Travel & Places
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The Savage River Trail | Denali National Park
Continuing to flash back to last August and September, another world really. I just read a journalist’s article on flying in this pandemic and how extremely nerve-wracking it is for everyone, somewhat post apocalyptic. I’m feeling fairly certain this big trip to Alaska was our last big trip for a a good while. And my flight to Florida back in January will be my last flight for several years. So going back to these posts and seeing life as normal, it makes me miss it all the more. Our first stop after lunch on the day we arrived in the Denali area was to the Visitors Center to pick up…
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Northbound to Denali
Proud of his Spider Man birthday shoes! Let’s pretend they aren’t threadbare now! Skipping over more glacier photos to jump to Denali for a bit… The morning of Forest’s fifth birthday we woke up very early at our hotel in Eagle River, north of Anchorage. Coincidentally our friend Eliana had been staying at a friend’s house in Eagle River as well so that made our ability to pick her up and take her with us to Denali a lot easier. The night before we’d met up in Anchorage to have dinner and as we told her our plans for the rest of the week she abandoned her plans to do…
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Cruising Closer to Glaciers | Glacier Bay NP
I interrupt this quiet photo journal with OMG SEA OTTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Escaping to the Lone Star Trail
On Good Friday we made our escape—we hit the Lone Star Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. I was going stir crazy and as much as I love being at home and can make things work, I wanted to see “outside”—outside itself but outside as in an area greater than our neighborhood. Plus, I was missing wildflower season and I wanted to attempt to see more flowers before the heat of summer settled in. Very local and in-town locations I knew would be busier and we wanted to avoid those places. After seeing some other folks in other areas of the state and country go hiking and often at empty…
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Into Glacier Bay
Look for the mountain goat! One of the highlights of our Alaskan cruise was that our itinerary took us into Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. I honestly didn’t grasp the significance of our ability to get into this park via the ship until we started making our way through the bay itself. Cruise ships are limited to one or two a day into the park and throughout our trip there we were the only large ship I saw entering the bay. We saw several fishing boats and smaller touring boats but for the most part the bay was very quiet from ocean vessel traffic. We were also boarded by…
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Smuggler’s Cove | Skagway, AK
After we left Yakutania Point we continued on our way down the trail northward, not quite sure where exactly it would take us. If all else failed we could turn around and follow our steps back the way we came. Squashberry, Viburnum edule Parmelia sp. lichens—these were really cool! The walk down these trails continued to be just as enticing as the walk to Yakutania Point, with spongy ground to walk on and moss, ferns, and lichens covering all manner of things in the forest. Licorice Fern, Polypodium glycyrrhiza The rock slabs here were a welcome diversion along the trail. More wonderful lichens… And I would have loved to have…
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Exploring Yakutania Point | Skagway, AK
Let’s go on a virtual hike since most of us aren’t venturing out any longer. During our brief foray into Skagway, AK we asked some of the rangers in the national park visitor center in town if there was a hiking trail nearby. We’d exhausted our patience for walking up and down the main drag in town and really needed to do something before we got back on the ship for the evening. The rangers gave us some vague directions to get to a hiking trail just past the airport and when we found this sign we knew we’d made it to the right place. Crossing the Skagway River… And…
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Whale Watching in Favorite Channel | Juneau, AK
I had only been whale watching twice before: once in Maine after we finished the AT and the second time when Chris and I went to Seattle for our 10th anniversary trip back in 2012. Only the trip in Maine did we actually get to see whales (and puffins!). This trip I was more optimistic that we’d have luck seeing whales considering we’d seen them several days across our sail from Vancouver. Ideally we’d hoped we’d see orcas on this trip but it turns out that their numbers are actually fairly low in this area and it can be hit and miss, mostly miss, to see them while on a…
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Trout Lilies at Tandy Hills
Continuing in the theme of “OMG, that was this year?” because apparently March has turned into January and is now the longest month ever (beware, I think April is going to be double in length as well)…let’s rewind to a month that blitzed right on by—February. Ah, we were out and about, seeing family and friends, taking hikes. And now? We look fondly back at photos and miss all of that time we spent out of doors (or eating in restaurants, or not being paranoid about the grocery store. Hm, I think I need to write an updated pandemic post…) So, back to our chilly afternoon hike at Tandy Hills…
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The Last Wildflower Walk for Awhile
It’s looking more and more like our hike at Lake Somerville State Park two weekends ago is going to be our last hike for a good while. Last weekend we had camping reservations at a state park just an hour from here on the west side of Houston but opted to cancel due to the rain forecast. It was a good decision but I was already concerned about using the bathrooms. Most state parks do a decent job of cleaning up every morning but still…you can only control the surfaces you know, right? And even up to this weekend I thought that maybe we’d get out and go somewhere less…