Category: Alaska

Alaska


Aug
2015

Day 14 – Tundra, Hiking, and Seeing Mt. McKinley!

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

On Sunday, July 19, we rode the bus into the park for about three hours to get out to where we were doing a discovery hike. We saw several moose and a few bears from the bus on the way in, almost all of which I got pictures of.

The hike was in a tundra area of the park, which was especially great as I have not even seen tundra outside of pictures. It was very neat, and the spongy texture of the ground was quite interesting to walk on. I saw many new flowers, plants, and lichens, some of which the guide told us about and some of which I have identified from a book. It was very foggy on the tundra, and visibility was fairly limited. However, the fog did lift a bit at times, allowing us to see somewhat of the area. We also saw some caribou on the tundra, and more on the way back. It was really neat to hike on the tundra, which is a terrain I have not experienced before. It is spongy and wet, because of the moss, but I saw many more flowers and caribou than I expected. We also saw dwarf blueberries and willows. It was strange to see willow as a small shrub, and blueberry looking like a very small plant!

After the hike, we rode a bus a bit further on into the park, to Eilson visitor center. There, we watched a very interesting short film about what climbers face when ascending Mt. McKinley.

When we got back to our campground, which was still quite wet, although the day had mostly been pretty nice, we decided to just pack up and head back to Palmer, though we had been planning on staying one more night and leaving in the morning.

We stopped at two Mt. McKinley viewing stations on the way back, but were not able to see the mountain. When we stopped at the second, though, we were able to see the mountain quite well. Mt. McKinley is Huge! It is also very beautiful, and we saw it at a really neat time. It was about 11:00, which meant… sunset! There was the mountain, and right in a dip next to it, the sunset. The yellow cloud seen in my pictures actually glowed golden, but my camera doesn’t do well with clouds or lighting. Sigh. The mountain was beautiful, however, and I got plenty of pictures. Fortunately it was still light enough to take good pictures.

These are pictures from the drive in:
  1. ‘Twas a misty, moisty morning…’
  2. A bull moose!
  3. What a beautiful view from the bus! For a bit, a picture of Denali was on my homescreen – but I like this one better, as it has more higher up, instead of mostly just a screenfull of sky.
  4. A view through the front windshield of the bus
  5. Another moose
  6. Bear! Unfortunately it was a ways away, but I was able to get a picture that I could zoom in on enough to let you see it.

 

And pictures from the tundra hike:

  1. Monkshood
  2. Tall Jacob’s Ladder? [The center went in, not out – as it appears to]
  3. Arctic Dock
  4. Mountain Avens
  5. Rosewort
  6. Some kind of a geranium, I think (The ranger told me, but I cannot remember except that it is a sign of approaching fall on the tundra)
  7. Capitate Valerian

 

Assorted photos from the tundra and Eilson visitor center, as well as one of a mountain.

  1. Caribou lichen and –
  2. Caribou
  3. Check out that fog!
  4. A beautiful set of quilted art depicting the seasons of Denali
  5. This moose skull, displayed outside of Eilson visitor center, has quite the teeth!
  6. This is approximately where we took off for our hike, although we went along the road to the left of the gravel pad observable at the bottom of the picture to avoid crossing the creek by the taller shrubs. When we started, the fog had not come as low as it later did and we were able to see the lay of the land somewhat.
  7. Aren’t the colors on that mountain beautiful? And yet, this (due to my camera) is not as lovely as the real thing!

 

And now for my pics of the mountain! (And sights on the way to it)

  1. Mt McKinley!
  2. A mountain, the name of which I do not know, but which was lovely anyways.
  3. In a drop to the left of the mountain, from where we were, there was a beautiful sunset. The cloud merely looks yellow here, but it glowed golden in real life.
  4. I just had to take a picture of this cloud-scape which we saw while driving from Denali National park to the viewing spot where we saw the mountain.
  5. A more zoomed out photo of the mountain. Mt McKinley is the large peak, and you can also see the sunset from the other photo.

That’s all about Alaska! Thanks for reading about it, and I’m sorry it took so long to get this out.

 


Aug
2015

Day 13 – Exploring Denali National Park near our campsite

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

On Saturday, July 18, we were up and on our feet just about all day long. (Or at least it felt like it)

On a trail that we had hoped to take to the visitors’ center, we had our first real Big Animal Encounter. Fortunately, no blood was involved. We came around a curve – and saw a moose! It was very big, and had two young calves. As it was practically in the trail, there was definitely no question of continuing in that direction. Dad took some pictures, which I was unable to do since I had left my camera at camp. Although Dad had told me that we were going to be out all day, I had not brought my camera, but Dad allowed us to go back to camp and get it, as it was not much out of out way to go to the visitors’ center a different way. We ended up riding the shuttle bus to the center, which we did a fair deal of that day.

In the morning, we reserved tickets for the hike and bus ride we did the next day, and then explored the visitor center and saw a presentation, given by one of the rangers, about ravens, both mythically and actually. She also told some Athabaskan stories about Raven as a figure in their legends. Did you know that, while crows have a wingspan of up to three feet, and most ravens have a wingspan of about four feet, the ravens in Alaska have a wingspan of up to five feet?

The visitor center was quite interesting, and I definitely learned some stuff. They had trunk samples from both the black spruce and the white fir – at least I think these were the trees. Although the spruce was older, it had lived in a much less hospitable environment and was much smaller.

After lunch and finishing exploring the visitors’ center, we rode another bus out to the kennels, where we saw sled dogs, and even got to see them pull a sled with one of the rangers. The sled dogs do real work each winter, and even in the summer demonstrate daily. The ranger talked about the dogs, and also about different types of sled. The one that was used for the demo was a more historically styled sled, with the bed high above the runners, but had some wheels added as it was used on a gravel path. Now toboggan style sleds are used, which have the bed just a little above the runners. They are easier to steer, and can be used with more weight.

After this, as we were all cold and wet, and it had been raining all day and kept on till the next, we went to a small restaurant near the visitors’ center and each got some thing hot to eat or drink. Dad got beef stew and coffee, Gregory got hot cocoa, and I got seafood chowder. Based on my own experience and the reports of others, it was all delicious. 🙂

Now that I have made you do all that reading, you get to see the pictures. Unfortunately I did not have my camera when we saw the moose, but I have photos from the rest of the day.

  1. An old menu that had been laminated and put in the visitors’ center, most of which was set up as a small museum.
  2. Some fossils from the area. A label said that the small brown one near the bottom is of a fern, and the dark grey one with white bits, above it, a family of squid. I could see the fern impression on one, but the other does not look much like squid to me.
  3. This is the best I have to show you in the way of moose pictures. Aren’t they huge?
  4. A display showing some of the furs and natural materials that were used by the native americans in Alaska. Sorry the lighting here was not very good.
  5. Some Shrubby Cinquefoil that I saw on Friday
  6. Various rocks from Polychrome Mountain
  1. Dog moving! The rangers at the kennels move the dogs this way because, pound for pound, huskies are the strongest draft animals in the world – which means that if they bent over far enough, the dogs would pull their keepers over.
  2. An old sled
  3. Unharnessing the dogs
  4. This is a sled such as is used now, complete with equipment
  5. Another old sled
  6. This is as close as I got to a picture of the sled in motion. Bad timing, Emma!

 


Jul
2015

Day 10 – Floating the Kenai

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

On Wednesday, July 15, we floated the Kenai river with Uncle Chris!

First Mom, Nathan, and I went on a sightseeing trip. After lunch, Mom took the two littles and Dad floated with us three older kids on a fishing trip. Justin and Hannah did not float at all, as Justin decided he as not interested in the boat – and it just didn't seem like a good idea to bring the nineteen month old.

On the viewing trip, we saw a lot of bald eagles – and even a bear! It was wonderful, floating down the beautiful Kenai river.

On the fishing trip, we got out on a small island and practiced fly fishing for a bit. Gregory and Nathan each caught a rainbow trout, which were thrown back because Uncle Chris said that the trout from the Kenai don't taste good. I didn't catch any fish, but I think I caught the hang of fly fishing somewhat and had a lot of fun.

Here are the pics:

  1. We saw several bald eagles!
  2. A beautiful view off the front of the boat.
  3. A young Grizzly sunning himself!
  4. Nathan's fish
  5. The boat itself, all packed up for the fishing trip
  6. The end and bobber of my own rod, unhappily fishless
  7. The small island where we landed and fished for a bit. Gregory caught his fish here.
  8. Another view off the front of the boat

 


Jul
2015

Days 8-9 – Camping, Kenai Lake, Exit Glacier

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

On Sunday, we set up a quite comfortable camp in the Quartz Creek Campground, by Kenai Lake, and before dinner did some exploring. I did not take a picture of the camp until the next day, which is why it is in one of these collages.

These are photos from Sunday.

  1. In the afternoon we walked out on a boardwalk to Quartz Creek, the namesake of our campground.
  2. We also walked out to Kenai Lake, which borders the campground.
  3. I have identified (and shown photos) of common fireweed before, but I liked this picture.
  4. Water at the edge of Kenai Lake. I find it interesting how the water is clear very near the shore, but blue farther out – with scum-covered rocks providing a stripe of brown between them.
  5. Northern Goldenrod?
  6. Common Horstail, which is very common indeed and seems to grow all over the parts of Alaska that I have seen

On Monday, we drove out to Exit Glacier. It is a 3.5 mile long glacier that you can hike out to (but not up to). It is named Exit Glacier because it was once used mainly as an ‘exit’ from the Harding Ice Field, which is named after a president who visited it. Did you know that 1 cubic foot of fully compacted glacial ice weighs 52 pounds?

 

  1. We stopped at a playground in Seward, whch Mom said has the best view of any childrens’ park that she has seen.
  2. A gravel drainage plain left by the retreating Exit Glacier.
  3. The foot of the Glacier. If you look closely, you can see water coming out from beneath it.
  4. The glacier itself!
  5. Along the path to the glacier, and also the road to the visitors’ center, there were signs marking where the glacier had been in certain years.
  6. I think this is amazing. Doesn’t it look almost as if it was carved and shaped by giant ice cream scoops? Yet, it was the ice cream that scooped it! One can just imagine the huge river of ice in the valley, and all the little tributary rivers of ice emptying into it.
  7. A close up of the glacier.

 

And here are some various photos I have taken:

  1. The park where we stopped. Impressive, isn’t it? Fortunately I was able to find a plug in a pavilion area near this where I charged the battery of my camera, which I should have charged in Anchorage, about 1/3 of the way. Perhaps I can find somewhere else to charge some more.
  2. Western Columbine
  3. More Dwarf Fireweed! I didn’t realize that I had put it in a collage twice today.
  4. Our camp! Or should I say Our Encampment…?
  5. Pink Pyrola

 

By the way, I think that the plant I was unable to identify in my last post might have been Mouse Eared Chickweed.

 

So long for now! 😉

 

 

 


Jul
2015

Alaskan Flower Identification Update

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

Today I have the same collage as in my first post, but now I can give you the names of almost all the flowers. Mom and I went to a bookstore, where we found a flower guide that is a lot more extensive than the little flyer that I have been using.

 

Top left: I'm sorry, but this one doesn't appear to be in my guide. 🙁

Top middle: I think this might actually be the Artic Lupine, not the Nootka Lupine.

Top right: Common Fireweed

Middle left: Northern Yarrow

Middle right: Dwarf Fireweed

Bottom left: Cow Parsnip

Bottom right: Sitka Burnet

 

Yay! I managed to identify almost all of the flowers. 🙂

 


Jul
2015

Day 4-5 – Solar System Walk/Ride

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

In the afternoon, Mom, Gregory, Nathan, Dad, and I, went out and biked some of a coastal trial along Cook Inlet. Along the trail (and some of 5th Avenue) there are scale models of the sun and planets of the solar system. Yesterday we went out and biked the trail up to Neptune. The Sun and four inner planets are located on 5th Avenue, and as we did not see those yesterday went out this morning and saw them. We did not go out to Pluto, but saw it this evening, as it is at the park where Uncle Chris and Aunt Shana got married. Altogether, we rode 14.6 miles yesterday.

And… here is the usual collage of photos. These are photos from yesterday; today's photos are below.

  1. A view of brush, mud flats, and Cook Inlet.
  2. Saturn close up
  3. Uranus
  4. At one place on the trail, we could view an airport, and several planes flew over while we watched.
  5. Neptune
  6. The entire signboard for Saturn
  7. We saw two moose!

 

This morning, Mom took us kids out to see the Sun and inner planets. We walked along 5th Avenue and – surprise, surprise – I took pictures.

  1. Mercury
  2. Earth (these photos are not in order)
  3. The Sun, with a three year old for scale.
  4. Venus
  5. The Sun was in a very nice park, with a lot of information about the sun, the solar system and space in general, and the solar system walk.
  6. Mercury again – notice how small it is.

But, Mercury is not as small as pluto. Can you even see it? Please comment on my blog if you can't, and I will try to figure out a way to get you a more zoomed-in photo.

 
Although I saw both Mars and Jupiter, and read just about all of the Mars sign, I somehow [accidentally] managed not to get a picture of either planet.

 


Jul
2015

Day 5 – the Alaskan Zoo

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

Yesterday our immediate family split up a bit, first one way and then the other. In the morning, Mom, and us kids went to the Alaskan Zoo, while Dad stayed at the house and worked. As usual, I have photos and commentary… but a lot more today than before.

First, though, I'll share some of the history of the museum. In 1966, a newspaper promotion advertised that the winner of the contest could get $3,000 – or a baby elephant. Contrary to all expectation, the elephant was chosen. Then the newspaper company, who didn't have an elephant ready, had to go and find one. They were able to find an eighteen month old circus elephant that they could buy. The man who had recieved the elephant ended up giving her to another man, who was keeping her for him in a heated horse stall. When Annabelle outgrew the stall, four acres of land adjoining it were bought. Soon, Highway Patrol brought in a bear cub, which was accepted in the new zoo.

Alright, now for the pictures.

1. Coming out of Anchorage, the clouds had lifted and we could see the mountains around us.

2. A Harbour Seal!

3. River Otters!

4. A watchful wolf…

5. And a wolf looking quite peaceful and comfortable.

6. Some bear cubs. They were super cute as they played and wrestled together, but I couldn't persuade the camera to focus on them instead of the wire.

7. Oh no! A headless goshawk!

8. Or not… (The bird had its head tucked way down when I took the first photo) 🙂

 

1. A Bactrian Camel – with a flopped over hump and quite the mane and beard.

2. Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see some tourists looking at me.

3. A yak in the process of shedding its winter coat.

4. There was another bald eagle who was standing up on a stump, but I have never seen one do this before, so I used this photo.

5. A Dall Sheep – I love his expression.

6. A reindeer. Did you know that reindeer and caribou are actually the same species, but reindeer are domesticated and caribou are not? I didn't before. You can remember because Santa has tame, domesticated reindeer to pull his sleigh.

7. A mountain goat.

8. A mouse who was checking out the eagles' salmon, even though both big birds were quite close.

 

1. I liked this bear statue.

2. A baby moose. There was an adult moose too, but I don't think I will show pictures of it, as the pictures I got of a some moose a bit later were a lot better.

3. Some recently shaved alpacas. Don't their necks look long?

4. This is a moose viewing platform, but we were not able to see the moose very well from it.

5. A display about Annabelle the elephant, along with some artwork that she had done during her time at the zoo.

6. A polar bear!

7. A very relaxed Musk Ox.

8. Models of bear paws. The white one is a polar bear paw, the brown one a grizzly paw, the small one a black bear paw, and the hand Gregory's.

 

In the afternoon we went for a bike ride, which I will talk about in another post. 🙂

 


Jul
2015

Day 4 – Alaska Museum of Science and Nature

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

Yesterday our family went to the Alaska Museum of Science and Nature. It was more of nature than science, and really cool prehistoric nature at that. It had a lot of fossils and history, as well as several models of prehistoric creatures and some geology. It also talked about earthquakes and a little about the Alaskan native peoples. Most of this, however, was in two display cases showing some tools and garments that native peoples had made. There was even a gut parka, which is what it sounds like!

As usual, I have some photos to share.

1. A stuffed black bear, the white line above which shows how much bigger a polar bear would be. The brown bear shows how much bigger an Alaskan Short Faced bear would have been than even the polar bear!

2. The front of the museum.

3. The skull of an American Lion, which was much bigger than the African Lion of today is. This skull was discovered by a twelve year old boy while he was on a family canoe trip.

4. A real fossilized mammoth tusk, which we were able to touch! A sign said that the original owner of the tusk had covered it in Elmer’s Glue, but did not offer any comment on whether that was a good thing or not.

5. Selected pieces from the collection of Joe Turnbow.

6. A piece of fossilized mammoth skull. To make them light, yet strong, enough to work for the mammoth, mammoth skulls had a hollow honeycomb pattern on the inside.

7. Skull of a Zygorhiza.

8. Model of a Tylosaurus. Note the diver in the lower left side. He’s to scale. In real life, this one would have been about 45 feet long – but Tylosauri(?) could have grown to 80 feet!

9. A tree that was frozen inside a glacier for 2,000 years! It came out feeling just about like it was before it got frozen. We were able to touch it, and it felt just about like ordinary wood, though maybe a little stony. Despite its age, the tree was definitely not petrified.

 

I think that’s just about all for the museum, but I have some comments I would like to add about the blog in general.

All the photos you will see on my blog, unless otherwise specified, are ones that I have taken myself, and I have made all the collages on here also.

Please leave a comment on this post / email / message me if you would like to be texted whenever I post.

And, thank you very much for reading my blog!

 


Jul
2015

Day 3 in Alaska: Portage Glacier and the Whittier Tunnel

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel
In the morning today we drove out to Portage Lake, where we went on a boat tour over to Portage Glacier. We also saw several other glaciers, all of which were quite interesting to see. This morning’s trip was also interesting because I have not seen any glaciers before.

Here are some photos I took:

Top Left: I don’t know its name but this was my first glacier!

Top Right: A mini iceberg from the Portage Glacier.

Middle Left: Portage Glacier.

Middle Right: Burns Glacier.

Bottom Left: A closeup of Portage Glacier.

Bottom Right: Some ice from Portage Glacier.

 

And, to crown them all, the picture of Portage Glacier – blown up:

(I really like this picture – in fact it is the new wallpaper on my home screen 🙂 )

 

After lunch we went out to Whittier, which is a deep water port on Prince William Sound / converted army base.

There is not much to see in Whittier, but the main attraction there is a two mile long tunnel which was built as a rail tunnel in 1943. It is now used by cars also, and is the only way to access Whittier from the land – excepting a 1 mile trail with some 700 feet of elevation gain. We went through the tunnel to Whittier, walked around a bit there, and drove back. I thought I would share some photos from Whittier:

 

 

Top: Whittier small boat port.

Middle Left: You can ignore the foreground, and focus on the converted army building that is the condo building where most of the inhabitants of Whittier live.

Middle Right: The opening to the tunnel, on the side away from Whittier.

Bottom Left: A sign with a map of Whittier.

Bottom Right: Whittier has a pedestrian tunnel going under the railyard from the waterside to the downtown.

 

 

Also, I have pictures of some wildflowers that I have seen in Alaska over the past two days. I have identified as many as I can, using a flyer found at the visitor center for Portage Lake.

 

Top Left: A plant that is not in the flyer! Not allowed! I am not sure if this is a non-native flower, or just one that is not very common. (The flyer only has 50 flowers)

Top Middle: Nootka Lupine (?)

Top Right: Fireweed

Middle Left: Yarrow (this grows in our area down in CA, as well)

Middle Right: Dwarf Fireweed

Bottom Left: Unidentified again!

Bottom Right: And again!

 

I’m sorry so many of the flowers are unknown, but I did my best. 🙁

 

We’re all really enjoying Alaska, and I will post again soon. Goodbye for now!