Eagles Landing

Many have commented that the photograph of the pair of eagles (see the July 20 post) is one of their favorites and have asked for the story behind the shot.  

While photographing on the shore of Prince Williams Sound, my eye was focused on a lone eagle feeding on salmon.  Suddenly, the gulls began to scatter and the eagle appeared vexed.  To my amazement, a second eagle flew into my field of view.    

The above collage shows more exactly the spectacular experience witnessed through the camera lens.

What about Rox?

Many of you have asked how Roxanne managed the 19,162 mile ride to and from Alaska.  Actually, she did remarkably well.  In fact, she only attacked her bed once out of frustration.  Between a ton of rain, muck, and days upon days of making miles, Rox was the quintessential Golden... a phenomenal traveling companion and sweetheart!

Rox did, however, develop some extremely interesting sleeping positions during her hours of riding.  With her propensity to prop her head up on the most unlikely object, some positions were so funny that we kept the point and shoot camera near the console, just so we could capture the moment.  We invite you to enjoy a small sampling of positions Roxanne perfected while traveling... and traveling... and traveling...

Best New Road Sign

We just don't see these in Texas!

Best Bumper Sticker

We still have a few more posts to upload before we close our wonderful trip to Alaska... but need to move my mother first!  Here's our favorite bumper sticker... found on an 4x4 off-road Jeep:

Staat Stats

To summarize our Alaska adventure, here are a few Staat Stats:

Miles travelled:  19,162

Miles travelled on gravel roads (including 4-wheel drive roads):  2,164 (mas or menos)

Days on the road:  104 (or 2,475 hours or 148,500 glorious minutes!)
Days in Alaska:  44
Days in Canada:  33
Days in Lower 48:  27

States visited:   11

Canadian Provinces visited:   2

Canadian Territories visited:   2

Consecutive days with rain:  31 (an Anchorage record)
Average Alaska high temperature:  62 degrees (the tenth coldest summer and most cloudiest on record)
Lowest recorded temperature while camping:  26 degrees


Best Sticky Bun:  Tetsa River Campground
Best Dinner:  Tie between Northern Rockies Lodge's Spaetzl and grilled seafood at Christo's Palace in Seward
Best New Food:  Reindeer Sausage
Worst New Food:  Sourdough Pancakes


Combined (x3!) weight loss:   43 pounds


Animals observed (at least these are the ones we most remember!):  Arctic Ground Squirrel, Bat, Beaver, Bison, Bighorn Sheep, Black Bear, Brown Bear, Burros, Canada Geese, Caribou, Chipmunk, Coyote, Crows, Dall Sheep, Dall's Porpoise, Eagle, Elk, Falcon, Golden Eagle, Grizzly Bear, Gulls, Gyrfalcon, Harbor Porpoise, Harbor Seal, Hawks, Humpback Whale, Loon, Lynx, Marmot, Moose, Mosquitos (large enough to be considered animals!), Mule Deer, Musk Ox, Osprey, Pelicans, Pika, Porcupine, Raccoon, Prairie Dog, Prairie Rattlesnake, Pronghorn Antelope, Ptarmagin, Puffins, Rabbit, Raven, Redtail Fox, River Otter, Salmon, Sandhill Crane, Sandpipers, Sea Lion, Sea Otter, Skunk, Snow Geese, Squirrel, Stone Sheep, Swans, Terns, Trout, Vole, Weasel, Whitetail Deer, Wild Horses, Walrus, Wolf, Woodpeckers,

US license plates seen:  All but Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Hawaii

Times we played our John Denver CDs:   Too numerous to mention!

Days we listened to XM Radio:  4  (we're canceling our subscription)

Total car wash cycles:  17
Total dog wash cycles:   3

Amount of Mail Awaiting Us:  3-foot-tall stack (literally!)

Loads of Laundry To Do:  9


Number of times Roxanne has shed:  2 (Rox went from her summer coat to winter and is now back to summer... we expect her winter coat to come back in once the weather cools here in Texas.  We are unable to calculate the amount of dog hair removed from the truck... let's just say that you could probably stuff a mattress with it!)  

Flat Tires:  1 (actually, it was a slow leak)

New Chips in Windshield:  1

Shortest and most expensive metered shower:  $2 for 3 minutes

Most expensive gasoline:  $4.66 per gallon

Photos taken:   6,079 (not including the ones that I've already deleted)... anyone interested in seeing the entire slide show?  :)

The Final Leg

Warp speed... from the Badlands through Nebraska and into Kansas... then a visit with David's brother in Tulsa.  Thankfully, Paul is responding well to treatment and is ahead of schedule.  We rejoiced with him and his family.

We then sped to Texas, crossing the Red River to our customary tune "The Yellow Rose." Had it really been over three months since we were last here?  We drove on to Gladewater to visit with my brother and family before their move to Round Rock next month.

Sunday we stopped 45 minutes short of home, wanting to pop Oz for one last time before ending our adventure.  We spent the night at Huntsville State Park and reminisced.  With a bottle of wine between us, we were able to recount each place that we stayed... in order...

Amarillo, Texas... Casper, Wyoming... Glacier National Park... Red Deer, Alberta... Pegasus Carson Provincial Park, Alberta... Dawson Creek, British Columbia... Westaskiwin, Alberta... Dawson Creek, British Columbia... Tetsa... Muncho Lake... Teslin, Yukon... Northway Junction, Alaska... Fairbanks...  Marion Creek Campground near Coldfoot... Deadhorse... Arctic Circle Campground... Fairbanks... Cantwell... Glacona Junction... Liberty Falls at Wrangell-St. Elias... Valdez... Matanuska... Black Bear Campground near Portage... Seward... Moose Pass... Skilak Lake... Soldotna... Homer... Seldovia...  Bird Creek Campground... Hatcher Pass... Denali National Park... Rocky Lake... Soldotna... Engineer Lake... Palmer... Wrangell-St. Elias... Yukon River Campground near Dawson City, Yukon... Engineer Creek Campground... Eagle Plains.. Fort McPherson in Northwest Territory... Inuvick... Eagle Plains... Dawson City, Yukon... Whitehorse... Skagway, Alaska... Watson Lake, Yukon... Fort Nelson, BC... Dawson Creek... Wetaskiwin, Alberta... Whistler Campground in Jasper National Park... Johnston Creek Canyon... Whitefish, Montana... Red Cliff Campground in Yellowstone National Park... Signal Peak Campground in Teton National Park... Pebble Creek Campground in East Yellowstone... Harding, Montana... Cottonwood Creek Campground Roosevelt National Park near Medora, North Dakota... Spearfish, South Dakota... Blue Bell Campground in Custer State Park... the Badlands National Park...  Valentine, Nebraska... Chase State Fishing Lake in Kansas...  Tulsa, Oklahoma... Gladewater, Texas... Huntsville, Texas... and tomorrow... home.

We had agreed not to make any new travel plans until we sat on the deck at home where we had hatched our trip to Alaska.  Tonight, however, as we softly spoke about the thousands of blessings we had encountered, we determined that this simply had to be the beginning rather than the end.  Dare we plan a second trip next year?  God willing... YES!!!

The Badlands

After traveling over miles and miles of vast grasslands, we entered South Dakota's Badlands National Park.  The provocative name comes from Mako Sika (bad land), the name given to the area by Lakota Native Americans.  Mounds of sedimentary rock have eroded into amazing canyons, ridges, spires, and buttes that constantly transform in varying light and seasons.  Eroding at about an inch per year, the Badlands are ever changing and mystical.

We arrived knowing that this was our last official stop on our odyssey before turning south for home.  Visitors to the park had dwindled so much that only five other groups were staying in the only open campground.  It has been surprising to see how many places have closed as October nears.  

Our campsite was shaded by a lone cottonwood.  Oz looked small against the vast horizon.  The wind blew mercilessly, so we opted to ditch the awning rather than trying to stake every corner.  

I felt melancholy and thwarted.  Somewhere between Yellowstone and Roosevelt, my favorite camera lens contracted some sort of malfunction.  After limping along for several days, it finally gave up the ghost and no longer speaks to the camera body.  One of the memory chips is also malfunctioning, leaving me with less than 100 available shots remaining unless I do some serious deleting.  I have tried to keep duplicates of the best photos in case of a crash.  As a result, my computer's memory is so chocker-block full that I am having to download from the camera directly to a back up hard drive.  Besides missing a ton of photo ops with the lens issue, it now takes me three times as long to set up a blog post... even with decent internet connections... lessons learned for future adventures.

For the moment, however, I had no idea how I would take photos of landscapes without the short lens... or work with the memory issue if we had abundant wildlife.  As it turned out, the landscape was vast enough for the "big gun" and wildlife was limited to the now usual deer, bison, and prairie dog.  We laughed at how discriminating I have become since the beginning of the trip when even a lousy shot of a bear felt worth keeping.

The visitor center movie provided an excellent introduction to the geology and history of the Badlands.  Boosted by the information, we loaded up the camera gear and took our evening wildlife run.  We found a bison scratching his belly and a small herd of big horn sheep.  In prairie dog town, a coyote was hunting the area.  He scooted over the hill as we neared.  We spied him, hiding in the grass below us.  

As the sun danced its ballet on the horizon, however, the Badlands began to shimmer in shades of yellow, rose, and blue.  Shadows played off ridges and valleys.  The symphony of shapes and colors filled us with awe and wonder yet once more at God's creation.

Throughout this adventure, it seems that I rarely was able to capture the landscape, particularly with all the rain.  It was something that I always wanted to share with you, even though it is almost impossible to do justice to the vastness and beauty of any panorama.  The Badlands at sunrise and sunset is among the most impressive.  Here is my feeble attempt to offer a glimpse of its remarkable geography.

Black Hills and Badlands on Dwellable

Lessons in Contrast

Interspersed between national and state parks in eastern Montana and the Dakotas, we also visited a number of national monuments and historical sites such as Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, and the battle site of Little Big Horn.  Additionally, we also visited the Crazy Horse Monument and the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre.  These various sites have been a history lesson in themselves.

As an example, the battle site of Little Big Horn offered excruciating detail, including the path of each regiment.  Plaques spelled out each advance and retreat.  White markers dotted the area with the name and rank of each soldier who fell at that spot.  A museum, dedicated to honoring Custer and the fallen offered more information, including a bookstore, movie theatre, and gift shop.  The grounds also held a large memorial cemetery, picnic area, and newly renovated washrooms.

Then we visited Wounded Knee.  A marker bleeding graffiti told a portion of the story of the Wounded Knee massacre. The small museum was closed for either the season or the weekend. A dirt road led to a small cemetery surrounded by a chain link fence.  The ramshackle entrance opened to another dirt path and a rectangular area separated by a second chain link fence that held the mass grave of nearly 150 men, women, and children slaughtered during the massacre.  A marble tombstone stood in the center as the only marker for all.  Not more than four feet from the gravesite, a young woman struck up a conversation with us and hawked her jewelry.  The information center consisted of young man selling trinkets and offering a three-ring binder with laminated articles to anyone who was interested in reading it.

We also visited Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.  Again, we saw a stark contrast.  Mount Rushmore focuses solely on the carvings of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.  It feels solemn and severe.  Originally envisioned as a tourist attraction, it has turned into a national memorial.  Over 500 craftsmen completed the carvings in only fourteen years.  The several museums on the grounds are dedicated to the vision and building of the monument.

In 1947, shortly after the Mount Rushmore monument was completed, Native American chiefs asked a young Polish sculptor to help them carve a monument to their heroes.  That monument still is not complete.  After working on Rushmore, Korczak Ziółkowski took the job on to sculpt a massive likeness of Chief Crazy Horse, riding a stallion.  For years it was a one-man job, inspired by a dream.  Today only Crazy Horse’s face is complete.  Yet the monument grounds are alive with examples of Native American tradition and culture.  Accepting no federal funding, this vibrant project continues forward.

I offer only these observations and a few photos while I continue to contemplate the contrasts.

Born to be Wild

Roosevelt had its magnificent wild horses.  South Dakota's Custer State Park is known for its wild burros.  With long-distance lens at the ready, we began our "hunt" for the wild burros.  We were told by a park ranger that this was a renegade herd.  At one time, these burros were pack animals for the park.  When they were no longer needed, the herd was released and now resided as one of the few wild burro herds in the nation.

Evidently, the term "wild" is used quite loosely in South Dakota.  Our first encounter with the burros came when one shoved his head through the window of the truck, looking for a hand out.  On another trip through their grazing grounds, a burro perched himself in the middle of the road in his own version of "you have to pay toll to the troll" to get past.  To say the least, these little critters easily stole our heart... and anything even remotely edible.

So I braved this wild burro herd to take photos while David and Rox fended off moochers from the back of the truck.  Let me introduce you to some of the gang...

South Dakota on Dwellable

Diamond in the Rough

We left Yellowstone, taking a wild ride over Beartooth Pass.  Quite honestly, its twists and turns rivaled Disney's Space Mountain.

Then... poof... the mountains vanished from the rear view mirror as we headed east toward North Dakota.  I admit that I was melancholy, leaving my beautiful mountains.  It was yet another reminder that our adventure is almost over.  I packed up the long-distance lens on the camera, figuring that I would not be taking many more wildlife shots.

We spent the night in Hardin, Montana, then continued eastward to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  The terrain began to change, offering hope that perhaps God had a few more surprises for us.  He definitely outdid Himself!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is truly a diamond in the rough terrain near Medora, North Dakota.  After a bison hunt in the area, Roosevelt was so taken with the landscape that he purchased a ranch that later became part of this beautiful national park.

The arid terrain is dotted with juniper.  Golden cottonwoods line rivers and creeks.  The mountains looked like Indian skirts layered in beautiful reds, greys, and browns, a mixture of sedimentary rock and stone.

We chatted with the park ranger in the visitor center about possible animal sightings.  He marked the map with the best wildlife viewing areas, warning us that with hunting season open outside the park that animals may be scarce.  The next morning, mustering optimism, I reloaded the long-distance lens.

We awoke to a perfect morning, crisp and cool... just a day after a hard rain.  Within minutes, we caught sight of a bull elk running along a ridge against a brilliant blue sky.

Around a bend, we found a bison basking in the sunlight...

And a beautiful doe grazing...

Then I spied him on a ridge... a wild stallion... and I caught my breath.

Since childhood, these magnificent creatures have stirred my heart.  My office is replete with horse art, including paintings, photos, prints, and carvings.  On September 25, 2010, God blessed me with the opportunity to take my first photograph of a wild stallion.  I admit that I wept at the sight of this splendid beast.

Although we had only planned to spend one night, we spent three wonderful days and nights at Roosevelt, reveling in the landscape and wildlife.  Our campsite overlooked a mesa.  Each night, Venus rose above the horizon, and we were bathed in starlight.  

The last morning when we awoke, David and I laughed and both said that we thought that we had heard heavy hooves around the camper during the night.  When we stepped out of the camper, Rox immediately found evidence that we were right.  An enormous bison patty lay not more than eight feet from our door.  After a quick survey of the area, we found the culprit:  a bull grazing about 50 yards from us.  (Roxanne has since certainly developed an affinity for bison... perhaps because she knows what the north and south end of a bison smell like!)

For me, however, it is the wild horses that will bring me back to North Dakota.  I leave you with just a few of the precious moments that we shared with them.   

Tonight I bow in deep gratitude to the One who gave the horse his strength and clothed his neck with thunder.  Job 39:19