rain off my face. Water had dripped down into the arms of the raincoat every time I went to take a photo. My whole backside by now felt wet as I discovered that those ancient rain pants had split open.

Hiking out I plodded along with the drumbeat of the rain on the forest canopy and understory. The steady beat would have been totally mesmerizing had I not been quite aware that I was wobbling a bit like a Weeble and did not want to fall down. My legs were tired so I tried focusing on this living cathedral of towering trees, on the the diverse tapestry of the forest floor, and assessing the deeping puddles obscuring the obstacles ahead. In this type of immersion other folks have talked of a spiritual experience or a sacred moment in a lush and fecund forest, this waterfall from heaven. With the air solidly full of water, I was picturing fish swimming in the tree tops, hearing a torrential cacophony, and thinking about a hot shower back at the Lodge.

Upon my return, having had natures bath, I immediately climbed into the bathtub to strip out of my saturated clothes, stuffed them into a plastic bag, took a delicious hot shower , and then headed out to the “public laundromat” next to the lodge. I did not savvy either putting on these soppy clothes tomorrow should I need them or filling my suitcase with dripping, waterlogged apparel. This” laundromat” was not what I had expected but I did end up with dry gear. Now for a pricy well earned dinner in the Lodge, my mouth agape as I peered out the window of the dining room at blue skies!

Brume, Lazy Glacier John and an Otter Raft

August 19, 2023uniquelytheo2 Comments

Standing on the dock, in the early morning brume, I was feeling a tad discouraged about this 8 hour cruise through Glacier Bay up to the John Hopkins Inlet. It was definitely a relief though when I noticed that the passenger count was far below the capacity that this high speed catamaran, colloquially named the “Day Boat, ” could accommodate. At least there would be less of a foray when patrons start jockeying for a berth on the railing. This chaotic scenario always occurs whenever the crew announces a sighting of wildlife, which always leads to a rush of the madding crowd from one side of the ship to another, from the inside cabin to the outside deck , and up the stairs to the viewing deck from downstairs. Far be it for me to buck the trend and, so that I could lead the rush of the cattle call crowd, I secured my “indoor station” by a window and quite proximate to the exit for the viewing deck.

For the first couple of hours there was a myriad of photo ops of this dense fog ahead of us, the fog off to port side, the starboard side fog and the fog we left behind.

This gauzy scrim gradually began to lift and ascended upward enough so that we had a better chance of spotting wildlife in the air, on the waters, along the shores and on the rocky slopes of the islands in the bay. Currently the glaciers are now about 65 miles northwest of Bartlett Cove whereas 250 years ago Glacier Bay and Bartlett Cove were a massive river of ice so its was going to be quite a while before we reached the glacial area.

It seemed like we were just tugboating along – I surmised it was the heavy fog— but I came to realize that there are definite noise restriction and speed zone areas designated so as to protect all wildlife, but especially to protect the harbor seal and whales. This definitely is not an attractive area for the jet skiers of the world to congregate and hold a convention. I am all in on respecting the wild land, air, and sea creatures that we share this earth with and grateful for the quieter ride that exist because of the myriad of boating restrictions. Think about it. Would you relish a six foot long 250 pound harbor seal undulating like caterpillar through your living room or otters webstroking in your swimming pool. Perhaps we need to think a whole lot more about our roaring motors churning through their living room. This definitely made for a most pleasant three hour journey to get to the first glaciers. A National Park Service Ranger kept us informed about what we would be seeing (or not seeing) along the way as we moved from the rainforest area of Glacier Bay to the guano and lichen-encrusted rocky islands of the bay.

As we ferried along the captain would maneuver close to shores of Strawberry Island, the Marble Islands, and Tlingit Point for better animal sightings. By count birds far outnumber any other wildlife sightings. Thousands of seabirds nest on cliffs and rocky shores within the bay. I don’t have the patience or acuity of vision (or very good binoculars) to be a successful “birder.” but spotting the puffins and the Arctic terns was a treat. The Arctic tern is my hero and is famous for migration since it flies from its Arctic breeding grounds to the Antarctic and back again each year. They are the ultra ultra marathoners of the avian species. The shortest distance between these areas is 12,000 miles. I surmised, just like our human snowbirds traveling south in the winter, these terns seek perpetual summer and lots and lots daylight. The Tufted Puffins, often identified as “parrots of the sea” because of their bright coloring were not behaving like the adorable tufted puffins I’ve seen in the penguin exhibits at aquariums waddling . They were far too busy foraging for their own food, swimming, and steering them selves around with their web feet preparing for a dive for the fresh catch of the day. . Also spotted were Black-legged Kittiwake, Eagles, a variety of Gulls, especially Glaucous-winged Gull , which is basically a large white headed gull. They were plentiful on the Marble Islands. I took almost no photos because I do not possess one of those cameras with massive lenses especial designed for wildlife photography with their auto focus and zoom lenses and look like they weigh a ton. My 5 year old iPhone camera suffices but does’t do the job that these heavy behemoth expensive cameras do. I already have too many photos of unidentifiable minuscule blurred dots in the distance.

As far as spotting the large mammalia, a brown bear was seen sauntering around a beach on Tlingit Point, an occasional whale spouting or breaching in the distance, sea lions on the rocks but no proximate heart stopping encounters with the ship. Perhaps these Glacier Bay inhabitants too, just like many humans , prefer to hunker down on a foggy rainy day and thus opted out of putting on a show for the tourists encroaching into their habitat. I was especially enchanted by the “raft” of sea otters, churning through the water. I noticed their preferred swim stroke is by far the backstroke (mine too) and I spotted them in large numbers hanging tight with each other traveling in tandem. I wonder if it’s like a pace line in cycling where you cycle into the slipstream of another cyclist and let them “pull” you along. This was an “otter version” of the pace line.

By now the fog had dispersed and though still totally overcast, we were motoring through the bergy bits and growlers (ice flows that aren’t behemoth enough to sink the Titanic) and soon we were seeing many tidewater glaciers crawling down the mountain crevices and ending at the sea, with the grandad being the John Hopkins Glacier at the end of the inlet. Though we were mooring around the John Hopkins Glacier and inlet for around 2.5 hours, at this time Glacier John was taking lunch and a siesta and was not calving.

Our lunch was provided “glacier -side, ” which was a classic school kid bag lunch of a Wonder Bread sandwich, chips, and a candy bar! Jupiter, the king of gods and the weather god, must have been in a more favorable mood for our return trip. It was under partly cloudy conditions, so the shore lines were more visible. This Sky Deity was in a imaginative space and fluffed up pillowy, sheetlike, fleecy, and diaphanous clouds to hug and drape the islands and thankfully not thunderheads or threatening clouds to churn and spin the waters around our trusty vessel.

One of the VERY amusing things noted on our return was the huge Ruby Princess Cruise Ship along side and we all were laughing because those folks who paid for those high deck outside cabins were getting a great view of the fog!

It was quite a satisfying experience , definitely to be had before there are no more glaciers to ooh and awe about. . Additionally , I began to make the acquaintance of a number of couples who are “park baggers” like myself, hoping to visit all 63 National Parks in their lifetime. I am proud to say I have the most under my belt (52) of those I met but it was fun comparing favorites and numbers visited etc. After regrouping, I made my way to the dining room so as not to be the last in line again for a table and after be able to go to the Park Ranger presentation on this park.