It was only a five-second stare, but time stopped as my jaw dropped. I had wanted to face this animal for over a decade, and now here it was standing in the road, about 15 yards away. Moments before, a snowshoe hare was sitting in the same spot, licking minerals off the dirt road. And just a few minutes before that, after counting 30 hares in a twenty-mile stretch, my husband Terry commented, “This would be a good place to see a lynx.” And here we were face to face with the elusive wild cat! And just like that, the beautiful Canada Lynx bounded off after the hare! We were ecstatic, and I was so stunned, it took me the full five seconds to pick up the camera which sits on the armrest between me and Terry when we’re driving and looking for wildlife. We were driving a piece of the 42 mile Nabesna Road in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This was an unplanned stop from Valdez, but we came on a whim we might see wolves. You see we came to a different part of this park in 2003 on a family trip with Sundance. That trip we went to the part of the park where you can hike on the Roof or Kennicott Glaciers, visit historic mining town buildings in Kennicott, or see some of the 50 or so folks that call McCarthy home. The park and preserve is nearly 13 million acres of wild land; the largest park in North America, it equals 6 Yellowstones! It’s a hard place to get to, so many don’t make the trek. Years ago, you had to get in a bucket with a pulley system to cross the river, and then take a bus or walk a few miles into McCarthy. That was part of the allure when I read about it in 2003, but when we arrived (the Foder’s Travel book was outdated), they had built a bridge. But still this is a hard place to reach, a place where the locals (when shopping for supplies a few hundred miles away), stock up every 4-5 months. I wanted to stop in the park’s visitor center on our way to Valdez (park is north of Valdez and we’d be coming back this way) and see if there was any way to get our RV into the park. But we wouldn’t take a chance on the road into McCarthy, it’s a gravel road laid over an old railway bed with railway ties sticking up. Visitors are warned about flat tires, and sure enough last time here, we got one! But the ranger at the visitor center said an alternative was to visit the northwestern side of the park known as Nabesna Rd. She said the 42-mile road was paved only about 10 miles and then turned to gravel. In the first 26 miles, there are some turn-outs to camp in, some have picnic tables and some have pit toilets. After mile 26, there are two campgrounds - but all the camping is free and first come, first served. It sounded rustic and not heavily traveled, both are appealing to us; but, what cinched the deal was when I asked about wolves in the park, she said some had recently been spotted on the Nabesna Rd! We arrived at the park Monday after 5pm (had a flat in Valdez on the Subaru that had to be patched), and didn’t get to talk to anyone at the ranger station. But we had an audio cd the park service provided when we stopped at the ranger station on our way to Valdez. Terry didn’t want to drive too far down the gravel road in our rig, so we opted for a turn-out at mile 16.6 Kettle Lake Wayside with fantastic views of the mountains and Kettle lake....very private with a picnic table too. After dinner (smoked salmon caught in Valdez), we left the RV with Rocket in the Subaru to drive the other 25 miles in search of wildlife and a trailhead for Tuesday’s hike. At first we didn’t see many animals along the road. There are a lot of tall trees that block views to valleys, and a lot of thick woods. But we were very surprised with the number of snowshoe hares, and after driving 3 hours for a total of 46 miles, we counted 59 hares!! When we got back to the RV, we realized some mosquitoes followed us in, and perhaps a fair number came in through cracks between the windows and screens. We got out our fly swatters and did our best, but as we lay down to sleep, the incessant buzz around our ears was maddening. Several times we sat upright in bed, turned all the lights on and began battle. Finally, I covered my head with a pillow and went to sleep. Unfortunately for Terry, he could not get any sleep...even when he put on his mosquito netting with a wire rim around it (it’s meant to wear hiking) - this was one hilarious sight to me! On our hike the next day, we were again plagued by gnats, mosquitoes, and some flies. Poor Rocket (who was a trooper), had swarms around his body all day. Our hike was a 3-mile hike along Caribou Creek to a public land use cabin. We didn’t see caribou along the creek, but we did see a lot of Ptarmigan and more hares and squirrels. The cabin is worth writing about because you can reserve it online or at the ranger station, and it’s a nice peaceful place with fabulous views, a nearby stream, and an outhouse. (Call 907-822-7253; no fees involved!). There are 2 bunks, a wood stove, and firewood (sometimes, I believe). We read some of the entries in the log book, and folks ski and snowshoe in for days or even a week at times of the year! We were just glad to enter and have a respite from all the bugs, so I ate my lunch there. Afterwards we hiked another mile or 2 around the cabin, scoping the hillsides for moose, bears, and Dall sheep. On our way back to the trailhead, we discovered a cow moose in the path. We backed up Rocket, and gave the moose room to move off, then we progressed. (We met another couple from the Netherlands, at the cabin who had also seen the moose.) We hiked back to our RV (total hike about 7.5 miles) and rested the late afternoon, in preparation for the evening wildlife drive. Much like last night, we started at 7:40 pm and drove to mile 40 (the last 2 miles are owned by private individuals, and there’s an active mineral mine there). Sadly, we saw no more lynx nor wolves, but we were exhilarated to drive where we know they travel. Last night I built a rock cairn marking the spot where the lynx entered the woods on the left side of the road - before mile marker 39. Back at our RV, the mosquitoes found a way in, even though we tried to limit their entry. This night, Terry was able to sleep, but I could not. At about 1:15am -1:30am, I got out of bed and fly swatter in hand, began war with the bugs in the main part of the coach. I killed 40 in those 15 minutes. At some point, I gave up and went to bed, but at 6:15 am, I awoke to the sound of buzzing insects. For the next 3 hours, I swatted mosquitoes with napkins, my hands, the fly swatter, and killed many. By 10 am, I was ready to depart Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and get the heck out of the way of these bugs! We left rapidly, as the grader was working our section of the road, and headed north towards Tok, AK for a quick overnight before heading into the Yukon on our way to the Arctic Ocean! We are so glad we made the stop in Wrangell St. Elias because we got to see the elusive lynx. But we were equally excited to depart, leaving the mosquitoes and gnats for other unsuspecting tourists! When we were here 15 years ago, we didn’t remember the mosquitoes being so plentiful, and if we are lucky enough to return to Alaska again, Wrangell-St. Elias will surely be on our itineray in spite of the likely bugs! Adding a footnote here...for those who read my Denali blog, we just learned from another traveler that the wolf pup we saw in Denali was one of two AND the pack is together!!!!! Praise God.
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Valdez, AK is one of the most beautiful settings I’ve ever seen. The Richardson Highway that takes you to this seaport on Prince William Sound is one of America’s most scenic drives with breathtaking views of glaciers, waterfalls, mountains and incredible scenery. Located in the northeast section of the sound, Valdez is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains, the tallest coastal mountains in North America, and snowfall can range from 600-900” a year while the town of Valdez can receive 25 feet. All of this precipitation plus more rainfall contribute to the lushness of the verdant mountainsides. People come here to fish, take boat cruises to the glaciers, and bear watch in the Summer and to ski and snowshoe in the Winter. Another attraction is the Solomon Gulch Hatchery, a non profit operation run by the state fish and game and the town. The hatchery, completed in 1981, was established to ensure sufficient numbers of salmon return each year. They incubate, rear, and release 230 million pink salmon and 2 million coho salmon a year. An average yearly return for the hatchery is 14 million pink salmon, and 150,000 coho. After harvesting its portion for cost recovery, the remainder is harvested for commercial and sports fishermen as well as some for subsistence harvesters in the village of Tatilek, AK. When we arrived in Valdez, the salmon had just begun to return, and the hatchery waits until massive numbers congregate before opening the weir gates and beginning full operation of processing the adults. This means that fish lie in the shallow water flapping at the gates, drawing hungry predators to the feast. When the hatchery opens the gates, ladders will lift approximately twenty thousand fish a day! Most days either brown (Grizzly) or Black bears can be seen fishing - especially during low tide. And during high tide, large sea lions show their teeth above water as they thrash the salmon in half, while begging seagulls await left overs. It's quite a sight! Eagles are also abundant in the area. And while they don’t come right up to the weir like the sea lions, seals and sea otters also feast on the salmon, just a ways out into the water. Of course fishermen and women line the banks past a 300’ NO FISHING zone. I believe they can each take 6 pink salmon this season. We enjoyed watching the wildlife feast on this bounty. Also at the hatchery, there’s a self guided tour you can take to learn more about the operation which is estimated to contribute $80 million in economic output to the region. Of course Valdez is the terminus of the 800 mile Alaska Pipeline which carries millions of gallons of crude oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. From 1979 to 2010, more than 16 billion barrels of oil were transported through the pipeline and throughput peaked in 1988 when 2,000,000 barrels of oil/day traveled through, taking just 4.5 days. (In 2010 by contrast 620,000 barrels took 16 days to reach Valdez.) It’s hard to say what the future holds for this operation as the throughput declines. In 2011, the Alaska Department of Revenue estimated 40 billion barrels of crude oil were still available on the North Slope and offshore. Driving down the Richardson Highway you can see parts of the pipeline which zig zags across the landscape (a design that helps protect the line in the event of an earthquake), and there are areas where the line is buried. But the wild, vast green valleys with beautiful lakes and streams is also one of the most beautiful scenic roadways we’ve driven in the last three years. Of course Valdez is also the site of one of the most devastating human caused environmental disasters (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill) when an Exxon tanker spilled over 10 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in 1989. Today though, the sound looks beautiful. While in Valdez, we hiked nearly every trail here. We hiked the Mineral Creek Trail which is a bit over 12 miles - an easy trail on a gravel road that takes you along the creek and through a valley with views of cascading waterfalls and spectacular vistas. We met hikers going the other direction who had seen a brown bear butt running down the road so they turned around, but we never saw him. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife on our hikes, but we saw it other places around town and enjoyed the hikes quite a bit. One trail frustrated me - the Shoup Bay trail which was 7 miles round trip. It was vastly overgrown, and you couldn’t see the rocks and roots under foot. Rocket pulled me along the trail acting as my eyes and keeping me upright, most of the time. But the Devils Club thorns and other bush prickers got through my thin hiking pants, and into the night I could feel stinging on hands and thighs. Also, I went into complete allergy mode, sneezing and having to blow my nose every few minutes - not sure if it’s the Cottonwood which seems to fall everywhere we go, or the grass seeds that fell in the wind as Rocket’s leash unleashed them. The trail isn’t a difficult one, but under these conditions, it was a bit frustrating. I do need to add that workers had recently cut back the overgrowth on the first mile and a half and left their tools out; I suggested to Terry at one point perhaps he should have taken the weed-whacker and me the hand pruners as we went down the trail! We even enjoyed the short trails in the town center - the Dock Point and Overlook - which provide views of the harbor and town. Other days we hiked to waterfall views and the dam and lake above the hatchery. There’s also a nice bike trail on part of the Richardson Highway and out to the hatchery which we rode one day. That day we saw a coyote looking for food where low tide receded, leaving him some fish scraps. And a few miles away from the hatchery, we heard cracking branches just off the bike trail and stopped, knowing there was a bear in the brush. We biked across the road for safety and waited, but we still didn’t get a view. So we rode up a slight incline by a building to see if we could see into the woods from behind - no view. Then we rode back the way we came to see if he’d come out in the open, that’s when we noticed he had come out of the brush and was near the building staring at us. By the time I pulled the camera out of my backpack, he had fled. We spent 6 days in Valdez, and had wonderful weather. Most mornings were 55°-60°F when we awoke with clouds that gave way to sunshine by midday and warmed to 70°F. For all those sweltering in the lower 48 heat, I say come to AK! We camped on a gravel road, right by the Lowe River letting the sound of a waterfall and the flowing river lull us to sleep. This free campsite provided a great place for Rocket to roam, privacy from other campers and a fantastic view. If you plan a trip to Valdez, we can direct you here, near mile marker 12 off the Richardson Highway. We think you’ll like it! There are other campgrounds in town where you have amenities, but you’re right next to other campers. We prefer our spot with no one around. Our next move is to Wrangell St. Elias National Park - America’s largest National Park and Preserve. We are just going to spend a couple of days in the park’s northern part, Nabesnea area - hoping to see a wolf (they’ve been spotted there recently). We’ve been to this park before - back in 2003 but not to Nabesnea. After that, we begin what we think will be a thrilling adventure - a journey to the Arctic Ocean - car camping along the way since the roads are too rough for our RV.
This is a story about a moose, three bears and a wolf pup. We’ve just spent 5 days in Denali National Park, one of our favorites. We love the wildness of the vast park, the beauty of North America’s tallest mountain, and the abundant wildlife. In particular, we love the fact that wildlife can be viewed here...it’s accessible. I blogged about our stay here the Summer of 2016, giving some historical context about the park, but in this blog I’d like to focus on three wildlife experiences we had on this trip...one with moose, one with bears, and one with a wolf. The first day we arrived, Tuesday, we were staying outside the park for a night in Healy, AK. But we had quite an interesting moose encounter within a mile of the park entrance. Before I tell that story, I have to mention how we came to be here. We were extremely lucky to have called Monday as we were driving from Fairbanks to Denali and got a campsite inside the park for four nights starting Wednesday. For years we’ve known this is a park that reservations must be made months in advance. (In 2003 we made them in February for July travel). In fact, in three years of RV traveling we have only made a reservation at one location - Denali. And yet this year, months ago we had planned to be hiking the Appalachian Trail and didn’t know we would be back in Alaska. As we began working our way to AK in June, we had no idea when we’d arrive in the state; moreover, we didn’t even know if we would come to the western side and go to Denali. (We are fortunate to have been here four times now.) The day before calling about a reservation in Denali, we were actually set on going to Valdez. But we saw the weather forecast for the week in Valdez held rain daily with temperatures in the 40’s. We postponed Valdez. We began driving from Fairbanks with the idea that we’d go to the park and hope for a campsite cancellation and stay outside the park if necessary. Even though we had called the day before and there were no campsites, Terry suggested we call from the road at 7:30am that Monday. There must have been a cancellation, because we were able to get a site at Teklanika, our first choice of campgrounds in the Park! I explain all of this to show how serendipitous our being in the park on Tuesday was. The plan was to stay outside the park Tuesday night just five miles from the entrance, but use the daylight left in the day to drive to the visitor center and walk the one trail Rocket (and all leashed dogs) is allowed on - the bike trail around the visitor center, Riley Creek campground, bus depot, etc. Then we would drive the only part of the 96 mile park road that personal vehicles (who aren’t camping) can drive - the first 15 miles of paved road. You can sometimes spot wildlife from this section; although, most of the wildlife is seen beyond this point. Before we began our dog walk on the bike path, we spotted a moose and her calf eating bushes around a small parking area. They wandered into the woods and we drove to the next parking area, quite close to the first. We parked and walked down the bike path noticing other families walking or biking. It’s a hub of activity here, but we began walking down towards where we had seen the moose, and saw her in a very open area with cars stopping to take photos. Moose with calves can be dangerous and they especially don’t like dogs - cousins of one of their predators, the wolf. Terry kept Rocket back while I snapped a few pictures and then we turned and walked Rocket back on the path towards our car. Rocket was sniffing the left side of the trail while Terry held the leash, and I was on the far right. When all of a sudden another moose mom charged us! I say us, but it was really Rocket, I think. And I say I think, because it all happened in a few split seconds and was hard to know what was happening. While we had been secure in the knowledge we had left the moose mother behind in a different area, we hadn’t counted on a second moose mom! And there was vegetation right up to the bike path so we hadn’t seen her. Rocket of course sniffs everything around him in a new area, so we weren’t hyper aware of his behavior. I can’t say if mother moose charged from a few yards or a few feet, but as moose charges go, I think we all came off pretty lucky. What happened is Terry dropped the leash which is a retractable 15’ leash. He surmised that if we all needed to run (the proper reaction to a moose encounter), Rocket could run better without Terry holding his leash. But Rocket went into herding mode and lay down on the ground on the far side of the bike path (about 5 yards from the moose). At this point I’m behind Rocket in the bushes saying “leave it Rocket,” but I notice his leash is tangled in the bushes. Within a few seconds I see two calves walking up towards mom. (This is definitely a different moose mom.) I quickly unhitch Rocket from his collar and tell him to “go to Daddy” which he does. We are all still in her personal space and should be at least 25 yards away. But I somehow thought I could get the leash without her barreling down on me so I untangled it, and we then moved further away from her - walking into the bushes with another family who happened upon the scene. She and her calves calmly continued walking through the bushes at a diagonal so that when we came to the parking lot, we had sight of them all walking nonchalantly along, grazing as though they owned the bike path and surrounding bushes. (Which in fact they do.) It was both alarming and exhilarating, and a reminder that in this park wildlife can be anywhere AND you can’t let your guard down, even in the developed areas. That day between the entrance area of the park and driving the first 15 miles of the park road, we saw 11 moose!!! I can tell you that is a record for us to see in one day. And I hope I’ll never be closer to a moose than we were that Tuesday. Over the course of our stay this visit, we had 36 bear sightings - all Grizzlies. I say 36 sightings instead of bears, because sometimes we saw the same mom and her cubs on successive days in different places. (But I only counted individual bears once if we saw them twice in a day.) It was thrilling to see so many, and one mom and her two year-old cubs was easy to spot because they were feasting on a caribou, killed by two wolves. The kill sight was viewable from the road and buses, but was a distant photograph, maybe half a mile away. For three days this mom and two cubs stayed near the kill, even when the bones appeared to have been picked clean. We met a professional cinematographer (Todd) at our campground, just across from our site. Todd had a special permit to drive his car into the park to film and every day or evening we shared intel about where the wolves or bears were. He had seen an alpha wolf watching the bears on his (the wolf’s) kill, and another visitor we met had gotten great photos of the wolf near the road (all the alpha members of a pack are radio collared). I was desperate to see the wolves, and we planned to bike or hike near these areas. The park service sets up temporary signs announcing a closure around known kill sights to protect the wildlife’s need to feed and to protect the public from wildlife encounters. We, of course, wouldn’t go into the closure areas, but were eager to view from the road. One day we were walking the road between the kill sight and the area a young wolf pup had been spotted near the road - between mile 54-58 near Highway Pass. The photographer was driving between these areas too. This day, the three bears lay sleeping in the sun for hours, about a quarter of a mile away from the kill site, caribou bones picked clean. We spent time a few miles away climbing hills on the north side of the road (no closure there) so we could peer down into the river bed and area looking for wolves or bears, really any wildlife. After some time, we decided to walk down toward mile 58, near the kill site. We discovered the bears had moved and were no where in sight. Todd drove by in his truck and shared that the wolf puppy had been spotted down near mile 55 - where we had come from earlier! (That pup stars in my next Denali adventure story.) So of course we began walking back the way we came. We got a couple miles down the road when a green bus approached telling us to get on the bus immediately, the bears were headed for us. Once on the bus the visitors excitedly began to tell us they had been watching the bears in a drainage that cut down the hillside, and the bears were walking it up to the road. They said the bears “were coming right at you.” Yet once on the bus we watched the two cubs in the drainage area playing and mom even swatted them once to try to make the rambunctious young stop messing around. Terry and I had not seen the bears and felt like we walked right passed them. What we deduced was that the angle the bus had on a curve made it appear as though the bears were 50 yards away and headed right for us. They were most definitely headed in our direction, but as we were downwind of them, they were just as unaware of us as we were of them. At this point we were headed away from where we wanted to go because this bus was headed back to mile 58 and points west; we were headed for mile 54. We asked to be let off when the driver deemed it safe (they have to drive at least a half mile away) and promised to get on another bus headed back our direction. By the time this transpired, when we returned (by another bus) to the spot where the bears were sighted, they had crossed the road and were eating vegetation on a hill. Here we got to watch from a safe distance as the young began to play again, standing on two feet, boxing and chewing each other. Such a joy to see them acting like young adolescents! (OK, in the title of this blog I wrote “encounter,” but I don’t actually count this as an encounter.) We never saw the wolves that day, but we planned to bike into the park from mile 29 the next day and hoped we would see them. We had a beautiful day for biking, cool in the morning but with lots of blue sky and sunshine later. We biked about 33 miles using the bus to get us over Polychrome Pass which is a series of uphill winding curves without guard rails where two buses meeting on a turn can be frightful, and we didn’t want to be in the middle of that. And we used a bus to get back to the campground at the end of a long day. But what sights we saw! We saw Dall’s sheep high on the cliffs, Golden Eagles soaring while Harrier hawks hunted the valleys, and bears. We watched a mom and her two three-year-old cubs grazing on vegetation in Sable Pass near the road. But they were in tall grass and we stayed on the road - they never saw us. Nonetheless, we did bike very slowly coming and going. We saw a moose near Igloo Creek Campground (small- 7 sites for tents only campground). She came around the campground outhouse as we were biking, and I got some photos until she snorted at me that I was in her personal space. We backed away and she crossed the creek and into thick willows - vanishing quickly! But our goal that day was to get to Highway Pass and again look for the wolves. Earlier in the week, there was an ALL BUS call for no wildlife viewing stops at mile 54 because the wolf pup who was only 8-10 weeks was on the road, and his parents were across the river. The park service wanted to safeguard getting puppy reunited with parents, and they didn’t want him to get too used to buses. At that location you couldn’t hike or bike or stop in the area. The parents of this pack of three are radio collared so the biologists knew where they were. It is presumed that the pack left the den area and were using a rendezvous site which is typical of wolves as their young grow. The timing seems too soon to me for that, but I don’t have all the facts. Nonetheless, this pup apparently has no siblings and no aunts and uncles in the pack to watch over him while mom and dad hunt. I had gathered intel from bus drivers who had seen the two parents hunting caribou cooperatively on two occasions - one was the kill that the mom grizzly took over. So pup in his infinite curiosity, left alone to his own devices must have wandered off for his own adventures. The ALL BUS alert only lasted a day, and since we knew the adults had been spotted in the Highway Pass area, we were eager to bike that area in hopes of spotting a wolf. We got just past mile 54 and stopped for a break when a ranger drove up. He told us that at mile 59 was a new closure and we couldn’t bike there (but could get on a bus with the bike when we got to the closure; each bus has a rack for 2 bikes). Apparently the wolves had killed another caribou - this one very close to the road. We were thrilled to hear the wolves were being successful hunters and inquired about the pup. He said just an hour ago he had seen the pup about a mile up the road. More thrilling news to our ears. I wanted very badly to see this little guy. We set off slowly for the next few miles looking anxiously for the pup. We didn’t see him and arrived at the closure trying to decide what to do next. We had left Rocket in the RV and knew his day got longer with every decision we made continuing to search for wolves. About that time, our photographer friend, Todd drove out. All week we had been following his search for wildlife behavior scenes, and we were very excited to hear that he had gotten great footage of the wolf on the kill (he showed me later - nice sequences!) According to his guidelines for a permit, he couldn’t stay at the kill site if more than 3 buses arrived so he had been driving the road for 5 hours (the wolf had left at 11am and it was now 4pm). He said there was a grizzly nearby who just hadn’t quite stumbled upon the kill - the wind wasn’t with him! Todd was waiting for the bear but said nothing was on the kill at the moment. With this information, we decided there was no point getting on a bus with our bikes going away from camp further just to look at a dead caribou then turn around in another bus heading for home. So we began biking back the way we’d come. We were at mile 59 and would ride back towards mile 53 where we could catch a bus at the Toklat rest stop and head back to camp...this being our last full day in the park and our last opportunity for wildlife viewing from a bus. We had six more miles to look for our wolf. About 5 miles later, we spotted a tiny pup in the road...the lone wolf pup. He watched us for a few minutes and eventually sat down, eyeing us from a distance. We were enthralled. At first it was just the three of us. And then, the buses came. They came from behind us, they came from in front of us, and pup started to move. He walked on the north side of the road, crossed behind a bus to the south side and then he walked straight up the edge. We were fearful for him and worried and excited - all at the same time. After perhaps ten minutes, he had enough of this attention and wandered into the brush. He sat down after just a couple of yards, and looked through the grass. We left him there and biked down to Toklat Rest area. As I sat on the bus we took back to camp, I processed this all and discovered that I wasn’t as ecstatic as I wanted to be. All week I had wanted to see wolves, and I wanted to see a pup. But having seen this tiny fellow - no bigger than a toy poodle - I felt sad. He seemed lonely and lost, and I wanted to know that his parents knew where he was. I wanted to know that the eagles flying above the area and the bears down the road wouldn’t find him. I wanted to know that he would stay clear of buses and humans wandering in his path. I was happy to see him and know that he’s the heir to this wonderful territory, but it would have been much more satisfying to see him with his pack. I hope to hear news that he grows up and the pack increases. As of March 2018, Denali has 79 wolves in 10 different packs. This pack is small, but they have good food sources. Prayers go up for their longevity. A note about Terry’s frozen shoulder...he can carry a pack but has to stop periodically and can sleep better but still can’t lay long on it. He sometimes has pain hiking and biking but won’t let it stop him from having adventures! Our count of wildlife seen while in Denali these 5 days was pretty impressive: 1 wolf, 36 Grizzly Bears, 49 Dall’s sheep, 18 Golden Eagles, 29 Ravens, 13 Moose, 28 Snowshoe Hare, 15 Northern Harriers, 88 Squirrels, 33 Magpies, 2 Beaver, 6 Ptarmigan, 8 Gyr Falcons, 36 Caribou, 1 vole, 2 Merlin, 1 Trumpeter Swan.
I look down, panting, and realize my hiking boot is crawling with flies, about 25 of them. When I dare to look around my head, a couple of dozen more buzzing insects - mosquitos and flies swarm. Sweat drips down my back, dust falls over my pack and seeps into my lungs, and I wonder how much further the summit is. This trail gains almost 3000 feet in elevation and round trip will be about 12 miles for me, Terry, and our border collie Rocket. I know the views will be worth it, and I want to reach the top, but I wish we’d started earlier to beat the heat. And I wish I had a younger body to carry me up easily! I’m surprised there are so many annoying insects, but glad I have bug spray to keep them from biting me. I guess the fact it repels them, even though only mere inches from my ears and uncovered skin, makes it worth the price. This is the Bullion Plateau Trail in Kluane National Park in the Yukon. It’s a trail that climbs into the mountains and affords views of the Sheep Creek and Slims River in an area where Dall’s Sheep raise their young and Grizzly Bear roam, as well as many other animals. We are alone on the dusty trail with the exception of two park workers on an ATV who did some trail work and have now driven off the mountain. I have to keep taking breaks as we climb, but about 3/4 of the way up I spy something blonde ahead and ask Terry to take out the binoculars from my pack so we can check whether it’s a rock or a bear. He does and quickly pronounces it to be just a mere rock. Before we move on, he turns around to glass a mountain to our left where there is another blonde rock. It too is just a rock, but low and behold in the gray scree that tumbles off the hill, a brown object is quickly moving down. He excitedly proclaims “It’s a bear!” He hands me the binoculars so I too can see before the bear quickly moves into thick vegetation and out of our view. This gives me new incentive to continue climbing, hoping to get another sight of the bear from a higher vantage point. We’re elated rather than fearful, because at this point, he’s about a mile away from us. We continue our ascent and reach the summit but also discover from the top, you can take another route further into the wilderness, which some hikers turn into an overnight trip. We enjoy our lunch and continue to scope for the bear but never see him come out of the vegetation. It’s possible he dropped into a ravine and even wandered in a different direction, but we are thrilled to have seen him, even briefly. This is one of the reasons we love Kluane National Park in the Yukon - the Canadian province whose slogan is LARGER THAN LIFE. The far reaching forests, beautiful green and blue lakes, the glistening white glaciers and vast landscapes as far as the eye can see are testament to this. And the abundance and variety of wildlife underscore the sentiment. Roughly the size of NJ, the park is the Eastern side of Wrangell St. Elias National Park in Alaska - a park we visited with Sundance about 15 years ago. In addition to being home to Dall's sheep, lynx, grizzly bears, wolverines and others, it is also home to some of the world's largest non-polar icefields and Canada's tallest peak, Mt. Logan (19,545'). White and black Spruce trees, Willow and Aspen provide shade and cover for many animals, and the hiking and wildlife spotting here are fabulous. The Yukon tourism office proudly claims that almost 80% of the Yukon is pristine wilderness, with over 350,000 square kilometers of mountain vistas, boreal forest, wild rivers and crystal clear lakes. Another statistic that makes this place attractive is that there are 10 times more moose, bears, wolves, caribou, goats and sheep than people in the Yukon! Which means we have a good chance of seeing wildlife everywhere. While in Kluane we hike the trails near the Tachäl Dhäl (Sheep Mt.) area: Soldier Summit, Sheep Creek Trail, and Bullion Plateau trails. And one hour south of these, lies the small town of Haines Junction; we drove there to hike the Auriol Trail. The day is thankfully cooler than the day on the Bullion Plateau, it’s about 60°F when we get started. The only other people on the trail are a pair of mountain bikers who get underway as we do and are quickly out of sight. Since Rocket is allowed on leash on the trails, he’s with us, and boy am I glad. This 9 mile trail is much easier than the other trail because there’s only 1300’ elevation gain, and the temperature is cooler. It’s cloudy so views of the snow capped peaks in the distance come and go. The spruce forest smells wonderful and the trail crosses over a creek quite a few times. At the start we take the left side of a loop and stop for lunch near a meadow, then begin our descent on the right side of the loop. About and hour from the end, I notice Rocket is on high alert, scenting the air to the trail’s right. The vegetation is thick and tall so I can’t see much when we approach a curve. At this point I call out a warning: “Hey there bear, it’s only us - some people.” As we round the bend I hear ripping vegetation and look up to my right to see the backside of a big brown bear scrambling up the hill. The sighting lasts only about 5 seconds before he disappears over the hill. He probably smelled us first because he was at least 75 yards away when we saw him, but making noise on the trail helps prevent surprising bears. Again we were thrilled to see him at a safe distance and so grateful for Rocket’s warning! On this trip, as our first one here in 2016, we stay at Congdon Creek campground (km1666 on the Al-Can Hwy) which lies near the park’s northern border on the Yukon’s largest lake, Kluane. Pronounced clue àn ee, this means “large fish” in the language of the First Nation Tutchone people who hunted caribou, sheep, bears and fished the lake for hundreds of years before the government preserved this area as Kluane National Park and Preserve. In addition to the abundant wildlife, the scenery is stunning. We highly recommend that anyone traveling the Al-Can Highway make it a destination rather than a stop-over on your way to/from Alaska. Because there is so much daylight (20 hours in July), we decide to take drives at night from about 8-10pm looking for bears and wildlife that often travel along the road. Congdon Creek is a particularly good area for bears, and the campground has even installed an electric fence around the 10 tent sites here - something new since our last visit. The day we arrive, we see a large male grizzly feeding on roadside vegetation within a couple of miles of the campground, and when we take an evening drive our first night, we spend about 40 minutes watching a mother grizzly and her 2 yearling cubs (from the car)! They too are about 2 miles from camp. We see other wildlife during our stay: snowshoe hares, ground squirrels, Dall’s sheep, and lots of ravens. In fact one pair of ravens wake me daily with their loud calls. Since we began our trip, I’ve carried a book written by a Vermont author and scientist - Berne Heinrich - MIND OF THE RAVEN. I decided to finally read it while here and try to discern what the ravens are doing. The book is fascinating and Heinrich spent many years studying ravens in both captivity and the wild. Extremely intelligent and adaptive birds, they make interesting subjects; and, I’m enthralled with his findings. I have a lot more to read and learn, but it makes the sightings much more pertinent to me. It’s worth noting that on some days in the park, I’ve counted as many as 21 ravens in a day. As we move into Alaska, we continue to see ravens along the roadways. I eagerly watch them hoping that one day they will lead me to a food cache...a carcass that wolves have brought down so maybe I can get a glimpse of the wild canids as well.
Why does Haines, AK boast the most eagles in North America? It has to do with rocks and glacial debris in the waters of the Chilkat River. Because of the way these rocks lie beneath the confluence of the Tsirku, Klehini, and Chilkat rivers, warm air gets trapped in and stays there when other rivers freeze, making this the last place for an abundance of fish. It starts in the spring and summer when rain and meltwater flow into this “alluvial fan” creating a huge reservoir of water in the cracks and spaces. As temperatures drop in October, the water in these spaces stays above freezing and seeps into the Chilkat River throughout winter so during the cool months of late Oct-Feb, there is a late Chum and Coho salmon run here, drawing in the eagles. During other months there are about a few hundred resident eagles, but in the Fall, their numbers swell to nearly 3,500!!! So if you want to see eagles lining up and down the river, Haines is the place to be. The state has designated 48,000 acres as the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve which lies on the Chilkat River and is accessible from the Haines Highway. Between mile markers 18-24, we have seen the most eagles in one spot, and nearby there’s a footpath about 1.5 miles for visitors to walk and enjoy the scenery which includes the eagles and their 80 nests along the river. I’m sure those who’ve seen an eagle’s nest know, it’s huge and the biggest bird nest built by a single pair of birds. But did you know it can measure 20 feet deep? The largest ever measured was that deep, 9.5 feet wide, and weighed almost three tons!!!! Here in southeast AK, eagle pairs choose a Sitka spruce within 200 meters of water 78% of the time as a nest site so look for those along the river. At a rest area here, there are placards explaining how an eagle’s digestive tract works and about the connection the native Tlingit people have to these birds and ravens. And if you want to get up close with raptors, you can visit the Bald Eagle Foundation Raptor Center in downtown Haines. One day when I was in town, I was fortunate to visit on a day a big cruise ship was in town. (The town survives on cruise ship tourists.). When that happens, the center has talks and demonstrations hourly. So I was able to attend one of the training sessions ($12.00) where two trainers work with two eagles in one large caged area. The birds are both females and get along well enough for the trainers to handle them in the same enclosure. The trainers feed them quail and meat when the birds move to a certain perch or follow a command, while one trainer answers audience questions. These birds were injured but have good temperaments for being people handled, but the center is not in the business of rehabbing birds. If an eagle is found with a damaged wing or beak and can’t live in the wild, they will euthanize the bird. The Center has other resident raptors in outdoor individual cages: a Eurasian Owl, a Pygmy owl, and several hawks. They also have exhibits of stuffed birds, placards with information like how to differentiate between a raven and a crow. And they have a wonderful diorama of AK fauna that is extensive with stuffed moose calves of differing ages, foxes, ermine, lots of fish species, etc. They give nature talks daily too (just more regularly when a cruise ship is docked). Eagles are both hunters and scavengers. I’ve seen them on the Chilkoot River catching fish and seen them in the air fighting - possibly over fish. The Chilkoot River is not to be confused with the Chilkat River. The Chilkoot is the river that meets the Lutak Inlet - this river ends at the Chilkoot Lake which is where we’ve been camping for 10 days. It’s a haven for bears and eagles that feed on the returning salmon who spawn in the lake. The Chilkat River flows into the Chilkat Inlet, and this is where the eagle preserve (18 miles north of Haines) is and where the congregation happens beginning in Oct. It’s worth mentioning that 260 other bird species are around Haines. We’ve seen mostly robins, ravens, herons, Steller’s jays, gulls and Mergansers raising their chicks on the river (as I was writing this, 10 babies and mom swam by!) Now for some Eagle facts...What helps the eagles hunt so well? They have two focal points, rather than one like us, on the back of each eye. With these 4 fovea, an eagle’s superior depth perception allows them to make high speed dives on prey without crashing to the ground. Their eyes are set back in the skull capped by a bony ridge and surrounded by musculature. While this protects their eyes, it limits their eye movement. So they must turn their head to see different directions. Also, they have a third eyelid, the nictilating membrane, a translucent lid which closes involuntarily when the eye is threatened. Before I wrap up, here’s one more interesting eagle tidbit. Both parents will incubate the eggs for 35 days (although the female spends more time on the nest), and eggs hatch on separate days. Once hatched the eaglets are nestbound for 10-12 weeks. We’re leaving Haines tomorrow and heading back to the Yukon and Kluane National Park for a few days before we head back into the eastern part of AK from the Al-Can Highway. Just as in Haines, there will be limited cell service for phone calls, blogs or Facebook. But maybe by week’s end, I’ll have something new to share. Enjoy your week!
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AuthorFormer documentary film producer, wife and mother of one...I'm taking time off to see the US with my husband Terry. Here's where I'll write about our adventures RVing until the money runs out! Archives
August 2021
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