“Capturing Alaska”
with Wayde Carroll



Seward or Bust!



    I know I’ve blogged about this route a couple of times but I just recently had my cousin Ashley visiting from Florida and I took her down to Seward to see a bit of Alaska. I can’t help it but every time I drive down there I’m stunned at how beautiful it is. Each time is different and I always return with “keepers”.
    We deliberately took most of the day to complete the two- hour drive. We were lucky and were able to observe over twenty pairs of swans with their offspring just about ready to fly south. One of the things I love about this place is that you never know what you might find on any given day at any time of year.
    I’ve always been a little skeptical of shooting wildlife that are “captive”, at least as a destination, but with my cousin along wanting to see as much wildlife as possible I decided to check out the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center just outside of Portage Valley. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how close the wildlife was and at the possibilities of photographing them. They are of course fenced in but most of the fencing has pretty large spacing and you’re able to shoot through without too much obstruction. Also if you shoot at your widest aperture and the animals are a little distance away you’re able to blur any fencing close to you and make it unreadable in your images. The entrance fee is good for all day. I was able to get some nice moose shots and even a nice scenic on this first trip in. No bears were out so we opted to go into Portage as planned and come back to check on the bears later.
    Portage Valley is always a winner. We hiked up to Byron Glacier where I got some fun stuff of my cousin amongst large chunks of ice and some interesting willow thickets. But one of the most pleasant surprises was the Portage Glacier Lodge (http://www.portageglacierlodge.com/ ).  This is a day lodge and we were treated to some great chili and the best fries I’ve had in years! My son kept exclaiming that it was the best restaurant ever!
    When we returned to the wildlife center we were treated to all three brown bears and two black bears as well as some beautiful light on the herd of Elk. We even ran into two of Alaska’s premier wildlife photographers, Alissa Crandal and Cathy Hart.
    The day was already getting late so we decided to move on and get to Seward. After a fun night at the Holiday Inn Express- where we always go because they have the only pool in town- and a great dinner at  Christo’s Palace (www.christospalace.com ) we spent the next day touring the Alaska Sealife Center and of course had a latte at my favorite coffee shop in town the Resurrect Art Coffee House (http://www.resurrectart.com/index-nn.htm ). Wonderful trip! I’ll do it again and you’ll probably hear about it!