Alaska Shots

A Quartz Creek Dolly Varden in Alaska

Alaska Kenai River - Fatback - Dolly or Bull

The Dolly Varden trout, Salvelinus malma malma, is a subspecies of anadromous fish in the salmon family, and is technically a char. Although many of the fish are anadromous, the fish also exists in landlocked waters.

The Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus),was native to the McCloud River below the Lower Falls to Shasta Lake. This is the only area in which the Bull Trout was native to California although it is widely distributed throughout the interior portions of Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho and British Columbia. It was our only native char. The name to this trout was orignally the "Dolly Varden". It's name is also a California origination. A publication by Evermann and Bryant in 1919 noted that when this fish was taken by scientists, staying at the Upper Soda Springs Hotel on the McCloud River, the resemblance to a dress material with spots called Dolly Varden, and which was then the rage, led to its being given this name by the lady members of the party, ... "Dolly Varden". The original Dolly Varden is a character in the Charles Dickens's novel "Barnaby Rudge" and was well known as being quite flirtatious wearing her flashy attire and colorful dresses one of which was green with pink polka dots.

The names, Bull Trout and the Dolly Varden, were used interchangeably until 1980 when the Bull Trout was genetically proved to be a separate species. Since that time the "Dolly Varden", which was named on the McCloud River, was actually the Bull trout. The Dolly Varden does exist. But , it is a coastal fish which is distributed just south of the Canadian Border to Seward Alaska and in Asia from the Yali River, Korea to the Anadyr River.

Alaska's Salty Dawg Saloon on the Homer Spit

Kris and I enjoying an Old Inlet Pale Ale from the Homer Brewing Company at the Salty Dawg in Homer, AK.

The Salty Dawg started out as one of the first cabins built in 1897, soon after Homer became a town site. It served as the first post office, a railroad station, a grocery store, and a coal mining office for twenty years. In 1909 a second building was constructed, and it served as a school house, post office, grocery store. And at one time, it housed three adults and eleven children. It was acquired in the late 1940's to be used as an office for Standard Oil Company. In April of 1957, it was opened as the Salty Dawg Saloon. The Alaska Territory became the 49th state of the union in January 1959.

The beer from Homer Brewing Company is served in recycled Sobe bottles, pretty cool huh ?

Denali Glacier Landing

Glacier landing at the Sheldon Amphitheater. the immense scale of the mountains surrounding you.

17% of the park's land is covered with glaciers. The deepest measured glacier is the Ruth Glacier, which is 3805 feet or 1160 meters. The surface ice of the Ruth Glacier moves about 3.1 feet or 0.95 meter per day.

Here is a link to K2 Aviation in Talkeeta http://www.flyk2.com/landings.html