Leon Turnbull Photography

Here’s another shot from my first sunset evening in Alaska, along the mudflats of the Turnagain Arm. This one is looking away from the sun, towards the mountains. Alaskan scenery is incredibly beautiful. Snow-capped mountains and glaciers are everywhere, and that includes right along the ocean. It just doesn’t get any better.

Another thing that is everywhere (apparently) are bears. But I did not see any! I was definitely disappointed about that. But apparently, I was very close to them. You wouldn’t expect grizzly bears to be wandering out on the mudflats. I sure wasn’t. Seeing grizzlies was the least of my worries as I was photographing the sunset here. Maybe it shouldn’t have been though. I read in the paper later that there were two grizzlies out wandering the mudflats one morning. It turned out that I was down in that area and within a couple miles of them on that very morning (two mornings after this sunset shot). But I saw nothing. I have extremely bad “luck” in seeing bears. I just never seem to see any when I am on vacation, no matter where I am. Now, I didn’t really want to encounter any up close whilst hiking, but I would have loved to get a nice good shot of a grizzly bear on this trip, and being in Alaska, I was sure to see some. But alas, it was not to be. Well, technically speaking I did see a black bear. But it was through some lady’s spotting scope that was looking way up on a mountain side. I looked through it and saw a small black ball moving across the mountain. I can’t even count that one.