My Labor Day Weekend Photolog so Far

          I am retired so I get to enjoy Labor Day Weekend in America. I think it is nothing more than a misnomer and really no longer has any real relevance other than it is a weekend for people to work their asses off in the retail stores because of the "Holiday" sales. Fortunately that is no longer me. So here is how my weekend is going via this small, (well for me long) Photolog .

Captain Cook Park

          Friday we went North, north to Captain Cook Park for a visit before all the people from Anchorage started showing up there. We wanted to get some pictures of the devils club.

          It was a pretty blustery day with strong winds and this was the best I could do.
f2.2 1/2500 sec. with 800 ISO. I do like playing with the manual settings.

This was a different kind of bee. If you have seen my other bee shots this is a first for this one. Once again totally happy with how it came out in a difficult setting with the winds.

As we were leaving three RV/Trailers were pulling in to get set for the weekend.

          After Captain Cook Park we headed back south, Captain Cook Park is pretty much the end of the road.I'll try to remember and get a picture of the 4 wheeler parking loading/unloading area to access Grey Cliffs one of theses days. next stop was an end of summer beginning of fall picture of Suneva lake. I have a few spring, and early summer shots. In the boredom of winter I may do a seasonal change post for the lake.

Suneva Lake

Even with all the wind Suneva lake was still placid. Stormy lake was looking like its name lots of little waves and whitecaps, no pictures from there on Friday.

Moose River Flyers

          That brings us into today, Saturday 9-1-18. Another nice afternoon drive. There was a lot of traffic heading south into the peninsula. Most likely a lot of them were heading to the end of road down in Homer, it is a popular destination for local holiday travelers. We were heading north first to Sterling to do a little shopping. On our way back out of town we saw a float plane on the Moose River, so we turned around and pulled into Izaak Walton boat launch/campground area. We got there just in time. As we were getting out of the vehicle I heard the plane starting up.

          As we got down to the river walkway, there was a fishing boat coming in, so I did not have a great shot at the float plane. Birds do not like being disturbed by things that are bigger than them, a few days ago on my Wednesday Walk I got a pretty good shot of seagulls disturbed by a helicopter, these I think are better, because they were closer to me.

This was most of the small flock, and in the next picture you can kind of see how close at least one got. Very very happy with this shot below.

          I got very lucky with these shots, it was a quick get to the water and click the plane, then the birds, then after all the excitement, the thought - Crap, I was on full manual and did not really check the dash bar - I got very very lucky.

Alaska Roads less Traveled

          There are a lot of roads throughout Alaska, ninety nine percent of them go absolutely nowhere and end at, if you are lucky, a place to turn around before driving up to someone's front door. that could be miles and miles down the road.

          This was one such road. A nice view down the road of pretty much nothing but a very pleasing view. No power poles, no planes, no trains, no automobiles, just mother nature.

Many people stop to enjoy that view I believe because we were pulled over in a natural pullout next to this beautiful little pond.

          And here we are at the end of this road. Off to the left is a driveway to someone's home, ahead and slightly to the right is someone's private property sign, and 4 wheeler trail likely to his remote cabin.

Total distance down that road was probably only about five miles of gravel, well maintained gravel road. So if you visit Alaska, take some of these gravel roads see where they lead, you may have a pleasant experience.

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