Some weekend pictures

Kate and I had a relaxing, late-spring weekend. It’s almost summer now, and the days are really long. I cope with the light, and I sleep, but unfortunately I don’t think that I sleep very well. The Sun rose this morning at 2:58 am and will set tomorrow morning at 12:47 am. We are so close to the solstice that this won’t change much for the next few days. Then we start the plummet toward darkness again.

Anyway, we had a couple of nice drives over the weekend. One was to a really cool greenhouse on Goldstream Road to get some herbs and flowers for our pots. We took a stop in the Goldstream Valley to watch birds and I took some pictures.

Cobwebs in the cattails

Looking at Ester Dome from the Goldstream Valley on a gorgeous day.

There was one, small thunderstorm almost on top of us. Most of the rest of the sky was clear.

And then another quick trip down to Denali National Park. We saw five moose on the way down.

Cow moose with two young ones. One of them had a tag on its ear. It was such a cool scene, but so hard to get a good picture. There was always one or two of them moving behind a tree or brush. I also need better than a 300mm lens.

We made another stop along the Park’s Highway at a spot that I find hard to believe I’ve never stopped before. There’s a cute little waterfall and then a gorgeous beach on the Nenana River.

I’ve driven past this many times now, this was the first time I ever noticed the small cascade along the Park’s Highway.

Below a small waterfall off the Park’s highway. I managed to keep a steady hand for long enough to pull this off handheld. I didn’t feel like getting the tripod out quite yet.

Looking south, up the Nenana River just north of DNP.

And the northern view.

Once we got into the park it was once again cloudy and rainy. A little further from the entrance some holes poked through the clouds and the light shone down on the Mountains and hillsides.

Looking north the sky was significantly clearer.

In the Savage River there was a group of six caribou walking down the riverbed.

After watching these caribou walk downstream for about 15 minutes, they all plopped down for a rest. I really, really need a real telephoto lens. It was an awesome end for the wildlife and landscape scenery for the day. Every time we come down here the result is completely different!