Alaska Adventure #5 - more from the Steese

We made a lot more stops and I took a lot more pictures coming back out from Circle since the sky had cleared up some and the fierce winds had died down considerably. Here are a couple from the summit, the first one looking back from where we'd been.





This is an old mining camp we spotted.



All along the highway were numerous small lakes such as this one which the Department of Fish and Game have stocked with grayling and trout. HullBoss fished a little bit, but didn't catch anything. The peace and solitude were lovely, though. There was no one else on the highway.



I took a bunch of photos of the arctic cotton while Jim was fishing. This one shows the thickness of the new growth in the burn areas. The second is a close-up (obviously).





We camped here by the banks of the Chatanika River. A beautiful spot, but buzzing with mosquitoes.



Here is a picture of true love -- HullBoss sacrificing his blood for the sake of the photograph.



And a nice shot of my sweetie pondering the campfire.

the portrait of HullBoss is a wonderful People/Personality photo........
Oh my bad........you can't enter it this month. :(

I love the serious contemplation and character visible on his face....
Well composed, good color range and balance.I like the cropping.

I really didn't do much to this picture at all. It just came out this way. HullBoss was the perfect model for this trip with his prospector's beard and grizzled appearance. :)

or added to Mount Rushmore. You should get him to run for president.

...is absolutely amazing.

Was that taken "natural," or were you using filters? If I had to guess, I'd say it looks like you used a polarizer, and possibly a graduated ND. Or are Alaskan skies like that without any assistance?

until later on in the trip. This is the original shot. Mostly what I did was crop it and then adjust the white balance some. We do have great skies here.

I look forward to many more.

I'm glad you're enjoying them. I have quite a few more, including a 15-mile hike we took (climbing from 800 feet to 3,500 feet over a span of seven miles - whew), through burn, over rocks, into an alpine meadow in which stood several 200-foot granite spires, the leftovers from an eruption of magma millions of years ago. It was the most amazing sight, and really worth the climb, although I don't know that I'll ever do it again. I really love these pictures, so I'll probably share a bunch of them. I took the hike so that you all wouldn't have to. :) (I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself though at my advanced age - almost 60. It was exhausting, but exhiliarating.)

Nice shots.

Yes, Alaska is really beautiful. I'm so glad that my parents had the good sense to move here in 1969 so that I'd come to visit them and fall in love with the place. I would find it hard to live anywhere else without feeling very, very homesick.