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.