Grand Canyon, Slot Canyons and More!

Ron NiebruggeArizona, Photos, Travel 10 Comments

As I mentioned yesterday – Monday I take off for Prince William Sound and Cordova.  Ten days later, I fly to Anchorage.  Dump my rain gear and Xtra-tuff for shorts and Tevas and fly to Arizona for a month!

Really excited about this trip.  We were able to obtain some hard to get back-country permits to hike and camp down in the Grand Canyon.  We spent one cold winter night there almost a decade ago, and ever since then I have wanted to return with the time to really explore and photograph this beautiful National Park.  Unfortunately, even months ago, reservations for campground and hotels for the North Rim were already full, so we will concentrate on the South Rim.  Didn’t think the North Rim would be the hard one for reservations.

From there, we will spend time in Page, Arizona where I plan to explore more slot canyons and other attractions in the area.  We have also rented a boat for some Lake Powell exploration.  Not a fancy house boat, but a little Lund skiff – big enough for tents and sleeping bags for some beach camping under the stars!

Finally, we will end the trip with a short visit to one of my favorite National Parks – Zion!

After that, it is back to Alaska for summer and it will be on!  The next 5 months should be very busy – just how I like it!

Alaska Shorebird Migration

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel Leave a Comment

Monday morning will be the beginning of 5 fun weeks of travel for me!  It will start co-guiding a trip across Prince William Sound for a week, and then 4 days in Cordova for the amazing shorebird migration you see pictured above.  Not only will we be seeing shorebirds on the delta, but there are many other things planned including a flight to Kayak Island, a place I have always wanted to see.

I’m excited for a few reasons – first, I’ll be working with 3 good friends and fellow staff members from last winters trip to Antarctica.  It is an unexpected treat to be hired to work with these great guys  again so soon.

Second, the shorebird migration is really an amazing thing to see.  At times there are literally tens of thousands of birds at one time passing through the area in thick flocks.

Third – it is going to be a treat to spend a week in Prince William Sound aboard a beautiful boat like the M/V Discovery.  I love the Sound – and as many times as I have been there, I have never seen it in May – it should look very different with all the snow still on the ground.

So after Friday, it might be a couple of weeks until I have the time and internet connection to post again – hopefully I’ll have some interesting bird images to share then!

Lemaire Channel, Antarctica

Ron NiebruggeAntarctica, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

This is looking back into Lemaire Channel after we had just past through it on our ice-breaker.  The mountains out of the frame to the left rise as high and are as dramatic as the ones you see here on the right side of the channel.  Hard to believe there is even room for a boat to pass through this spot!  This is my favorite area of Antarctica, and fortunately we pass through this channel twice – Southbound and again Northbound.

2014 Alaska Photo Tours

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel 3 Comments

A Brown Bear cub nursing from its mom.  It is not uncommon to see amazing moments like this on my Alaska Bear Photo Tour.

Since I don’t have anything available in 2013, and I have been getting many inquiries about my 2014 photo tours, we decided we better schedule dates for 2014!  I know it seems like a long ways away, but every year they fill earlier and earlier!

So the biggest change is to my Southeast Alaska / Inside Passage Yacht based Photo Tour.  Because bears have proven to be so popular, I have decided to position this to be a bear tour as much as it is a whale and amazing landscape photo tour.  We are still going to be spending time in some of the best whale viewing areas in Alaska if not the world.  We will also still visit some stunning tidewater glaciers – in fact we will be having a jet boat meet us so that we can get extra close to the icebergs and tidewater glacier in LeConte Bay.

But, we are now going to be spending time in some wonderful bear viewing places including the Anan Creek Bear Observatory where we will watch Black and Brown bears fish for salmon in a beautiful rainforest waterfall.  We will stop at Neets Bay for a visit to one of the best Black Bear viewing areas in the world!  And finally, we will be going to a bit of a secret Brown Bear location that my captain recently discovered.  So now, I believe this week long trip gives you a great cross section of many of the amazing photo opportunities Alaska has to offer.

As the first person to charter this wonderful yacht for the 2014 summer season, I had my pick of the liter when it comes to dates, and I believe we will be going at the absolutely perfect time at the end of July – an extremely popular time here in Alaska!  Follow this link to read more about my Bear and Whale Photo Tour.

Of course I’m also offering my two Alaska Bear Photo Tours to Lake Clark National Park.  The 2014 season will be my 5th year offering this wonderful photo tour.  I could go on and on about this amazing experience.  Being up close to such magnificent animals is hard to describe with words it really is.  That said, you can read far more about it here:  Alaska Bear Photo Tour.  You can also see a video preview I filmed during the August trip my first year of the tour.

Of course if you have more questions, please feel free to email or call.

We may offer some photo tours outside Alaska including my annual  Anza-Borrego workshop – stay tuned.

Going Back to Antarctica!

Ron NiebruggeAntarctica, Photos, Travel 9 Comments

Running Zodiacs in this amazing environment was one of my favorite activities down in Antarctica.  Although, walking around the penguin colonies, or taking a hike up an old volcano was also really cool.  Heck, who am I fooling, it is all amazing!

So I’m honored to say Cheeseman’s Ecology Safaris has hired me to return!  It is going to be a wonderful trip that will also include the Falklands, South Georgia and the South Orkney Islands..  Looks like many of the staff from last year’s trip will be returning, including a long time Alaskan friend of mine Hugh Rose who again will be the Expedition Leader.  He does a wonderful job as leader – not a lot of people have 15 years of guiding experience down there like he does.  Little did I know when I meet Hugh aboard a Kenai Fjords Tour almost 20 years ago how that chance meeting would impact my life so many years later!

You can read more about the trip here:  Cheeseman’s Antarctica Trip.  I  believe it is almost sold out.

As a side note, the gentleman taking my photo on the back of the Zodiac is my friend Rawdon who will be joining me on my bear tour for the third or fourth summer in a row!

Singing Stone A Natural History of the Escalante Canyons

Ron NiebruggePhotos, Travel, Utah Leave a Comment

Throwing in a photo of the Escalante region of Utah doesn’t seem to fit with my recent Antarctica theme, but I can explain.

I first passed through the Escalante area more than 12 years ago and loved the region.  I expected to be blown away by the Moab area, Zion and Bryce, places you hear so much about, but Escalante came as a surprise.  It was immediately evident that the photo opportunities were endless.  My intentions were to return for an extended visit to really explore the area.   Lack of cell and internet access has kept us from making an extended visit – the disadvantage to being self employed, although I did spend a brief bit of time photographing the area in 2005, and more recently passed by to visit photographer friend Guy Tal, which reminded me again  how I loved the area.

Fast forward to Antarctica.  I found all the fellow staff members to be extremely knowledgeable, fascinating, and insightful.  One of the staff members was Thomas Lowe Fleischner (Tom), who is a professor of natural history at Prescott College in Arizona.  On the first day of our trip, Tom and I were paired together as part of a group hike into Tierra del Fuego National Park.  On that hike I really enjoyed Tom’s insight, and his ability to explain things in such an interesting way.  From then on I made a point of staying within earshot of Tom when I could, so that I might learn as much as possible.

Tom is also an author and it turns out that one of Tom’s books, Singing Stone, was about the natural history of the Escalante Canyon region (Capitol Reef National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon NRA).  I love natural history books, and have many shelves of them.  But, most are guide book in style, with page after page of animal tracks, wildflowers or birds.  Tom was kind enough to share his book with me which I recently finished.

What I loved about Tom’s book is the story telling nature that covers all those things you wonder about when visiting the area.  I felt like I was hiking around the area with Tom as he explained things I asked about!  Not just birds and geology, but the history, the plant life, effects of management decisions and more.   It was fascinating – I wish there were similar books on other regions!

So what causes the dark streaks you see on the canyon walls?  Which adult hummingbird builds the nest and raises the young?  You will just have to read the book!