A Day on the Water, Juneau, AK, June 2011

Juneau is an incredible place.

Some people can become claustrophobic given the fact that due to the mountains and water surrounding us, you can’t easily just pick up and leave. However, those same mountains and water provide such an incredible array of things to do and see, with most things being within a 20 minute drive from wherever you are.

Case in point: a halibut fishing trip. Not only did everyone come home with plenty of halibut and enough shrimp for a great dinner, but we saw whales, eagles, beautiful scenery and… a snailfish. It was a completely awesome day. Enjoy the photos!

Mendenhall Glacier Bears, Juneau, AK, August 2007

The summer of 2007 was a fantastic bear year in Juneau.

If you visited the Mendenhall Glacier anytime between late-July and August of that year, you were nearly guaranteed a black bear viewing. There were 13 black bears concentrated in a roughly 1.5 mile stretch of Steep Creek, feeding on the spawning salmon making their way upstream. The raised viewing platforms of the Moraine Trail – originally built to enhance salmon viewing – proved to be a wonderful and safe way to watch the bears and their cubs go about their feeding.

Auke Bay Deer

I was taking a drive out towards Echo Cove and made use of the Auke Rec bypass that lets you cut straight to Lena Pt rather than hugging Auke Bay with all its twists and turns. As I was driving along, I noticed this deer on the opposite side of the road. I stopped, pulled over, and backed up – the deer didn’t seem to mind that was literally right across the street from it. I snapped some photos and all of a sudden, I noticed the deer’s head perk up. I took one more shot, this one, and lifted my eye from the camera’s viewfinder to see what the deer was worried about. That’s when I saw the jogger I’d passed earlier and his dog… by the time I got my eye back to my camera, the deer was spooked enough to run off into the woods. You never know when you’re going to run across some wildlife here!