At the end of July 2018 my husband and I took a long anticipated trip to Alaska.  I took sooooo many photos.  It has taken me this long to edit my photos and post in my blog.

Our trip was to stay at a gold camp in Nome, Alaska.  While Tim prospected for gold, I was going to do photography and birding.  Yay!

We flew first to Anchorage and stayed a couple nights.  We wanted to have one full day to drive the Seward Highway and play tourist.  As it must always be in Alaska, it was cloudy and rainy.  But we still went out to explore.

I got my first new bird while parking for breakfast.  It was sitting on a light post.  A Glaucous-Winged Gull.  These gulls are quite large, much larger than the Ring-Billed Gulls at home.

As we left Anchorage, our first stop was at Potter’s Marsh.  It’s a fabulous birding spot with lots of boardwalks through a shallow marsh. A very scenic place to bird.

While there, my husband Tim spotted a moose deep in the grasses.  How exciting!  It’s only the 2nd time I’ve seen a wild moose.  Not a great photo, but still a great find!

I saw quite a few birds here.  Most familiar to me back home but still a joy to see. But I also got some new birds – which is even more enjoyable!

Sadly, I saw a pair of Trumpeter Swans as we started down the Seward Highway.  This was a new bird for me, but I couldn’t get a photograph.  That highway is busy and narrow with very few places to stop.  So I was unable to get a photo.  🙁

We did stop at a few of the pullouts to take some scenic photos.  So Beautiful!

We stopped at one place to hike a beautiful trail along a river.  Though it was cold and rainy, it will still so beautiful to get out and explore.

We stopped at a gold mine to see if we could pan a little gold. It was a beautiful place and I did find a few flakes. 🙂

We had dinner in Anchorage. While searching for a place to eat, we came across a popular fishing hole right in town. The salmon were running and the people were catching them one after another.

Sadly, we only had the one day to explore the Anchorage area. We left the next day for Nome. My next post will be about all the fabulous new species of birds I saw while staying in Nome.