Oh, what a night! Finally, some big aurora for Anchorage.

It’s been years since I’ve seen this strong of an auroral display here in Anchorage. I shot these between 2am and 4am. At times the aurora was covering the sky from horizon to horizon. It’s rare for it to spread that far south here. Really fun to shoot again, and then to top it off I had just climbed back into bed when we had a 3.1 earthquake centered directly behind the house about 10 miles! Luckily it wasn’t a terribly strong one, because the house shook for a good long time. Evidently I went backt to bed too early and missed even more strong aurora between 4:30am and 5:30am. Way too many pictures as usual from me, but enjoy!

A spectacular late-season trip to Denali.

The weather forecast was promising, so we decided to make a late-season trip to Denali. It’s fun this time of year after all the tour buses are done and most of the tourists are gone. We camped at Riley Creek campground and were able to drive the road all the way to the Teklanika rest stop where we started biking the Park Road. It’s amazing having the whole place almost to yourselves. A few people hiking and only a couple of other bikers during the five days we were there. Not a huge number of critters, but it’s moose rutting season, so we saw a couple of big bulls, a couple of bears, and one very special animal on our first bike ride in Sable Pass. Way too many pictures as usual. Come along for the ride. The captions tell the story.

It's been a busy day here at the zoo ;)

Mom and baby in the backyard all night and this morning. This cow was injured this spring defending this calf from a bear attack. She still can't put weight on her back leg so it will be a very tough winter for her, but she sure has done a great job getting her baby as ready for winter as possible. Early this afternoon a small black bear came into the backyard, obviously attracted by their scent. The moose ran around the front of the house and up the driveway. Bear sniffed around a bit and then left when I told it not to mess with my moose ;)

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