Alaska Day 12 - Eielson Visitor Center

We started early today on our drive to the Eielson Visitor Center in Denali National Park.  The Visitor Center is at mile 66 on the Denali National Park road.  As we started our trip, we saw a group of caribou grazing beside the road.

Their antlers are still covered with a "velvet" coating that will disappear soon.  Also, the male caribou will lose their antlers in late November or early December while the females keep theirs for protection over the winter.  Soooo - this leads us to believe that Santa's reindeer are either all female or have fake antlers.  What do you think?

We also saw a mother grizzly bear and two cubs.  We didn't get a good picture of all three, but here's a picture of mom.

At one stop we got to "try on" caribou and moose horns.  The moose horns are especially heavy; the pair can weigh about 90 lbs.  Here's Rosie with some caribou horns.

As Mt. McKinley was getting closer, we stopped several time to get a picture.  Here we are with Mt. McKinley in the background or at least clouds where the mountain would be.

I see our road in the distance.

The drop next to the road was rather steep.  No wrong turns please!

We had a brief stop at polychrome pass - so called because of all the different colored mountains in the area.

Our leaders took a group photo at polychrome pass.  Here we are:

One of our leaders, Forrest, got a great picture of a dall sheep.

He also took a picture of us that we didn't even know he was taking.

We also saw a family of ptarmigans - the Alaska state bird.  These are willow ptarmigans.

As I mentioned on the way to the Eielson Visitor Center we took several pictures of Mt. McKinley.  We didn't have a clear view but you can almost get the outline.

We did manage to get a good picture of Mt. McKinley.  One of the members of our group took an airplane tour of the mountain and park.  Here's her photo from the plane.

 Looks like a postcard shot to me!

Alaska Day 11 - Horseshoe Lake Hike / Denali National Park

This morning we had a lecture by Alex Lee about Alaska environment.  After lunch Alex and Forrest guided us on a hike to Horseshoe Lake.  Here's our fearless leader, Alex:

We get a good view of the area we're heading to from a high point on the trail.  PROBLEM:  Walking down will be fairly easy.  However, then I'll have to walk back UP - not fun!  At least the temperature isn't 90F.

The beavers have shaped the small lake and the flow of water in this area.  Here are some of the many beaver dams.

The small stream empties into the Nenana River.

We stopped several times to rest/breathe and take pictures on the return trip.

We also saw where beavers are cutting down deciduous trees a significant distance from their homes.  The problem for them is they've downed all the deciduous trees in their immediate area.  Since they don't like spruce trees, they branch out to find deciduous trees and haul them back to their home.  I thought this beaver cut was interesting.  Either beaver #1 decided to change his angle of cut or beaver #2 didn't like the way #1 started the cut.

On the way out to the bus, we met a train headed for Anchorage.  The passenger cars are at the back of the train.

Tomorrow we board a bus for the 66 mile ride in Denali National Park to the Eielson Visitors' Center.  Hopefully we'll get a good view of Mt. McKinley or Denali as the locals call it and some interesting wildlife.

Alaska Day 10 - Denali National Park

This morning we took an interpretive tour of the first 17 miles of the park.  On the ride we saw a lot of caribou and this moose eating plants growing in a small pond.

On the trip out we stopped at the Savage Cabin.  This cabin was built by the railroad as a cook's house.  It was later moved to the current spot.  Ranger McIntyre gave an interpretive presentation as a 1941 park ranger.  

Also note the "bear protectors" on the window shutters.  If you can't see them, the protectors are nails sticking out of the wood.  Ouch!

Next we drove to Primrose Point and met Carol, an Athabascan native.  She shared the history of her people in this area and several cultural aspects of the Athabascan people.  She also sang an Athabascan song for us.

The view from Primrose Point was really nice.

Here's Rosie with Carol.

We had a sack lunch with us today - which we ate in stages on the bus.  After lunch we went to see the dog sled demonstration presented by park rangers and the actual sled dogs they use in the winter.  The dogs were very friendly and comfortable around strangers.

Aren't these puppies cute? 

Here I am on the sled.  Luckily there are no dogs attached.

Here comes the team with the sled and ranger.  This sled has small wheels so the dogs can pull it on dry ground.

Back at the Lodge, Rosie and I met a very friendly moose.  We even had the opportunity to get a picture.

 

Tomorrow we have lectures about the park and a guided walk on the Horseshoe Lake trail.

  

Alaska Day 9 - Anchorage to Denali National Park

Early in the morning we took a taxi from the hotel (yeah - glad to leave) to downtown Anchorage where we would catch our bus to Denali.  The downtown area wasn't exactly busy at this time on a Sunday morning.  Here's the Anchorage Welcome Center and a shot down the street.

Luckily (since we hadn't eaten breakfast) there was a Starbucks near where we were scheduled to catch our bus.  Either the muffin and coffee were yummy or I was very hungry or both!

On the bus ride over, we made one stop at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge.  It's a great place to take a potty break, get a coffee/snack and see the mountain - except on days like today when it's cloudy.

We arrived at the Denali Education Center at about lunch time.  Here's Rosie by the Center's sign.  Note: the Denali Education Center is located outside the park.  

Here I am in front of our cabin.  It was a two bedroom cabin with a shared bath - very interesting.  Luckily we ran on a different time schedule than our cabin mate.  We're early birds and she was a "let me sleep to the last minute" person.  It worked!

After checking in and dropping our bags in our room, we went to the lodge next door for lunch.  

After lunch we took a short walk around the area.  Here I am by the Nenana River that flowed behind the Center.  The river is very dirty since it's a glacier melt fed river as opposed to snow melt.

Here's Rosie by the bridge on the trail.

A view of the Center from a nearby hill.  The Denali Education Center is in the trees on the right.  The nice fancy lodge (which is not associated with the DEC) is located on the left.  On a typical day, the lodge may have ten tour buses parked in its lot.

This evening we had our orientation to the week.  Tomorrow we make our first trip into Denali National Park.

Alaska Day 8 - Sitka and Flight to Anchorage

After breakfast on the ship, we departed for a downtown Sitka hotel.  We left our stuff, did some more sightseeing and returned to the hotel in time to catch the van for the short drive to the Sitka airport.  Since our flight was not until 6:30 pm, we had plenty of time to bum around Sitka.  We both liked this lighthouse; it looks a bit lonesome.

One of our first stops was where Russia officially handed over Alaska to the US in 1867.  It was a raised area with a nice view of the city.

We next walked out to the Sheldon Jackson Museum that houses a wonderful collection of artifacts from all the native tribes of Alaska.  Then we hiked out to the Historic Museum again and on to the Alaska Raptor Center.

The center takes in injured birds and ideally rehabs them to return to the wild.  However, some birds are injured so badly, they would not survive in the wild; they are kept at the Center.

My wingspan is about as wide as a bald eagle's.  So I have the wingspan and the bald part down.  Go me!

We next went on the totem pole walk that we missed during our first stop in Sitka.  Here are some of the more interesting ones.

Now it was time to get back to the hotel to catch the van to the airport.  FYI - we had a good flight to Anchorage with a stop in Juneau on the way.  However, our hotel near the airport in Anchorage was a bit dumpy.  We slept on top of the bed; luckily we weren't there long.