Misty Fiords National Monument

In SE Alaska about 40 miles East from the city of Ketchikan is Misty Fjords National Monument. It is the second largest wilderness area in the U.S.A. and is composed of 2,294,343 acres. You can either get there by boat, floatplane or a combination of both. Tours usually start about $200 a person, though if you plan ahead and contact the Ketchikan visitors bureau they may have deals going on that they might suggest. Misty Fjords has 3000 foot granite walls straight up out of the ocean. It has long waterfalls. On the trip one can often see whales, mountain goats, deer, eagles and much more.

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On the way there is a good chance of seeing Eddystone which is roughly the entrance to Misty Fjords.

Some float plane tours land at the bottom of the granite walls and you can get out onto the plane’s floats, if you choose. If you take a plane, one word of advice, try not to look too much into your cameras viewfinder, as things zip by, or you may be leaving your lunch with the other passengers. Very beautiful, and is highly recommended if you make it to Ketchikan on a cruise or a vacation.

Kids like Ketchikan video

This is my second entry into the 2018 Ketchikan Film Festival. This one is more directed toward kids and has a few simple animations talking about the local area. The Film Festival will be judged on 8/24/18. For the animations I used the “Crazy Talk” program.

https://filmfreeway.com/KidslikeKetchikan

Ketchikan Film Festival update

9/7/18 So this is just an update. There were over 1700 entries in the Ketchikan Film festival this year. They showed 16 videos at the festival. This one was one of them, though it did not when, the audience seemed pleased with it.

Hello, Ketchikan has many artist and photographers. recently they decided to conduct a search of creative videos/films that display Ketchikan. This is my first entry. Hope you like it. Some on the entries will be shown downtown at the Discovery Center on Friday Aug. 24th of this year.

https://filmfreeway.com/TheworldofKetchikan

Alaska wild animal Sancutary

So if you get to Anchorage Alaska, and want to go for a drive and possibly see some wildlife, take highway 1 south about 30 miles and right across from Whittier. It’s at mile marker 79. There is an amazing wildlife sanctuary.

They have almost any animal that you may see in the wild parts of Alaska, moose, brown bears, reindeer, elk and many others. During the summer I believe they are open every day and during the winter they are open on weekends. You can drive around the area or I suggest to see the animals the best and to get some incredible pictures park your car and walk around the area. The animals are behind fences, but nothing like a zoo.

This is definitely a place to take the kids, and they will enjoy it. If you go let me know what you thought. Then when your done you could drive to the Portage Glacier which is very close and also worth seeing.

Their web site is: https://www.alaskawildlife.org/

Crab Boat Tour Ketchikan AK

One of the tours that many people go on, while in Ketchikan is the crab boat tour. It’s about a 3.5 to 4 hour tour. I have been on it 4 or 5 times, usually taking someone who is visiting us. The ship is the Aleutian Ballad. The crew takes you out, shows you how crab pots work, they have some preset ones that they pull you for you. They show you different types of crab also from small ones to kings. The tour is very informative and the crew is very friendly.

At one point they attract some bald eagles. I have seen over 30 flying around the ship and feeding from the water, but toward the end of the season I have seen less than 10. They give you the opportunity to hold various sea creatures, if you want. This is a rain or shine tour. Best place is on top deck to get some good eagle pictures, on the bottom deck if you want to handle stuff. I believe that there are age restrictions for small kids.

Shrine of St Therese, Juneau AK

So a year ago my wife and I went to Juneau AK, so that i could take my drone license test and become a certified drone pilot, which I did. While there we went for a drive north of Juneau, and came across “The Shrine of St. Therese”. We are not Catholic but decided to check out the place, especially after we read some reviews of the place on-line. The atmosphere was very peaceful, though there were a lot of birds squawking ,trying to divert of attention away from the peace that God had in store for us.

There was a path that we had to follow to get to the shrine. It was raining lightly, however the tree coverage kept us mostly dry. My wife had hurt her leg and it was hard for her to walk very far. We were impressed and thankful that they had a few free wheelchairs that people could use while they visited. This really helped a lot.

There were several monuments that you could spend time at.

Here also was an interesting rock garden.

This was a very peaceful area, and I believe that you can rent out the area for events, lie maybe weddings. If you get to Juneau Alaska, then stop by here and get relaxed.

Black Bears

Living in Alaska, on a remote island, in the second largest rain Forrest in the world (I believe), one might expect to see some animals. Well here in Ketchikan, one of those animals is black bears. From spring until fall there are a few locations where you can see bears in the wild, not in a cage or in a zoo. But real live, untrained, sometimes uncaring bears. We have lived here 10 years and it never gets old. We have had them in our front yard, just passing on through several times. Sometimes we just go and watch them fish.

Often about this time you can see mama bear with a cub or two.

if you get a chance to make it to Alaska and see the bears, just remember they are not pets, this isn’t a zoo, they are not trained. Don’t go near them if you have food. A bear will do what a bear will do. Don’t get between mama and her cubs. Enjoy the beauty, thank God that you get a chance to see nature and wild animals, take pictures and memories, just don’t ruin it for those who live here.