Cal's Alaska Photos

Cal's Alaska Photos. These are not in any specific order. They are placed here as many I meet through this site and my writings in the African Hunter magazine ask about Alaska. So, here are some samples of my life in the 49th state. Captions are below each photo.

Above are two photos of bear tracks taken on October 21. I walk Blackie on the trail that parallels the tracks two or three times each day. One morning at first light I noticed a visitor had crossed the tracks that night.

Below are a few photos of fireweed at my cabin. Now, it's August 18 and notice how the blossoms are nearing the top? Summer's about over.

Fireweed can grow over 7-feet tall as are these plants in my front yard. Usually, fireweed begins to blossom in mid-July and flowers from the lower blossoms first, moving up as the summer progresses. When the blossoms reach the top, summer is over.

About Mile 210-220 of the Dalton Highway (Haul Road and Ice Road Truckers) a mother moose and her two little ones cross the highway.

May, 2012 float on the Chulitna River. Here is a view of the Alaska Range. The next four photos below are of the float.

Our camp. The raft and equipment belong to Bob Zwyna, an old friend from New Hampshire. Bob was at the shoot two weekends ago.

On the return to Alaska I saw the same old stuff, caribou, moose, bison, but here is a cool lynx in the Yukon territory.

Wood bison (a bit larger than the plains bison) in north British Columbia in the fall.

My mom at a friend's house with a full mammoth skull. The tusks are over 11 feet long and weigh well over 200 pounds each.

My hunting camp in ANWR, about 67 miles south of the Arctic Ocean and about 240 miles north of the Arctic Circle. August, 2011. A good caribou hunt.

Same hunt as above photo. Scenery is nice and note the caribou. Some nice bulls if you look close.

This unique mountain is (I think) called Sukapak Mt. It was a traditional border between the Eskimos in the north and the native peoples of central Alaska. Taken on the Dalton Highway, known to Alaskans as the Haul Road, and where the television show, Ice Road Truckers is filmed.

A mother moose and her little one out of my north window. Moose come by my place often.

This lake is a few miles south of the central part of the Denali Highway--between Cantwell and Paxon. I was on a bear hunt in 2011 and stopped for lunch and to rest at mid day. Remote areas are nice. I write this in a room at Circus Circus. I just got back from a nice dinner (lobster and shrimp linguini) and Las Vegas is all lights and noise and people. This place can't compare with this remote Alaska lake! I understand why people visit here (LV) but two million live here. Better here, I guess, than around this quiet and beautiful lake.

In 2010 I hunted grizzly/brown bear with my .600 Wilkes. I didn't see any bear but did come across a set of tracks. To give an idea of size, the cartridge is a bit over 3 1/2 inches long.

If you look close, you'll see a mother moose feeding on the hillside. She has a calf with her in the brush.

Look close at this one and you'll see a wolf. He was feeding on a caribou at the road's edge and ran off when I drove by. I stopped and so did he and I was able to snap this photo. Yukon Territory, near the Alaska border.

Female caribou keep their antlers through the winter and into spring. I understand the calcium is good for their unborn calf.

I must confess, I'm not much of a fisherman--just no interest. However, in 1987 or '88 two friends took me salmon fishing to Alexander Creek. We all caught two fish each in about 15 minutes. These two of mine weighted just over 50 pounds and, knowing it does not get much better than this, I haven't picked up a fishing rod since!

An old trapper's or miner's cabin just off the Alaska Highway on the shore of Kulane Lake in the Yukon Territory. Time is mid-March.

The cabin in the above photo is at the end of this stretch of highway as it bears to the right at the mountain's base.

Spring in British Columbia, north of Fort Nelson. These bison run wild but feed on the grass between the road the the timber.

Summer in the Yukon. The horses are owned but run free in the vast expanse of the Territory. On the Dempster Highway, north of Dawson City, a hunting outfitter uses horses in the summer and fall and lets them run wild through the winter and spring.

Blackie after a caribou on the Top of the World Highway, between Tok, Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon. Photo by Greg Hoversten. We were camping and as Blackie took off after a passing caribou, Greg snapped this really cool pic.

Rear paw of a brown bear that visited my yard (and burn barrel) in 2010. He was about a 9-footer and dined at the salmon streams in my area.

Front paw of the same bear. The print is washed out a bit due to rain, but it shows the size of the paw next to a 12-inch ruler.

In 1994, about 50 miles west of Lake Clark, I went caribou hunting with my then wife's eldest son, Jordan (he was about 12 at the time). Yes, I have in my hand a unique rifle--it has only one barrel! However, at the time I liked rifles a bit out of the ordinary and so it was with this: an 1876 Winchester in the rare .50-95 express caliber and the rifle has sights by Holland and Holland and is so marked on the barrel. Jordan's caribou (shot with my .270 WCF in a very early Weatherby rifle with a 3-digit serial number) was his first trophy and was far larger than mine!

In the mid-1990s I owned my "moose hunting cabin" about a 50-mile flight from Anchorage on No Name Lake. I didn't fly but friends did and they took me there in the summer and I used a snow machine to get there in the winter. It was a cold day, -58!

A corner of my living room: one-horn kudu, sable, giraffe, baboon, croc, and a lion skin with a poor mane.

My best friend, Black Dog or Blackie, with his first grouse. Now, each August and September, we go for our daily walks with a nice English double shotgun and I say, "Go find birds" and he takes off and flushes up grouse.