The two images of Alaska

[question everything]

We followed the "Gold Rush" of the Yukon and Alaska and, I have to admit, I had my doubts about selecting that tour. Yes, I know that if it were not for the Gold Rush, and for the fur trade, there would not be much of Alaska today, or much of the Upper Midwest and the Northwest.

But these gold diggers, as much suffering that they endured, were not exactly nice people, not to mention with any sense of respect to nature.

Later, in Fairbanks, I had to turn away from demonstration of how the native Alaskans were filleting Salmon or preparing furs. I am not a vegetarian, but all the furs and, later, the mounted and stuffed animals were enough for me to at least consider becoming a vegetarian.

Listening to how the Alaskans are proud of the Trans Alaska pipeline did not endear the place to me, either. Yes, our tour guide was trying to blame me for needing fuel and heating gas, never mind that one out of six Alaskans is a pilot - so they say - or the abundant use of SUVs, ATVs, snow mobiles and others.

And then we came to Denali national park. And there we could see the love and care that the rangers invest in preserving the place. I listened to monitoring stations of how the noise of modern life invades the noise of nature. We flew around Mt. McKinley in all its glory, and we took a bus - no personal vehicles are allowed - into the park and were lucky to see mountain sheep, and moose, caribou, grizzly bears and wolves. Our tour guide was expressing her doubt about the lead wolf with a tracking device on his neck, wondering, if he gets into a fight, whether that device could interfere.

We took many pictures, even though this type of nature can only be absorbed. The movie showing the different faces of the park in the Visitors Center was achingly beautiful, and I still carry the images with me. the Aurora Borealis transfixed us.

And by then I was willing to forgive the Alaskans for any disdain to conservation, even when we flew from... Ted Stevens airport (it used to be that places were named after dead people..)

We were in Fairbanks the same Saturday that Rumsfeld visited and as we drove in our tour bus we saw some demonstrators in the street corner: Our troops died because Bush lied."

This, too, is a positive image of Alaska that will stay with me.

[Ron Green]

1. The airport name may be OK. . .

I'm not sure that idjit Stevens qualifies as living.

[lonestarnot]

2. Stevens, wonder what he calls indigenous Alaskans.

I would wager that he has a name for them.

[Drum]

3. How about a picture?

I've been to a few of those places, and a peek at a picture of Alaska would be like a nice warm slice of pie, to me.
Glad you had a good trip! (And of course, thanks for the essay on your experiences and impressions.)

[question everything]

4. Um... I don't know how to post pictures

Do I need to have a web page?

[Drum]

5. Nope!

There's probably a neat instruction page here at DU on options for this, but I'll tell you how I do it....

(I assume that not embedding pics directly in our posts saves the DU computers from lots of snarls, so it demands using a URL, the good old http kind of address.)

I use a site called Photobucket. I suppose they're a server somewhere. I got a freebie membership and therefore an "album" there, and to post a photo here at DU I do the following:
1)Go to my place at Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com)
2)Tell it that I wish to add a file to my album (this would be a pic on my computer,)
3)I click "Browse" to locate the pic in my files here, and click Submit,
4)Go into your Photobucket album and find the pic you've added,
5)Copy the text in the box there marked URL
6)Paste this http...etc address into your post at DU, and
Voila! The picture appears.

It's great, and easy...seriously, even I can do it! Just take 5 minutes to sign up, and you're on your way.

PS...fun as posting pictures is, a lot of them in a post (as well as very large ones) can tax the resources and patience of DUers on dial-up or slower connections. If possible I think it's preferred to keep the size of pictures moderate/small...most computer photo programs have functions for making a copy of big rich photos in a reduced size.
ALSO: If you're STARTing a thread with lots of pictures it's a good idea to note that "(pic-heavy!)" in your title. Likewise, posting graphic stuff (casualties from news photos, etc) should have a warning attached, before readers open it. Just FYI stuff, learnt through watching here.
:)

[question everything]

6. Thanks. How's that one?

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l42/newphotos06/

(if not, will have to wait to tomorrow... way past my bedtime, but thanks for the suggestion. It was fun posting some of them)

[pitohui]

8. whoa try this

that is your photograph but in the list of choices you should cut and past the one that says URL

[Blue_In_AK]

15. Did you have fun?

I posted a bunch of pictures from the fair in the Photo Group last week if you want to check them out.

[question everything]

17. It was strange to go all the way to Alaska to visit a state fair..

we had two hours and we visited the arts submitted by regular folks. The photographs were amazing. Still, in the Midwest we do not have snow capped mountains surrounding the state fair so we took several photos juxtaposition the fair with them.

Yours are great. I think that the same lady at the spinning booth was there too.

But your road trip photos http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=280x19688 are breath taking? can I hire you as a tour guide for the next visit?

:bounce:

[Blue_In_AK]

20. I would be more than happy to show you around for free,

if you pay for the gas. :) I have many more photos at the address in my sig line, if you want to see more. I'm adding to the galleries all the time.

[question everything]

19. Whoa, indeed. Thanks! (nt)

[pitohui]

9. here's your mr. moose (or maybe miz moose i dunno meese?

[question everything]

18. Yes, Ms. And she really took her time to at that post, as if to give

a chance for all of us on the tour bus to view her from all sides.. We had to wait for her to turn as at first she was mooning us.. ;)

[Drum]

12. Very cool!

Thanks all!

[pitohui]

7. you can link from a free photobucket account -- oops you got itEOM

/

[Broken_Hero]

10. I'm glad you enjoyed Alaska...

I miss it greatly, and its not as bad as some might think....:) BTW, I'm from SE Alaska, aka the panhandle :) I'm glad you enjoyed your trip...:hi:

[symbolman]

11. I spent ten years in Fairbanks and the Aleutians some summers

doing everything from Gold Mining for two summers to looking for Uranium by chopper all over the tundra - there are Many stories in Alaska, don't suppose you heard that it's called the "Home of the Endangered Individual"? :)

Ted Stevens should be shoved UP a Moose, or rubbed with bacon grease and staked out on the Tundra, a NASTY man.

Alaska once gave one of Reagan's "environmental guys", forget his name, he was screwing he environment so bad, a 21 CHAIN SAW SALUTE when he landed there :)

I love the place, once you go there you'll get hooked, you'll want to go back, and you'll never be the same again. Those mountains make anything that's bothering anyone seem PETTY and lame, don't they? Problems look kinda small next to them :)

Too bad you didn't post sooner, I would have sent you to my Gold Mining Sister up there and had her put you up, show you some real GOLD, the stuff WE dug out of the ground.. if you go in the summer let me know, she and her husband are the Tour Guides for the Gold mining scene out in FOX, and will hand you a pan or two..

Glad you LIKE, it's a strange place, Alaskans could easily colonize Mars, the weather is very nearly the same, and sometimes us Alaskans seem a little odd to other "normal" people, pretty forward and don't mince words :)

[XemaSab]

13. We all live on a system of resource extraction

but it is hidden from most of us. :shrug:

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Alaska is a state of contradictions...

but Symbolman is right, once you're here for a while, it's hard to leave. Here are a few pix I took a couple of days ago along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage.

[Sydnie]

16. Those pictures of Alaska are breathtaking!

thanks so much for sharing them!