July 10th, 2012: Driving from Anchorage to Soldotna

Renita read that the parking lot was mainly used by snowmobile's as the snow depth here typically was as much as twelve feet. No wonder there was still snow on the mountains above us! It contrasted with the deep greens of the thick vegetation. We looked for more sheep but there were too many patches of snow.

The drive along Cook Inlet is simply mile after mile of stunning views. Of course we spied more Dall sheep but we also saw waterfalls and glaciers. A large snow and ice covered mountain stood out across the inlet and we were later told it was named Mt Redoubt. Another mountain was clearly a stratovolcano but we don't know its name.
The road itself was good, some of the best we have driven in Alaska. It did narrow down and slow to thirty five mph once we reached the Sterling Highway. Later the road straightened and it was good all the way to Soldotna.

We checked into the nicest rv park we have encountered in Alaska and for forty five dollars a night was pretty reasonable, for Alaska anyway. Later we went in search of fishing opportunities as the red salmon,(sockeye), are beginning their run.
Places here sell combat fishing tee shirts and dip netting for Alaskan residents starts tomorrow so I am sure it will be a real eye opening experience. We are only here for three nights and then down to Homer but we do plan on coming back,(you have to come back as there is no other way).
The rivers are unusually high here, from all the rain and snow melt. The Kenai is another big river and driving we saw signs for the Russian River. It is like we have arrived in the middle of fishing paradise and I have never been so confused as what to do and where to start. Clear skies

June 9th, 2012 Another Day in Anchorage

We both saw the giant reddish colored fish swim in an arc and then head back upstream. We watched as it turned sideways and dug its redd while two smaller fish released clouds of milt into the cascading eggs. Two hungry trout stood poised downstream waiting for their chance to gobble fresh king salmon eggs.
An extra day in Anchorage presented itself to us and we talked of going to the Anchorage Museum and then visiting the Russian Orthodox Church. However the wind had died and we grabbed the binoculars heading for  Beluga  and Windy Points.
It was only about seven miles past Potters Marsh and as we arrived we saw a group of people looking up the mountain side. Now Belugas can't climb mountains so we deduced they must be looking at Dall sheep.  Quickly pointing them out to us we both started to watch and then scan the other mountains for more.

There weren't any Belugas in the area, or none that anyone could spot, so we headed further into the inlet. Before we reached Windy point we saw another group of people and as we pulled in two Dall rams stuck out their heads and peered at us below. They left before we got any images but they were the closest Dalls we had seen.
 A few miles more and we spotted more sheep, again high above us. Renita spotted five bedded down and now our total for the day stood at nineteen sheep! So it was time to do some birding. Turning the truck around we drove back to Potters Marsh and headed down the boardwalk.

A greater yellowlegs, stood on one leg, resting. A little further an Arctic Tern was also taking a siesta but not the least sandpipers who were busy plucking insects from the muck. We saw a family of cackling geese peering over the reed tops, and we added another bird to our life list.
King salmon topped our list of things to see as the giant nets in the Pacific hadn't caught all of the fish. You wonder if there is any hope for the salmon as the modern technology has enabled man to find their feeding areas.
So we returned back to Anchorage and picked up our prescriptions. It was a full day of Dall sheep, new life birds, and of course our first King salmon. Tomorrow we head to Soldotna on the Kenai. Clear skies

July7-8th,2012, Anchorage

Ask anyone that knows me, I am not  fan of cities, and so when we drove into Anchorage I expected the worst. Again I have been surprised as the people here are so friendly, there have been plenty of things to do, and we are enjoying our stay!
The main reason we stopped here was to get our prescriptions. Renita called hers in and the pharmacy first told her they didn't know if they could get it. Upon further checking they said they could but it would take an extra day's wait for the order to arrive. oh well.
We then went to the local Fred Myers and stocked up on groceries and I repaired a battery terminal that had been giving us a bit of a scare as our twelve volt system showed us a zero charge indication while we were out in the country.
With that done, it was time to play tourist and so we first went to the salmon viewing and public fishing area. As we approached it was obvious that nothing was happening as there weren't any fisherman. The answer to this is there aren't any salmon, the king salmon run has pretty much disappeared. No one knows why and Alaska simply released a statement that its not their fault.

Anyway we did pick up a new bird, a Theyers Gull, and so our next stop was to the local Arts and Farmers Market. It was really refreshing to find a place where booth after booth was filled with actually local made arts and crafts! Of course there was some of the imported stuff from Asia but still most of it was made here, by Alaskans. It is always such a pleasure to chat and trade ideas with artists, its one of the ways we get new ideas and material.
The one disadvantage of such places is the availability of materials for us to purchase, and often we spend too much, and of course we did. We were able to purchase mammoth ivory and small pieces of mammoth teeth. We both are excited to be able to work these into our own designs.

The next stop was to Potters Marsh, a local birding area along Cooks Inlet. It was so cold and windy that even the birds were huddling, as you can see in the opening image of tree swallow chicks wishing they were still in the nest. We did get three new birds, an Arctic Tern, a red breasted grebe, and a solitary sandpiper.
Another place that we had to stop was at a local rock shop, Natures Treasures. We had a great visit with the owners who also do lapidary and we were able to purchase some Alaskan rough called Aurora Borealis. If you are into ricks this is a great place to learn about other Alaskan treasure, besides gold,
So we now have an extra day in Anchorage and we haven't yet decided on what to do. I am sure Anchorage will surprise us as we both have really enjoyed our time here. Tomorrow we head for the Kenai . Clear skies

July 5-6, 2012: South to Anchorage

July 5-6, 2012: South to Anchorage

We left the rv park and headed south. The first day’s goal was to check out Denali State Park, and maybe spend the night there. It was only ten bucks a night and it did offer a view of the south face. After traveling only eighty some miles we turned into the campground/parking lot.

As we drove in there was Denali, and it was mostly out, so of course we had to camp there and hope for the best. Camping was basically pulling into one of the painted pull through spots on the asphalt and throwing ten bucks into an envelope.

People came and went and before too long another camper pulled in and parked. As it was time to walk Molly we headed over in the area of the others and discovered they were also from Wyoming, and only sixty miles from where we worked, played, and lived for thirty years.

So we went back to our fifth wheel and waited for Denali to completely come out of the clouds. It was so tantalizing as patches of blue sky would head toward the mountain and then a cloud would form and add to the layers that hid the summits. I finally gave up and went to bed, telling Renita to please wake me if the mountain came out.

Waking at one thirty am I looked and the same clouds still hid the peak. Falling back to sleep I again rose at seven am and there was the Mountain, it had come out! I rushed back to bed and told Renita to get up and I have never seen her move so fast. However we weren’t fast enough as a cloud formed and grew, again hiding the top.

So we packed up and headed further south, past Byers Lake and down to the South Viewpoint of the State Park. As we pulled in we could see the best viewing of the mountain we have seen and cars and buses filled the lot as people rushed to the viewing area to capture a picture of the mountain.

I overheard one lady tell her friend that this was the first time she had seen the mountain and it was her fifth trip! We took image after image as the mountain covered itself with a new layer of clouds. It looked kind of like a birthday cake with layer after layer stacked on top of one another.

As we were about to leave Renita heard a different lady talking about the bears on the braided river. Looking, I spotted two big cubs racing across an opening and I do mean racing. It’s one thing to hear that bears are fast but it’s another thing to actually see how fast they can move.

We never spotted the sow and so we took off as we had miles to go to reach the city. The road actually improved near Talkeetna and became a four lane highway as we cruised through Wasilla. I never did get to see Russia as there are mountains in the way,(ok I won’t repeat that joke again).

The traffic increased and I found myself detesting the nearing city, even before we got there. Checking in we paid fifty seven dollars a night for our pull through, and well, the bad feelings about Anchorage intensified. Perhaps it will be better tomorrow after a good night’s sleep. Clear skies

July 2nd and 4th, 2012: Looking for the Mountain

July 2nd and 4^Th, 2012: Looking for the Mountain

People here say that only about thirty percent of those who visit Denali National Park actually get to see the Mountain. They seem to always refer to it as the Mountain, sometimes Denali, and never as Mount McKinley. They ask you if you saw the Mountain come out, as it’s so large it makes its own weather and so is seldom seen.

So we steeled ourselves to not seeing the Mountain. After all it had been raining for days and cloudy and cold…….We boarded the Wonder Lake Bus and took images as the bus driver would say, “Now if the Mountain came out it would be right there in that notch”. In fact I was going to call this blog, if you could see the Mountain, but then the Mountain surprised us all and came out.

It was like a burlesque fan dancer as the Mountain teased us with a wall here, the South peak there and almost all its parts, but never all at once. Clouds would part for a bit and we could make out its majesty, and for that we were thankful.

As we crossed Polychrome Pass, where we crossed our fingers as we passed another bus on Poison Point,(A notorious hairpin where it’s said only one drop would kill you which refers to what would happen if the bus dropped over the edge of the unguarded turn), the Mountain danced and covered itself with a fan of clouds disappearing from sight. We never saw it again.

So we still felt lucky, after all we did see the Mountain. To celebrate the Fourth of July we decided to return to Savage River and look for more Ptarmigan or possibly caribou. As we drove I looked up from the tundra and exclaimed, “Oh f*^K, Denali came out”, and there it was in all its glory. Renita laughed at me and asked if I knew what I had said.

The North and South peak both cleared, along with the Wickersham Wall and Mudlows Glacier. It was all there, even though it was fifty miles away. It’s not a graceful and beautiful mountain as the Grand Teton, but instead a massive giant that dominates everything below it.

Covered with glacial ice and snow, the crevasse fields were evident even at that distance. The Mountain looked as dangerous as its reputation and it has already killed six climbers this season. So we took image after image and sadly none of our images did any justice to what we saw, and that’s ok.

After all the Mountain came out and we were lucky enough to see it……Clear skies.

note the first image was taken just north of the Savage River Campground at a distance of fifty miles and two and four were taken from about thirty miles away near Polychrome Pass. Hence the differing appearance from different angles. The third image is a brief glimpse of the summit from Eilsen Ranger station.

July 3rd, 2012: A Long Ride To Wonder Lake

The grizzly plodded toward the bus as if it wasn't there. It reached the passenger side and then turned as if it were thinking, "Why won't it move?", before it continued along the side and then crossed in front. It was the eighht grizzly of the day and by far the closest and biggest.

We were riding the shuttle bus to Wonder Lake. It's a twelve hour plus round trip(there are stops where you can stretch and use restrooms), from the park entrance, and the only way to travel inside the park,(other then taking a flight seeing tour). See the park service has decided to limit driving on the one road to shuttle busses with strict rules for the passengers. Most importantly, these are that nothing sticks out the windows but camera lenses and if anyone talks when the bus is close to the animal, the driver will start the bus and drive on!

Our group actually obeyed the rules and the results were the best wildlife viewing we have ever seen. We saw nine grizzly bears, numerous cariboo, five moose, a red fox, birds that were completely unafraid of people, dall sheep, oh and a lynx.
It was the first lynx we have ever seen and it jumped into the willows, until the driver turned off the engine. Then the lynx stepped back on the road and posed a bit before returning to the brush on the other side.

How unlike Yellowstone where the animals are under a barage of idiots who jump out of vehicles and literally surround the bears, some with cubs. Here the jams are bus jams of one or two and a total of about thirty a day. Of course there are other's but they are all park workers who know the strict rules.

We both felt like we had been transported into a subartic Garden of Eden. A place back in time and maybe one of the few places where the animals are seemingly unafraid of people. The only one missing on our tour, was a wolf, and we were told that the alpha female had been trapped, outside the park. The State of Alaska last year reopened the area adjacent to trapping, so perhaps she was one of the pelts we  have seen almost everywhere we go.

If you ever go to Alaska, and travel to Denali National Park, be sure to take a ride on the shuttle bus. Of course you will hope to see the Mountain, but even if you don't the wildlife viewing and other scenery will make the trip worth every penny! Clear skies

ps Thanks to Ned, our bus driver for the excellent naration and driving along the scary narrow roads. These make the Top of the World highway seem like, well a highway. Did I say there were no guardrails? This made passing other busses a joy especially on the numerous hairpins. It reminded me of the movie, The Long Long Trailer.

June 30th, 2012, The Savage River Loop Trail

We had just left the truck and I saw a bird with a brown upper body amd white undersides and legs fly across the river. It was a willow ptarmagin! As we started down to the willows Renita turned and looked at me and asked,"Can you hear that?, and of course I couldn't.

As we got a little closer the clucking sound became so loud that even I could make out the call and we both spied the hen, wait whats that movement, calling to her chick and we could see it. A little further we saw another hen and her two chicks and already the short drive had been all the ranger had told us about.

Crossing the bridge we heard the louder song of a rooster ptarmagin and watched as he flew across the river. His eyes are lined with feathers that suggested orange eye liner and his plumage contained more white then the hen.

We saw a ranger leave the tour bus and it was the same one that we had seen the day before at the Visitor Center. Thanking her for the information about the new life bird she suggested that we hike upriver and look for harlequin ducks. However there had been other hikers and we didn't see any.
Returning to the truck we donned our day packs and set off to hike the Savage River loop trail. Above us loomed Savage Rock and there were people climbing it and posing on the top. We stopped often and enjoyed the flowers along the trailside. Renita motioned to me as a white crowned sparrow seemed to pose and we had both rarely been so close to a wild bird.

The hike was an easy mile, mostly downhill and we stopped at the footbridge to sit and eat lunch. It's a busy trail and other groups passed us, making the turn and heading back up hill. A ground squirrel approached both if us, hoping for a handout but we don't feed wild animals.

The hike up the valley was easy and we stopped to enjoy the metamorphic rocks.  Greenstone was abundant, along with a silvery metamorphic shist, its lines folded tight together like last falls foilage. A large boulder of black and white gneiss sat in the middle of the river and I thought about jumping onto it but decided that it might be too big a gap. Near the bridge the trail split in two and we took the River Bar loop before rejoining the main trail back to the bridge.
We didn't notice any more Ptarmagin as they were roosting in the dense willows. Renita and I both realized we had been fortunate to get there early enough to see the end of their morning feeding, as the flock was nowhere to be seen.

It had been a great day and a new life bird. A nice two mile hike in the sub artic biome. Flowers, rocks and birds, who could ask for more on our first full day at Denali National Park? Clear skies.