Around Juneau: Monday, August 1, 2016

We spent the day hiking favorite trails around the Juneau area with one of our favorite trail mates, EJ Kipping.  Hope you'll enjoy the images.  We will be leaving tomorrow (Tuesday, August 2nd) on Delphinus Trip #2 and will be out of cell and internet coverage until August 11th.

One of the fast moving rivers emptying into Gastineau Channel in Juneau.  The salmon don't have a chance to swim against the current when it's this extreme, though they try valiantly.

Bunchberries

Devil's Club

Note all of those thorns


Two of my very favorite ladies

Lindsay and EJ


Fireweed

A lot of the Fireweed is still blooming

But much has also gone to seed

Interesting trunks

Have a gull!

Forget-me-nots

 Alaska's state flower



Mendenhall Glacier

Female Belted Kingfisher

Male kingfisher

Belted kingfishers will often share their tunnels with swallows.  The swallows dig out small rooms tucked in the tunnel walls.

More interesting mushrooms on the forest floor

Western Sandpipers

 One of the most abundant shorebird species in all of North America with a population in the millions.