Conservation
The old schooner purchased from a fisherman, cut through the icy waters of Glacier Bay, cruising along the picturesque Alaska coastline towards a pod of six massive humpback whales bubble-feeding at the surface of the water. Getting closer, the salt sprays over the travelers in the boat, as the whales breach over and over again.
Conservation
Kudos to California. Last October, it became the first state to ban lead ammunition for all types of hunting. The ban will benefit the state’s namesake condors, which nearly went extinct. In 1982, only 22 California condors remained on the planet.
Nature & Wildlife
Glaciers creep their way across vast regions, spreading their hefty mass of hundreds of years of compacted snow and ice all swaths of land standing in their way. Some glaciers appear dusty and rocky and others radiate such a brilliant aquamarine color, it looks as if they’re lighted from within by an intense halogen bulb.
Conservation
Last fall, in the midst of burned and charred trees left in the wake of Yosemite National Park’s Rim Fire, I participated in, of all things, a wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever attended.
Nature & Wildlife
When UCLA Medical Center cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz was asked one day to perform echocardiography on the failing heart of a Los Angeles Zoo emperor tamarin, a small monkey that evolved in the treetops of the Central and South American rain forests, she couldn’t have predicted how profoundly that act would change her thinking on…
Travel Tips
There’s no doubt that the print publishing world is rapidly changing, and perhaps nowhere is the revolving nature of the industry being played out more visibly than in the travel guidebook genre.
Nature & Wildlife
Sept 23-28 marks the 10th Anniversary of Sea Otter Awareness Week, a time when we recognize and appreciate the critical role sea otters play in the nearshore ecosystem. Sea otters are near and dear to our hearts because we frequently run into them on our Alaska tours.
Conservation
I’ve always loved ice. Growing up in Wisconsin, my winters were filled with it. I could skate on it, watch it paint the trees with a crystalline, Doctor Zhivago-like romance and break off icicles for an afternoon treat. Back then, I never considered it controversial. It was just a fact of winter.
Nature & Wildlife
Wolves are capable of many vocalizations, including barks, growls, moans, snarls, whimpers, whines and yelps. But even though they make these sounds a lot more often than they howl, it is that sustained, doleful cry that seems to define the wolf for most of us. Howling keeps members of a pack physically together.
Canada & the North
Giant-sized, creaky and cold, glaciers have always intrigued me. Ancient beings, they measure their time in the thousands of years, in a way that we humans have little experience understanding. That’s why, wherever I travel, if there’s a glacier nearby, I rush to see it.
Alaska
Having just returned from a trip to Alaska, I can unequivocally state that grizzly bears do climb trees. If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard that black bears are agile climbers, but grizzlies rarely scamper up trunks.
Alaska
For the past three years, residents of Juneau, Alaska have been dealing with a new problem of glacial proportions – their treasured Mendenhall Glacier, 14 miles north of downtown Juneau, has exhibited sudden, torrential flood bursts during the summer.
