Big Bear. When they stand, we were told by the guide, they want to see better. Also the intimidation factor adds in if they see something that they don’t like. This bear was about 40 feet from me and, yes, I was intimidated. The bear stood for maybe a minute or minute and a half and just stared at our small party of five but gave us no cause for alarm. A magnificent sight that afternoon on Katmi National Park and Reserve’s coastline. We saw 8 bears that day.
Wild Animal Week .2 /
Elk are beautiful animals and their antlers can reach proportions that seem to defy balance. There are places, like some golf courses, south entrance to the GSMNP, and the nothern reaches of Yellowstone where they gather around buildings and roads and they are ok to see in that setting but when you find a lone animal in the woods while on a hike and listen to him bugling you are mesmerized by them. This bull elk was a treat to watch from a safe distance for several minutes on a trail in Yellowstone.
Wow, what luck, today is the first day of Wild Animal Week! /
I know you thought it would never come, the wait was unbearable. Yet it is here. Stay tuned for the Great Wild Animal Week coming right at you.
A five year-old grizzly (guide guessed his age) along the coast of Kenai National Park in Alaska.
Sunday Scripture: Photo is from an early morning in Central Alaska /
Old SC Crossroads /
I don’t recall the exact place, east of 95 and slightly north I-40. Two old stores, a closed RR station and three or four houses and a storage barn. That is all that is left.
Depot /
This old, small train station is in Winfall, VA a bit south and east of Lynchburg, I think.
Siege of 96 /
Nope, not a year but the name of a town in SC and the siege is one of the battles of the American Revolutionary War. In celebration of the 250th I will post periodically from visits I have made to Revolutionary War sites. This one is in the back country of SC and occurred in 1781. The British had been driven from SC except for Charleston and this fort in the western part of the state. Gen Greene laid siege but was unsuccessful as a relief force of 2000 men arrived from Charleston and he was forced to abandon the siege. Want to know more?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Ninety_Six
The road “Over the Mountains” still visible for many miles
Replica Fort
Some of a series of ditches dug by the American forces to get closer to the fort
Tower was built to fire down into the fort and protect the sappers.
Have a Coke - yet another forgotten draft /
This old Coke box is located in the oldest hardware store in Louisiana. You put a dollar in the PVC tube and grab a coke from the ice chest. Empty bottle go underneath. I asked a clerk how old it was and he did not know except “It was here when I was a kid and I remember when it went from a nickel to a dime.” The fill it with cola only along with a 15 pound bag of ice every day. Sometimes they cannot get the small glass bottles and have to use small cans, no one likes that!.
Don't Fence Me In /
This was a draft post that I forgot about from 2023. I cannot recall the details of the post but this is a native wild flower that grows along the roadside in Virginia and North Carolina and this one was just outside the fence barely visible in the background.
More Craters of the Moon National Monument /
This was a short visit to an unexpectedly interesting park. I was not excited about this stop. Yet, if you plan to photograph as many National Park Service units as possible, you don’t ignore one. We did about 4 hours in the park and two short hikes across the landscape described as “a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush.”
Sunday Scripture: Photo is of the Savage River, Denali National Park, Alaska /
Harry Potterish too /
A note on the first photo. Our walking tour guide told us the unicorn was selected by Scotland for its emblem because in mythology the unicorn with its horn is the mortal enemy of the lion (England’s symbol). I don’t know if that is true but it was a good story.
Harry Potterish /
I may be the last person in the world to not have read or watched a Harry Potter story. It is said that the author of those books wrote a portion of them in a coffee shop in Edinburgh and that a couple of the streets provided some inspiration for settings in the books. Thus I present some random Edinburgh street scenes.
Iona /
This is a very small chapel dedicated to the, Columba, founder of the mission on Iona, Scotland, in 532. The chapel contains a portion of the original wall from the church built in the 8th century.
Badlands /
A most inhospitable place but one of beauty and drama. Love the time spent here.
Pronghorn /
You usually view these stunning members of the antelope family bounding across fields while you drive along the interstate highway in several western states. This one was grazing in a field in Texas along a two lane highway. I stopped the car and waited as it wandered closer and got this photo as it looked alertly for signs of trouble before returning to dinner. Note the eyelashes!
Craters of the Moon National Monument /
There are some strange National Park Service places among the 430 or more now units and this one certainly qualifies. The huge mound of ash reminds me of a super large slag heap like dotted the landscape around the steel mill of Pittsburgh where I grew up. There was a lone tree on the top of this place.
Sunday Post - First Bird Week 2026 - Bald Eagle, photo taken in Alaska /
First Bird Week 2026 - Common Mergansers /
These are tricky. At first I assume I am looking at female Common Mergansers but non-breeding males are nearly identical. Only size is the distinct note, the white patch under chin is smaller on females but very difficult to see a difference. So I thought two males and a female but then read that the immature male is the same size as a female. So, perhaps a boys night out. Photographed in Alaska.
First Bird Week 2026 - Surf Scoters /
This flock of fast moving birds was photographed in the bay near Valdez, Alaska. We were on a boat trip to see a huge glacier yet the wildlife on the way was more than worth the admission. Seals, puffins, whales, otters and much more made this trip on the Lulubell a very special day. As these are seabirds I had seen them at a great distance but never this close.
