I pulled out of Anchor Point at first light on Sunday morning for a "photo shooting" expedition for wildlife. It was a good day, no sooner had I left my home and I recalled a quotation from my son, Shane. One day after a morning of Silver Salmon fishing one of the ball players that played on his team ask him, "did you catch any Silver's this morning?" Shane simply replied, "No, but I caught a beautiful sunrise!" That is how my day started as I pulled out of Anchor Point.
The sun was just starting to break the horizon and I knew it would be a good day.

Sunrise ~ Anchor Point, Alaska ~ December 6, 2009

A few minutes later, the sun kissed the tip of Mt. Iliamna,

I could not resist taking a shot at a "close up kiss"

My "photo safari" would take me to the headwaters of the Kasilof River on Tustamena Lake. From Tustamena, I decided to venture further north and stopped just short of crossing the Moose River. From Sterling, I would turn east and go to the headwaters of Swanson River hoping to find both Moose and Caribou. What a great trip, found some very interesting places to visit this next summer on the Swanson River Road. I must admit, the sighting of "wildlife" was very limited, in total I saw one cow moose. Wanting to shoot something, I shot my dog, "Dutch", he always likes to pose for the camera.

In total, my photo safari took us 213.6 miles but it was successful, a great show awaited us as we turned south on the Sterling Highway to head home.

Rays of Sun and Winter Darkness Mingling ~ December 6, 2009

The mission was not accomplished, no wildlife pictures were taken.
However, one must ask themselves in situations like this; Was the trip a waste of time? I can only simply reply, "No, it was not because, I was fortunate to catch both the sunrise and sunset"
That is all that one can ask for.