Late July Miscelaneous Stuff

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures taken in the town of Kenai and at a couple glaciers that we visited during late July. I know, I know, I'm way behind on posting. Today is September 14 and I'm just posting July's pictures.

We spent about 5 days in the city of Kenai, Alaska. Boy, what a mistake!! The campground was small and tightly packed. We didn't realize that every man, woman and child in the state of Alaska descends on the Kenai Peninsula, and especially the town of Kenai, during the summer to catch salmon. The mouth of the Kenai River was shoulder-to-shoulder people with these long handle nets called dip nets trying to catch all the salmon as they swim up stream to spawn. People couldn't believe that we came to Kenai in the summer and we weren't dipnetters. Anyway, this is a nicely restored Russian Orthodox church with the classic onion domes.

We spent 1 week in the town of Seward, Alaska and it rained for 7 days and 7 nights. Yuck, yuck, double yuck!! We had planned to take a cruise into Kenai Fjords Natl Park but the cruises were mostly cancelled because of high winds and very rough seas. I was determined to see something while we were in Seward so we drove to Exit Glacier in the rain. It was only about 10 miles away. We had to put on our rain gear and hike a little to get these pictures of the glacier. See it way off in the fog?? All that gravel in the foreground is crushed-up rocks deposited by the glacier as it moves. In fact, in the town of Seward they have a rock quarry that simply scoops-up the gravel from the glacier and sells it. Keep in mind that the quarry is in town, 10 miles from the foot of the glacier. They are scooping-up rock deposited by the glacier many generations ago as the glacier was retreating.

Here's a little closer view of Exit Glacier. Sorry for the fog and clouds. It was a nasty day.

Kathy looks like she's enjoying the liquid Alaska sunshine, doesn't she?? She doesn't wear a hood very often but she did that day.

I think this is cute. This is a group of tourists getting ready for an organized hike to the foot of the glacier. I really like the way their bright orange raincoats contrast with the green trees and white glacier.

OK, here's a different glacier. This is the Matanuska Glacier. It's not near any big city, or ANY city for that matter, so you probably won't find it on a map. It's east of Chickaloon on the Glenn Hwy, if that helps. What's nice about this glacier is that you can walk right onto it. You drive down this steep, narrow "private" dirt road carved into the side of a hill. Since it's "private" it doesn't have to meet any highway standards so it's extremely steep and very, very narrow. Note, we didn't take the trailer down there. We used Kathy's Saturn. After about 2 miles of bumping around you come to a gate and a "trading post" (gift shop). You pay the natives inside $15 per person and they open the gate for you. I think we also had to sign a release. Then you drive another 2 miles on "private" dirt road to a parking lot. You can tell it's a parking lot because there are a couple outhouses there. The picture above was taken from the parking lot. It's pretty good but you can take a 1 mile trail and walk on the glacier itself. Come on Kathy, let's go.

Well, here's the trail. No, we didn't have to walk through the water. Not yet anyway. The trail follows around the edge of the water. They had orange cones ever 100 feet or so to mark the trail. Can you see the orange cones?? No?? That's OK, I can't see them either. Just keep walking Kathy.

Look what we found!! Now, who would park an excavator next to a glacier. And why would a person need an excavator out here?? They must be scooping-up that valuable glacier gravel we saw in Seward. Actually, I posted this for my grandson, Alex. He loves big trucks and heavy equipment. Hey Alex, how would you like us to bring this back to Florida?? Grandma could drive it around. No one would mess with her on I-95.

Here's Kathy getting ready to ford a raging river. See that little board across the stream?? That's our "bridge". Also notice the orange trail marker. Do you see all the rocks and gravel she's walking on?? I thought that was deposited by the glacier. Actually, it was on top of the glacier so we are walking on ice. You just can't see it, yet. It sure was starting to get cold. Don't we know how to have fun??

Hey, we made it!! They didn't want us to walk any further onto the glacier. You need cramp-ons, helmet, ropes, guide, etc. to go any further. I guess there are a lot of crevasses to fall into and you can't always see them. It was really cold out there too.

You can't tell from this picture but I'm wearing a really thin jacket. Man, was it cold out there.

Here's one last shot of Matanuska Glacier from a distance. All that dark grey is rock covering the foot of the glacier.

Bye everybody, I'll try to post again in a week or two. The next post will cover a 9 hour glacier cruise we did in Valdez, Alaska. There will be lots of marine mammals, birds and oil tankers (supertankers).

Katmai National Park - Episode 2

Welcome back everybody. The bears and I are waiting to show you more pictures of Katmai National Park. We also want to tell you about our exciting (unplanned) adventure when we tried to fly back to Homer, Alaska. OK, lets get started.

This is our group taking a little rest during our day at Katmai. Actually the bears were only a few feet away. The guy in the back with the grey cap is Mike, our pilot/guide. When we were watching the bears Mike made us kneel or sit in a small group. That way we look less threatening to the bears. This is especially important to a huge female with a couple of small cubs.

Here’s mom watching over her 2 cubs again. Bears are extremely attentive mothers. I just couldn’t get enough of this bear. She was incredibly tolerant of humans.

Wow ma, what's that??? The mom and cubs were busy eating when they all suddenly got up and turned around. Then the mother sat down like this. There was a big male bear coming. Mike said this sitting position was a submissive sign that she was no threat to the male.

This is the big male. (I sat down and got submissive too…)

Kathy took this nice scenic with a low camera angle. It gives you another view of Katmai.

How about a few more pictures of the cubs playing??

These fuzzy little rascals were so cute.

Check out the little milk teeth on the cub in the back. He looks like he’s about to give his brother a right hook.

You have to look at this picture real close. There are 2 huge bear tracks in the mud. I outlined one in black to make it easier to see. The white outline is a human footprint inside the bears track!! This gives you some idea of how big these animals are. And you thought I was kidding when I said that one bear was as big as a Ford Focus…

This big guy was sitting but it wasn’t submissive. I think he was taking a break from overeating.

Here’s another group of tourists watching “OUR” cubs. See the cubs on the left side of the frame?? These people weren’t nearly as close to the cubs as we got.

Have you ever seen an Army tank eat grass??.

The next photo is rated PG. If you have small children looking over your shoulder (Kelly) you might want to look at the photo before you let them see it. I don’t want to offend anyone.

Now, why would I show this?? I asked our guide how you can tell a male bear from a female bear. He said that female bears pee out the back and male bears pee forward, frequently peeing on their feet. Hmmm, this sounds like some guys I know. Obviously this is a female. Also, look at the fur on her butt. The dark patches are exposed skin where she shed fur.

When our time with the bears was over (3+ hours) we started walking back to the plane. For some reason this bear started walking parallel to us. He walked with us almost all the way back to the beach. The blue in the background is a stream we had to cross. He walked across the stream too (after he took a drink). Then he sat down and watched us walk away before he went back across the stream toward the other bears. I think he was our official park escort. I would have to say that I’ve never had a better escort, anywhere.

One last look at Katmai, bears, fog, mountains. Bye, I’ll be back.

Here’s a peek out the window as we took off. Notice how close we are to the drift wood.

You see those little red things on the ground below us? Those are tents. The park service set-up tents in Katmai for anyone brave enough to spend a night with the bears. The tents are surrounded by an electric fence. The fence is powered by a battery that’s charged by solar panels. I wonder what happens if the sun doesn’t come out for a few days and the battery goes dead?? They also provide bear-proof containers for food storage. Going to the bathroom must be fun. There are no outhouses there and you must have to leave the security of the electric fence to do your business. Could get interesting.

OK, one last look at the mountains of Katmai. What a day!! Now we just have to fly back to Homer to finish our 6 hour adventure.

Here’s where things get weird. Our flight back to Homer was supposed to take approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. As we flew back I was watching Mike’s GPS. He had loaded waypoints along the route so I was following our progress. The GPS also showed our airspeed, time to destination, etc. About 15 minutes before we got to our destination I felt the plane starting to descend. I looked down and the clouds were blocking my view of the ground. There was this one little hole in the clouds and it looked like Mike was heading for it. The plane is very noisy inside (he passed out earplugs before we left Homer) so I couldn’t ask any questions. As we got lower I could see the ground through the hole in the clouds and it didn’t look familiar. As we got even lower I saw more of the ground and I didn’t recognize anything that looked like Homer. Where the heck are we going?? When we approached the airport I knew it definitely wasn’t Homer. Was Mike holding us for ransom?? We landed at a little “unattended” airport. There was no one around but it was really getting foggy. When we finally taxied in and Mike shut off the engine we all asked “where are we Mike??”. Mike’s answer? (see below)

Seldovia!! Where the hell is Seldovia?? Oh no, we’re in Russia!! Russia is right next to Alaska, you know…

It turns out that our airport in Homer was socked-in with fog so we couldn’t land there. Another airport further up the coast in Kenai was also fogged-in so Mike diverted us here. Mike said he would buy us dinner and then, if the fog cleared, he would fly us to Homer. Great, a free meal!! You know how much an engineer likes free food.

We walked into town (very, very small town) and the only place with food that was open was this smoky bar. Imagine, it was Saturday night and only one place was open. So we walked in with all our gear and our clunky rubber boots (we left our shoes back in Homer). We got quite a few stares. I guess they don’t get too many visitors on Saturday night. Anyway, Mike bought us all pizza and drinks as we waited for the fog to clear. Well, things didn’t quite work according to plan. The fog got much worse so we couldn’t fly back to Homer. No problem, Mike can just call someone to come get us in a car, right? What do you mean there are no roads into Seldovia!!! We’re stuck here?? With no clean clothes, not even a toothbrush?? Time for Plan B. Mike is going to get us rooms for the night -- in beautiful downtown Seldovia. Oh goody, another Alaska adventure…

We went to the only hotel in town that was open. The outside doesn’t look like much, does it?? We went inside and I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. It looked like they had just remodeled the whole place. No kidding, it was spotless, freshly painted, new carpets. It was great. Hey wait, there is no one at the front desk. In fact, there is no one in the entire hotel!! Now I’m looking for Norman Bates. They had a phone number to call if you wanted a room. How novel, the hotel is unlocked and no one is there to keep a person from robbing the place blind. Do you think you would find this kind of place in Miami?? So Mike calls the inn keeper and they’ll “be down in a half hour or so”. Just make yourself at home. Hey look, a TV, let’s see what’s on. Snow, snow, snow… Dang, no TV signal in Seldovia. So we sat around, finally got checked in and picked-out rooms. They don’t assign rooms here. You just pick one. We got a nice room with a view of the main street in beautiful downtown Seldovia (population 284). Unfortunately the local watering hole (where we had pizza) was a few doors down and drunks kept walking by making noise. Mike told us he would check the weather the next morning and let us know when we would be leaving. Good night.

The next morning came and Mike didn’t wake us up. I hope he didn’t abandon us here. We looked outside and it was still foggy. Well, now Mike is going to buy us breakfast too. Wow, 2 free meals and a free night in Seldovia’s finest hotel. How can you beat that?? Sniff, sniff, something stinks, wait, that’s me, better take a shower. Yuck, no clean clothes or deodorant. Oh well, this is an Alaskan adventure.

The breakfast was great. Afterwards we had time to kill waiting for the fog to lift so we walked around town. This is a foggy view of Main St. in Seldovia. Nice quiet little place. Notice the dog in the lower right corner. He was walking around loose. This is very common in Alaska. People do not like to leash their dogs up here.

Seldovia is kind of an artsy town. They had a bunch of huge wood carvings down at the pier.

Here’s a little more Seldovia art. Pretty nice, isn’t it??

Here’s the local hardware, grocery, buy-anything store.

They also like to paint fire hydrants in Seldovia. They were having some sort of competition so all the hydrants were painted. I think this one is suppose to be a puffin.

This one is a dog. Cute.

If I read this sign correctly, I can take a shower on Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday from 2PM to 7PM but only if I call first. Now I know what I was smelling earlier this morning.

On 4th of July they have a big party in Seldovia. One of the main events is climbing a greased pole. I guess they left the pole up so this guy was showing-off for his girl friend. This is about as far as he made it.

Oh no, they locked me in the Seldovia jail. Notice the Gore-Tex jacket, heavy shirt, and clunky rubber boots. This is the middle of July and it’s in the upper 40s outside with light drizzle. Yucky!!

I couldn’t pass this one up. That’s me with my 350 lb. halibut, red suspenders, and my Eskimo bride, Kathy. You gotta love downtown Seldovia.

I like the carved wooden moose in front of this little shop.

I took this picture from a little bridge just outside Seldovia. You can see how foggy it is. The airstrip where our plane is parked is just behind me. We have to take off over this little river, fly between 2 hills that you can’t see because of the fog, make a turn to the right and climb out over Kachemak Bay. I sure hope Mike has X ray vision.

We walked to the airstrip, Mike did his preflight inspection, warmed up the engine and then we waited. About an hour later he saw a break in the fog so we jumped in, started the engine, taxied out and Mike snuck through a hole in the fog. What a piece of flying!!! Apparently this is pretty normal flying for an Alaskan bush pilot.

Look, we made it. That’s the Homer airport just ahead.

Steady as she goes Mike. We’re almost there.

Yippee, we made it. Our 6 hour trip turned out to be 23 hours. I guess we really got our money’s worth. Too bad our big Alaska adventure is over.

Well, if any of you are ever in Homer, Alaska I would highly recommend a bear viewing trip to Katmai National Park. It’s a little expensive but so is everything else in Alaska. The experience is incredible. This blows away everything else I saw or did in Alaska and possibly anything I’ve done in my life. Kathy and I can highly recommend K Bay Air for your adventure. Tell Mike you want the premium trip with an overnight stay in Seldovia and bring a big memory card for your camera. The bears are waiting for you…

Katmai National Park - Episode 1

Well, this is it, the pictures from our big trip to Katmai National Park. That was, without a doubt, the highlight of our 3 months in Alaska. The plan was to fly in a small bush plane from Homer, Alaska to Katmai NP (1 hour and 15 minutes), spend a few hours on the ground among the big brown (grizzly) bears there and then fly back to Homer. As is frequently the case in Alaska, things didn’t go exactly to plan. I’ll explain as we go through the pictures.

I had a lot of pictures to post for this adventure so I’m doing it in 2 batches. This group is about 35 photos. I’ll post another 35 or so in about a week to finish the story.

First, a little background. Katmai National Park is a wilderness area. That means there are no roads, no permanent structures (not even an outhouse), no electricity, no cell service, and, oh yes, no runway for the plane. The plan was to land on the beach at low tide!! Sounds cool, doesn’t it?? Let's go!!

This is our trusty airplane. It’s a 1976 Cessna 206. It had 6 seats and room in the tail for our gear. The guy in the background with the grey cap is our pilot/guide Mike. He’s giving us a flight safety and bear viewing briefing. You’ll notice that we are all wearing clunky rubber boots. They supplied the boots for the mud and streams we had to cross. Kathy is on the left and the other 3 people were a group of 20somethings from Houston, 2 girls and a guy.

Here’s a shot of Kathy as we were about to taxi out. Kathy hates heights and small planes so I have to give here a lot of credit for making this trip. Of course, it was her idea. The pilot sat us where he wanted to for weight and balance. Kathy was up front with him (lucky!!), I was in the second row with the other guy, and the 2 other girls were in the back. Yippee, let’s go!!

This is a view of the airport at Homer. In the distance is a narrow strip of sand called the Homer Spit. It’s loaded with touristy stuff like RV parks, fishing boats, restaurants, gift shops and a hotel. As a side note, we were watching the crew of one of the charter fishing boats cleaning fish for their customers one day. They were incredibly fast. I timed one guy cleaning Halibut. He completely filleted a Halibut in 40 seconds!!! I couldn’t believe it so I timed him on several other Halibut. Sure enough, he was in that 40 second range on every Halibut. I wouldn’t want to get in a knife fight with him…..

Here’s a view of the Kenai Mountains from 10000 feet. Notice that there’s still some snow left on July 11.

I took this looking over the pilot’s shoulder. I held the camera up between him and Kathy without looking through the viewfinder. Photographers call this a Hail Mary shot, like a Hail Mary pass. Unfortunately the autofocus system focused on the dashboard instead of the mountain dead ahead. It kind of looks like we’re going to crash into it. I’m sure Kathy was enjoying the view.

After we flew around that mountain in the last shot this was the view out the window. This is the northeastern corner of Katmai NP. All that snow is part of the icefield of an active glacier.

This is called 4 peaks glacier. As the name implies, the glacier is surrounded by 4 mountain peaks. The mountains capture winter rains off the ocean, cool it and enormous amounts of snow fall here. The snow compresses to form the icefield which feeds the glacier.

This is a view of a glacier that people rarely see. It’s taken from the top looking down. The greenish water at the bottom is glacier run-off. It contains large amounts of finely ground rock called rock flour. The deep blue water in the distance is the north Pacific Ocean.

Here’s another view of the mountains in the northeast corner of Katmai NP. You can see that we’re moving away from the glacier.

Here’s another Hail Mary shot. Now, pay attention. That’s the Pacific Ocean on the left. That green grass on the right is a huge meadow where the bears are. That little dark grey strip in the middle is out “runway”. It’s rough gravel that’s exposed at low tide. Along the right side of the gravel you might notice some light colored objects. That’s driftwood (huge trees) brought in by the tide. Mike’s job is to stay on the gravel without dumping in the ocean or hitting the driftwood. Close your eyes Kathy!!!

The beach is getting closer. Mike’s doing a good job, so far. You can see the driftwood better now. Keep those eyes closed Kathy. Here we go!! GERONIMO. (notice the fog bank rolling in, in the distance)

Dang, we made it. Thanks Mike!! Look at the tire tracks in the beach. You can see how he lands close to the water but then steers up higher on the beach. This keeps the plane from being washed out to sea on the incoming tide. Obviously this maneuver takes a bit of practice. Mike’s been flying since he was a kid. He’s been flying in Alaska for 20+ years and landing on beaches for about 7 of those years. He hasn’t lost a passenger yet. That’s what he said anyway…

OK, here’s the set-up. Now that we landed he gave us another briefing (how not to be eaten by 1000 lb. bears) before he opened any doors in the plane. Then we walked over a bluff adjacent to the beach and into that big green meadow you saw a few photos back. Keep in mind that we were on foot, not in a vehicle. There were no guns or bear spray allowed. The only protection we had was a marine flare (waterproof) that Mike carried. He claimed that the bears are really afraid of the bright light and sound of the flare. I hope we don’t have to find out the hard way.

As soon as we walked over the bluff this monster popped up. Jeeeez, his head looked like a microwave oven with ears!!! What do they feed the bears in this place??? Sorry for the poor photo quality. This guy scared the crap out of me. I thought the landing was exciting until I saw this guy pop up so close to us.

After the bear looked at us from the grass he wanted to show us how big he is so he stood up. The grass he’s standing in is about chest high so you can see how tall he is. I think you would need an 8 ft stepladder to pat him on the head. Again, sorry for the poor photo quality. I hadn’t settled down yet.

This guy is showing us his big teeth.

Nice bear, nice bear…

One point I want to make about the bears up here in Alaska. They are called brown bears up here but biologists have compared their DNA to the grizzly bears in the western US and they are identical. The brown bears in Katmai and on Kodiak Island are referred to as coastal brown bears (sometimes, Kodiak Bears) because of their proximity to coastal areas. The only difference is where they live, what they eat and their size. Grizzly bears in the western US grow to about 400-500 lbs. A 500 lb. grizzly is pretty rare. They feed on roots, berries, insects, grubs, carrion, small animals that don’t get out of the way fast enough, and they steal food from other predators. They spend a lot of time foraging for enough food to eat.

Coastal brown bears have a pretty much unlimited supply of food so they get massive. In the spring they feed on sedges (native grass), in the summer when the salmon are running they gorge on fish and in the fall they eat berries until they can’t walk anymore, then they go to sleep for the winter. It’s basically non stop eating from March to November. What a life.

This guy is the size of a Ford Focus!!! You think I'm kidding..... (I found out later that the record for a coastal brown bear in Alaska is 1400 lbs, 11 ft long. Now that's a bear)

Here come the judge… Doesn’t he look all fuzzy and soft?? (except for that big scar on his nose)

Rub my belly! Watch out for the 5 inch claws.

The guides call this guy lefty because his left ear is missing. I wonder who was big enough and tough enough to take his ear off. He was one of the biggest bears we saw that day.

We came upon this sow (female bear) with 2 little spring cubs. She had already nursed them and they were finishing their afternoon nap. We spent over an hour with her and the cubs getting great shots. These cubs were born in the den in January or February during mom’s winter sleep. These were taken in July so the cubs are about 6 months old. I’d guess they weighed about 20 lbs. or so. They were really cute and they had a great babysitter.

Tell me this doesn’t scream “CUTE”. They were checking us out.

Mom’s taking a bath after her nap. Bears love water but the cubs didn’t go in.

I guess the cubs are smelling her to make sure she’s their mother.

Take a close look at the belly on this bear (behind her front leg). See how close it is to the ground?? Now compare that to the belly in the bear picture I posted on August 9 (kissing bears) That was an inland brown bear. It’s not as well-fed as the coastal variety. Keep in mind that this picture was taken before the salmon run began. This bear will get a lot fatter by fall.

This gives you a good idea of what the terrain looks like in this portion of Katmai NP. The short grass in the foreground is the sedges the bears feed on this time of year. They don’t seem to like eating the tall grass in the background.

Don’t mess with my kids!!!

Notice the grass hanging out of their mouths. It’s funny to watch bears graze like horses or cattle.

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Put em up ma. You don’t look so tough…

Another bear was approaching so everyone got very alert.

The cubs spent a lot of time playing.

Bye everybody. See you in Katmai episode 2.

This ends the first half of our Katmai photos. In episode 2 I'll show more bear photos and I'll tell you about our adventure on the flight back to Homer. It was quite eventful. Don't miss it. Until then, happy trails.

Dennis & Kathy

Miscellaneous Photos from Denali to Homer, AK

Here are a few photos we shot between our time at Denali Natl Park and Homer, Alaska. While in Homer we took a small bush plane to Katmai Natl Park to get up close and personal with the massive brown bears that live there. This was, without a doubt, the highlight of this entire trip. I'll do a post on that adventure as soon as I wade through the 1000+ photos we took. For now I just have these few to show.

I took this picture during a local news broadcast in Fairbanks. It was a couple days after the summer solstice. You can see that the sun rises at 3AM and doesn't set until nearly 1 AM. When the sun "sets" it doesn't actually get dark. The sun hides just below the horizon for a couple hours and it's like dusk outside. It's plenty light enough to read a newspaper.

Here's a better shot of Mt. McKinley (20320 ft.). I took this from the town of Talkeetna, about 60 miles away. The air was very clear but 60 miles of air still creates a visible color cast in the photo (no, I didn't Photoshop it). Talkeetna is the jumping-off point for most people who attempt to climb Mt. McKinley. They hire a small bush plane to fly them to a glacier on the southern flank of the mountain. They set-up base camp nearby and wait for favorable weather to make their summit. I'm told that the mountain is not a difficult technical climb but the weather is so unpredictable that the mountain claims several lives each year.

I really wanted to get a picture of a Musk Ox and here it is. Nothing says arctic like a prehistoric creature. These guys were hunted to extinction in Alaska back in the 1800s. Their fur is extremely warm so it was highly sought after. A few dozen animals were brought from Greenland early in the 1900s and a new herd was formed. I think there are something like 2000-3000 now. The only way to see them in the wild is to hire a small plane and a guide to fly you around the arctic tundra for a few days looking for them. My budget couldn't handle that expense so I did the next best thing, I went to a wildlife rehab center. They have a small herd that they use as part of a captive breeding program. They've been very successful at expanding the wild herds and maintaining genetic diversity.

We shot these 2 grizzly bears kissing at the same wildlife rehab center. I believe that these bears are brother and sister. These are really tiny (~300 lbs) compared to the bears we saw at Katmai NP. Those pictures are coming soon.

A little closer shot of one of the bears. Doesn't he look comfortable??

If you ever get chased by a black bear, don't climb a tree. They are incredibly good climbers and are very at-home in trees. You'll notice that this guy is fast asleep. Kathy and I have seen black bears sleeping in trees many times so it's pretty normal behavior. We've even seen female black bears sleeping in trees while her cubs played in the tree. This bear is about 25 ft up in a very large tree. I love the way he's resting his snout on that branch.

This was the view out our back window while we were camped in Homer, Alaska. How would you like to wake up to this every morning?? Homer is at the extreme southwestern tip of the Kenai Peninsula (find Anchorage on a map and go southwest till you fall in the water). The water in the background is Kachemak Bay, and the mountains are the Kenai Mountains.

Here's another picture from Homer. I liked the lupines in the foreground for color.

OK, I'll start working on those 1000 pictures from Katmai NP...

Denali National Park

One of the most anticipated stops on our Alaska trip was Denali National Park. As I mentioned before, Kathy and I are primarily wildlife photographers. We'll take pictures of almost anything but animals are our favorites. For those of you not familiar with Denali, it's a wilderness park with over 6 million acres of land and only 1 road. The road is 92 miles long and only the first 15 miles are open to private vehicles. Beyond that point you must be on a park bus or other "authorized vehicle". The first 15 miles are paved and the rest is gravel, sometimes very rough. It's quite an experience. The road gets real narrow in some spots and is just cut into the hillside. It's interesting when you meet an oncoming bus on one of the narrow sections of road. One bus sometimes has to back up to a wider section of road so the other can pass. As dicey as it seems, they claim that no buses have been lost along that road since the early 80s. All drivers receive training at the beginning of each season. Some drivers have been doing this for more then 30 years and they still receive the same annual training as the rookies.

We spent a week camped inside the park (Riley Creek Campground) without water, electricity, phone or Internet. It was one of the only times we went without Internet service while we were in Alaska. The following pictures are the result of spending 5 long, uncomfortable days on the park buses driving around looking for animals. A couple of our days were 13+ hours on the bus. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them.

Well, we finally made it to Denali National Park. Yippee!! Bring on the bears.

This is one of the buses we spent our time on. This one belongs to a private company, not the national park. They are allowed to drive on the park road because they own a lodge deep inside the park. The lodge existed before the land became part of the park so they were allowed to continue to operate it. They drove us to their lodge for a nice lunch, they also provided snacks during all our stops. They were really accommodating when it came time to stop for pictures.

OK, let's start with some birds and then we'll get to the large mammals, rodents and scenery.

These are Mew Gulls. There are 2 reasons I'm showing pictures of Gulls. First, look at nests they are sitting on. They build their nest on bare gravel exposed to the elements and predators. This is part of a river bed. It seems like a dumb place to build a nest but gulls are not exactly the sharpest pencils in the box. The second reason I showed this, why are gulls in a wilderness park hundreds of miles from the ocean??

Nice Bald Eagle. He (or she) was sitting on a hillside along the road. We drove by this spot on 5 different days and this eagle was always there. There must have been good hunting in the area.

Another Bald Eagle. This one looks a little more natural sitting on a rock.

This is a Magpie. They're very common in the western US and in Alaska. Although very common, they're also pretty birds. I especially like the blue vest. This one was squawking at some tourists for a handout.

How about a Golden Eagle. These are actually bigger than the Bald Eagle.

Here's an immature Golden Eagle. Like the Bald Eagle, they don't get their adult plumage for a few years.
These are Harlequin Ducks. It's not a great picture but I like their colors. These 2 were taking a mid day nap.

This is a Willow Ptarmigan (the "P" is silent, it's pronounced tar ma gin). It's the Alaska state bird. They turn snow white in the winter to give them some camouflage. You can still see some white feathers on its underbelly. This one is a male. You can tell by his bright red eyebrow.

This is one of the reasons I came to Denali NP. This is a Dall Sheep. They are also called Thin horn Sheep because their horns are thinner than the bighorn sheep in the lower 48. This one is a ram (male). He keeps those horns for life and they get longer each year. Denali NP was originally created in 1907 to protect the Dall Sheep from over hunting.

Here's a classic big horn sheep pose. I couldn't resist this one. The Dall Sheep is one of 4 varieties of big horn sheep in North America. Kathy and I have now photographed all 4. I'll include pictures of the 4 different big horns at the end of this post for anyone who's interested.

This is a nice shot of the Toklat River and surrounding valley. It gives you a good idea of what this section of the park looks like.

This is Polychrome Valley and the Toklat River. Photo was taken from Polychrome Pass, probably 1000 ft above the valley floor, along that narrow road I spoke about. That's the Alaska Mountain Range in the background.

Here's another shot of Polychrome. I liked the little yellow flowers on the ground so I laid on that cold, hard arctic ground to get this picture. A guy nearby thought I fell down so he tried to help me up...
This is the best picture I got of Mt. McKinley during our week in the park. It's the highest point in North America at 20320 ft. Photo was taken from the Eielson visitors center, 66 miles inside the park. McKinley is the white patch just to the right of center, above the American flag. You can only see the bottom half of the mountain because of cloud cover created by the mountain.

Here's a tidbit for you Siemens folks. The Eielson visitors center was completely rebuilt a couple years ago. It is outfitted with solar panels, a micro hydroelectric generator, a conventional generator, and a control system all designed by Siemens. Siemens had a nice little educational display that explained the system and how it mixes power from the solar and hydro sources with the conventional generator. After reading that I was almost homesick for Jupiter and my old job at Siemens .... NOT!!!

This moose cow (female) was taking a bath and didn't seem to mind having her picture taken. She had a young calf hidden in the brush up the embankment behind her but we couldn't get a shot of it. They stay really well hidden while mom feeds.

This is a different moose cow. We saw many, many moose in Denali. They are really common.

Here's Bullwinkle! We saw a group of 3 big bull moose browsing along the roadside on one of our bus rides. They were so close I had to take off my long telephoto lens and switch to a shorter one. A full grown mature bull moose grows to over 1500 lbs. up here. No wonder they call them the Monarch of the North. They are truly an impressive animal. Dumb looking but impressive.

These are Arctic Poppies. They only bloom for about 2 weeks in the summer so we were lucky to be there at the right time.

What would a trip to the arctic be without caribou. This is a male browsing on vegetation. Unlike other animals with antlers, both male and female caribous have antlers. The male's are larger and fall off in the winter (like deer, moose, elk). Pregnant females retain their antlers during the winter. Biologist think it's so they can protect their food from males that would push them away.

Here are 3 male caribou in more familiar surroundings. Caribou spend a lot of time around snow to keep the mosquitoes away. A caribou can lose 1-2 pints of blood a day from mosquito bites. They are also bothered by bott flies that fly up their nose and lay eggs. When the eggs hatch the larva burrow into the caribou's nasal passages and feed until they mature into flies. And you guys in Florida thought you had bug problems!!!

This is the rare Florida Caribou. It was really difficult to get this shot. Actually those Caribou antlers were really heavy. I read somewhere that a male caribou's neck muscles double in size during the spring and summer as their antlers grow.

Our grizzly bear encounters in Denali were a big disappointment. We saw several bears on each bus trip but they were all very far away. I shot this with a long telephoto and I still had to crop it and clean it up a little in Photoshop to make it presentable. It still isn't very sharp but I wanted to show some bears. Don't worry though. A couple weeks after this was taken we went to Katmai Natl Park to get up close and personal with the massive coastal brown bears. We were not disappointed. It was easily the highlight of this entire trip. I shot nearly 500 pictures in an afternoon. My camera was smoking!! I'll post those pictures and the story of that adventure as soon as I can.

For some reason the bears love to chew on this sign. The park service replaced the old sign just a few weeks before this was taken. Look how badly chewed up it is in just a couple weeks.

During the winter the road in Denali isn't plowed but the rangers still have to patrol the park. Motor vehicles (snowmobiles) are not allowed in the park. The rangers resort to the same mode of transportation that's been used since the park was created in 1907, dog sleds. They can patrol in temperatures down to -30F. They give a nice little lecture and demo with a sled on wheels. They only use 6 dogs for the demo because the sled would go too fast with more dogs. They use 10 or more dogs for winter patrol because the sled is heavy with supplies. The dogs are extremely friendly and the rangers encourage people to pet and play with them.

Arctic Hare. This guy turns snow white (like the Ptarmigan) in the winter for camouflage. They are the primary food source for the lynx (cat, little bigger than a bobcat). There has been an explosion in the hare population in recent years so there are a lot of lynx in the park this year. We never saw a single one!! The hare population is running a 10 year cycle and is getting ready to crash so there will be less lynx in the future.

We saw this red fox trotting down the road. He looks a little straggly because his summer fur hasn't completely grown in.

What would Dennis' pictures be without a couple good rodent shots. This little guy is an Arctic Ground Squirrel. They are very common in the park and quite photogenic. It is a true hibrenator. During winter they go underground, slow their heartrate to something like 4 beats a minute, and lower their body temp to 26F.

OK, this is the last rodent shot. It's a Hoary Marmot. He just walked up to the side of the bus to check us out. It's about the size of a small dog.

I thought this would be a good parting shot. This is a Grey Wolf, also called Timber Wolf. There are only about 60 wolves currently in Denali and they are spread out over 6 million acres so we were very, very lucky to see this one. We were told that there is a den close by with new pups. I'm sure this one was a lookout. He was laying in some low brush along the road, very sinister. I really love the way he was looking at the camera. Nice doggy...

BONUS PICTURES

For anyone who's interested here are pictures of the four different varities of big horn sheep in North America. I'll start in the south and work my way north.

These 2 guys are Desert Bighorn Sheep. They are found in the arid mountains of Arizona and New Mexico (and probably northern Mexico). Notice the extremely long ears compared to the other bighorn sheep. In the interest of full disclosure, this photo was taken at an animal rehab facility. These animals were not photographed in the wild. Someday I'll get one in the wild.

These are Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. They have a very wide range through Colorodo, Wyoming, Montana, and up into the Canadian Rockies.

This is a Stone Sheep. They range through the extreme northern Rocky Mountains in Canada. This was the hardest bighorn to find.

Once again, here is the Dall Sheep. The most northern of the bighorn sheep.

Stuff around Fairbanks, Alaska

From June 1-15 we camped outside Fairbanks, Alaska. While there we took a tour to the arctic circle along the infamous Dalton Highway. The Dalton is a 415 mile long gravel road that runs from just north of Fairbanks up to the oil fields on the north slope of Alaska at Prudhoe Bay. It's mostly used by heavy trucks delivering equipment and supplies to the oil field. We didn't want to beat-up our car on the road so we went on a small bus tour. We also didn't want to go all the way to the oil field, we just went to the arctic circle and back. It was still a 16 hour trip (6AM-10PM).

The only other memorable thing we did in Fairbanks was an afternoon cruise on the China River. I've posted pictures from both events below.

This is an Alaskan style trading post, very rustic. Actually, this one is more rustic than most. It's on the road to the north slope of Alaska where the oil fields are. It's off the electric grid so they generate their own power with a small generator. They store the power in a bank of batteries so they don't have to run the generator 24 hours a day. They have no running water so they use an outhouse (see photo below). It was really nasty!! The people that ran this place had adopted something like 18 kids (over many years) and they had 5 kids of their own. They home-schooled them all. The youngest was still at home and a grandson of the oldest kid was working in the store. Even though they didn't have electricity or water, they still had an Internet connection (satellite). This place is called the "Arctic Circle Trading Post" but it's not actually above the arctic circle. See the sign below.




This sign was in front of the trading post. I guess we hadn't crossed the arctic circle yet. Gotta keep heading north.







This is the "rest room" facility (aka outhouse) at the trading post. I don't know if you can see or not but the boards on the sides have big gaps between them. This is definitely not a place for a modest person. It was really ripe in there too. On the wall was a sign "Imagine using this when it's 50 below outside".
Did any of your kids ever have a lemonade stand?? I bet it didn't look like this one. Keep in mind that this stand is in the middle of nowhere along the Dalton Highway on the way to the north slope oil fields. I suspect that they don't get much business.
















Here's the world famous Alaska pipeline. It runs from Prudhoe Bay on the north slope of Alaska to the oil terminal in Valdez, Alaska. That's about 900 miles long. It's 48" in diameter. Over half the pipeline runs above the ground to protect the permafrost from melting. If you look closely at this picture you'll notice tall fins at the top of the orange columns. Those are heat radiators that keep the columns from getting too hot in the sun. This also protects the permafrost. If you look very close you'll see that the pipeline is not rigidly bolted to the supports. It floats on bearing plates to allow movement in an earthquake. The pipeline is bolted to about every 5th support.



This is a motel/restaurant along the Dalton Highway. I like the way the color of the building matches the mud on the side of the car parked out front. I think it's a nice artistic touch. Basically everything along the Dalton Highway is covered with mud since the road is dirt and every parking area and business parking lot is also dirt. Actually, the food here was pretty good.

This was taken on a small hill just south of the arctic circle. That's all arctic tundra in the distance. The tundra is a thin (several inches to feet) layer of organic material in which some grasses and sedges grow. Below the tundra is permafrost. This is permanently frozen dirt that can be several thousand feet thick!!

Here are Mr. and Mrs. tourist at the arctic circle. Yippee, we made it. Too bad it was almost 80 degrees there. It kind of ruined the moment. We were wearing long sleeves and long pants to keep the mosquitoes from biting.They are really nasty up here. They only have a couple months to do their biting each year so they have to make the best of it.

I thought this was cool. It's a float plane taking off from the China River. This is just outside the city of Fairbanks, AK. Something like 60% of Alaskans are licensed pilots. Bush planes like this are a primary form of transportation since there are so few roads up here.

This is world famous Trail Breaker Kennel and that's Dave Monson in the foreground. Alright, I know, "who's Dave Monson". This kennel belongs to Dave and his late wife Susan Butcher. Susan won the famous Iditarod dog sled race (Anchorage to Nome - 1049 miles) 4 times. She also drove a dog sled to the top of Mt. McKinley (20, 320 ft.). She died from cancer a few years ago. Her husband, Dave, continues to run the kennel. He won the Yukon Quest dog sled race (Fairbanks, AK to Whitehorse, Yukon - 1000 miles across 3 mountain ranges). If you ever get a chance to watch sled dogs at work, do it. They are absolutely amazing. They are bred to run and they love to do it. No whips needed here. The biggest problem is getting them to stop running.

This is truly an Alaska special. Someone stuck a small mobile home on top of a dumpy old barge and used it as a political campaign bus. No, not Sarah Palin!! I think they said it was some guy who ran for governor years ago. If you look real close you can see several large wooden wire reels used as tables on deck. If you look really, really close you can read the candidates name painted on the hull of the barge ("Wright for governor"). Real classy....

I don't normally photograph women's jackets but this was special. An Athabaskan Indian girl was modeling it at a recreated Indian village. It's made from the skins of several animals like fox, caribou, wolverine and a couple others. The various furs were used in different parts of the jacket for color, style and to give additional warmth where needed. They used wolverine fur around the inside of the hood where it touches the persons face. That fur contains a natural oil that keeps it from sticking to the skin in extreme cold when your breath freezes. Clever, isn't it??

Here's the same coat from the back. It's a beautiful piece of work. They refused to let anyone else try it on. It's completely authentic and they don't want anyone to mess it up.

This is the trophy given to the winner of the annual Iditarod dog sled race. This one belonged to Susan Butcher. She won it in 1988. She had a total of 4 wins in the Iditarod.

How's this for a tourist shot?? That's me standing with one of the sleds that Susan Butcher used to win the Iditarod (not sure which year). They called this her "finishing sled". Obviously that's her picture with 2 of her dogs.

Hello everyone. It's time to post pictures again! We're laying low this week (6/22-6/29) to rest up from our adventure in Denali Natl Park last week. I'll post pictures from Denali next week. We got lots of great (and not so great) animal pictures. We managed to photograph all the large mammal species in the park.

This batch of pictures follows our travels along the Alaska Highway through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. So, sit back and enjoy. Some are goofy, some are scenic, and lots of animals.

This is suppose to be the biggest beaver in Canada. It's located appropriately in the town of Beaverlodge, Alberta. Obviously it's just a statue but we thought it was cute. Actually, it's tied with another statue in Dauphin, Manitoba for the distinction of being the biggest beaver in Canada. The beaver is 15 ft high and he's perched on a 19 ft log.




Here we are crossing the border into British Columbia. Shortly after this was taken we were pulled over by the cops. We tow a car behind our trailer (behind our truck). That's illegal in British Columbia and they are very strict. We didn't get a ticket. We just unhitched the car and Kathy drove it (until we got out of BC). The cop said he was going to radio ahead to tell other cops to watch for us.

This shot was taken in downtown Dawson Creek, British Columbia. This is the official start of the famous Alaska Highway. The Alaska Highway runs from here to Delta Junction, Alaska, a distance of 1390 miles. The Army Corps of Engineers built this road in 8 months (not years) during 1942 (March to October, I think). Something like 30,000 people worked on it during construction. The original road was a "pioneer road" made of dirt, gravel, mud and temporary bridges. It's been undergoing upgrades and repairs for the past 67 years. It's actually a pretty good road along most of it's length.

The rest of these pictures were taken along the Alaska Highway in British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.


OK, what kind of bear is this?? If you said grizzly because it's brown, your wrong!! It's actually a black bear. You can tell by the hump missing from it's back, the long ears and long, slender snout. In the western US and Canada about 50% of black bears are not black. They range from tan to brown, cinnamon, and even reddish brown like this guy. He was browsing along the side of the road in the northern Canadian Rockies in BC.


Look close at the sign on this outhouse. I think that says it all.

(In case you can't read the sign, it says "CLOSED, CAUSE ITS FULL"






This picture is really special (to me). This is a Stone Sheep. It's a cousin to the Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep you see in the US and Canadian Rockies. These guys only live in the extreme northern Rockies and can be very hard to find. Luckily this guy was grazing near the road on a steep hill. Also lucky that we found a place to pull the trailer over and park, and it's lucky that my wife is extremely competent with a telephoto lens. This was taken in northern BC

This is not an ordinary buffalo like you see in Yellowstone NP. This is a Wood Buffalo. They're found in SW Canada. I don't really know the technical difference between a plains buffalo of the US and a Wood Buffalo. If anyone knows please Email me the answer. This shot was taken in northern BC along the Alaska Highway.

OK, this is a black, black bear. If you keep scrolling down you'll see a picture of grizzly bears.
This shot was taken in northern BC along the Alaska Highway.

OK, now the trip is getting serious, We're crossing into the Yukon Territory. There are dog mushers, gold panners, and mounties on every corner!! Only kidding. Actually there are bears and moose on every corner. Seriously, there aren't very many corners...

This is really cool. They call this the signpost forest. It's located in the town of Watson Lake, Yukon. Apparently when the Alaska Highway was being built (1942) a soldier put up a sign for his hometown. The idea caught on and others started hanging up signs. The town liked it, so they now invite anyone to put up a sign when they pass through. They estimate that there are 60,000 signs but I think that estimate is very low. It looks more like a million!! The forest covers a few acres. There are wooden posts every few feet and they are covered with signs on both sides. The posts are about 8 ft high.

This old Cat bulldozer (I think it's a C-8) was on display at the signpost forest. It's one of the original machines that the Corp used to build the Alaska Highway in 1942.

Take a close look. These are grizzly bears. See the distinct hump on the back of the bear furthest from the camera?? Also notice the small ears and shorter nose. This is most likely a sow (female) with a second or third summer cub. Bears keep their cubs around for 2-3 years before they run them off and mate again. These bears look the same size but that's due to the flattened perspective of the long telephoto lens used for this picture. The bear closest to the camera (mother) was actually larger than the one in the back (cub). This was taken right along the highway.

This is a typical pull-off on the Alaska Highway. This one was especially scenic so we took this shot. The RV you see in the photo is NOT us. It's just another weary Alaska Highway traveller.

This is Mrs. Moose browsing on tender aquatic vegetation. We didn't see a calf in the area (which is normal in the spring) but it could have been hidden in the brush close by (also normal behavior for a mother moose).

This is a nice shot looking down the Alaska Highway. Those are the Wrangell Mountains in the distance (I think, they could also be the Elias Range).

This is one of our "lunch stops". Not bad, huh?? We were somewhere in the Yukon 100 miles or so from the Alaska border. That lake in the background was frozen solid. Keep in mind that this is May 31st. You can't tell from the picture but the truck, trailer, and car (way in the back) are covered with mud. YUCK!!

I think this is a nice shot to close this posting with. I hope you enjoyed them. The next batch will cover our time in Fairbanks including our trip to the Arctic Circle. See you then.

Dennis & Kathy