Goodbye for Now, Alaska!

Right now, I am sitting at the Anchorage airport waiting on my 1 AM flight that will bring me back to Bozeman, MT. I've been in the great state of Alaska since May 23 and it's been a whirlwind of a summer! I got to see some of the most beautiful places on the planet, go on some amazing hikes, kayak to some of the most secluded areas I've ever been, see three Alaskan national parks, and most importantly, meet some extremely warm, kind, and generous people. During my summer here, I've learned a few things about myself and about Alaska. I think a lot of what I've learned this summer will sink in later, as I reflect on my experiences this summer. But I do know a few things:

• Alaska is really, really big! (the size of 20% of the rest of the US combined)
• Small, close-knit communities really do exist here
• The weather in Alaska is unpredictable
• I don't mind the midnight sun
• People who live in Alaska love it here and are proud of this place
• You can't let a little rain get in the way of outdoor activities, or you'd never go outside
• Lots of people here still live off the land (and water)
• I love Alaska and I'll be back someday

With the end of my adventures in Alaska comes the beginning of new adventures in Yellowstone. I'm heading back to Big Sky Country to work on my museum studies thesis at the Yellowstone Heritage Research Center in Gardiner, Montana. As many of you know, I interned at the HRC last summer and kept a blog about my experiences there. When I get back, I'll be resuming that blog, and you can follow my new adventures at:

http://adventuresinyellowstone.blogspot.com

I hope you'll continue to follow me there! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my blog!

I finally saw the elusive Denali!

Today I got on the bus from Denali to Anchorage at 7:45 AM. The weather was cool but sunny and almost cloudless, so I couldn't help but wonder if The Tall One (Denali) would be visible in the distance. I never saw the whole mountain during my visit. One a couple of occasions, I was able to see the top of the peak sticking out of the clouds. Today, I got lucky and had the chance to see the whole mountain during the bus ride to Anchorage.

There were a few occasions along the road where Denali came into view. By far though, the best view was from the Talkeetna Lodge where we stopped to drop off passengers and take a 45 min. break. From the back patio of the hotel, Denali loomed large.

View from the road

Denali from Talkeetna

Small plane above

Denali is behind me, but didn't come out because of the haze

Do not be one of these tourists!

Touron (adj.): a tourist who goes on vacation and leaves their common sense at home.

I learned this descriptor last summer from a rafting guide in the Tetons while on a trip with my dad on the way to Yellowstone. He had lots of silly stories of tourists doing and saying ridiculous things while on rafting trips or just vacationing in the area. Working in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, I can safely say that when people are on vacation, they can tend to do things they might not do otherwise. I think this word is perfect to describe the other tourists on my shuttle into Denali National Park yesterday.

On the bus, visitors are allowed to open our windows in order to get better photos, but part of the deal is that they are supposed to be very quiet and only whisper so that the animals do not get accustomed to human voices. Our human voice is actually a means of protecting ourselves in the backcountry, because the animals are unfamiliar with it and see it as a sign of something potentially dangerous that they do not want to encounter. If animals like wolves and bears get used to hearing the sound of human voices from people on the shuttle bus, and no longer associate it with something to fear or avoid, people in the backcountry who vocalize to let animals know of their presence could actually endanger themselves.

The bus drivers give a lengthy explanation of this at the beginning of each trip, so I found it extremely disrespectful and selfish of the people on the bus to be talking loudly and even calling at the bears and wolves we saw to come closer so they could get better photos. The drivers are supposed to leave immediately if people act that way, and our driver didn't so he was also at fault. If people are going to have the privilege of entering parks with wild animals, they need to treat those animals respectfully and think of the repercussions of their actions.

Too many people think of the national parks as zoos for their own personal enjoyment. I saw that kind of behavior all the time at Yellowstone last summer. Posing for photos way too close to wild animals like elk, bison, and bears, calling out to animals, and causing enormous jams along the roads were common occurrences. I am sure the tourists on the bus were totally clueless as to what they were doing, but all I could think of was that one bus multiplied by the dozens that go into the park each day and the cumulative damage they may be causing. The great thing about the parks is that they protect these animals in their natural habitat. But it is up to visitors to keep these animals wild, and that means educating themselves about animal safety and treating these animals with the respect they deserve.

Anyway, I did get some nice photos of the park, and the bears and wolves I saw. And I quietly took photos of them (see yesterday's post).

Last Day in Denali

Today was my last full day visiting Denali and I tried to fill it up with as much as I could. I began the morning with a ranger talk at the visitor center called "Gathering Places" which was about subsistence hunting and gathering within the boundaries of Denali National Park & Preserve. After the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) passed in 1980, the park's boundaries expanded from 2 million acres to 6 million acres, and much of this new land was classified not as national park but as preserve.

According to the National Park Service, the ANILCA legislation "recognizes the important connection between local rural subsistence users and the land. In Denali, as long as fish and wildlife resources and their habitats are maintained in a natural and healthy state, traditional subsistence hunting, trapping and fishing are allowed in the 1980 ANILCA park and preserve additions." The ranger giving the talk described the different groups of people who have used the resources in what is now Denali National Park for subsistence. These group include Athabaskan groups and early miners in the past, and native communities and rural settlers today. For more information about subsistence hunting and gathering in Denali National Park & Preserve, click here and here.

After the ranger talk, I went on a short hike on some trails around the visitor center, making a loop out of sections of four trails. I started on the Taiga Trail, connected to the Rock Creek Trail, the Meadow View Trail, and finally the Roadside Trail. The hike was mostly wooded, but there were some beautiful mountain views along the Meadow View Trail section of the hike.

Nice forest at the beginning of the trail

Beginning of meadow view section of trail

Nice vista

Fall colors coming out

After my hike, I took a shuttle to the Wilderness Access Center, where I caught an 8 hour bus into the park to the Eilson Visitor Center at mile 66 of the park road. I went with some girls staying at the hostel. One is from Germany, and two are from Denmark. Just like last time, the ride in was very beautiful. I was extremely tired, so I tried to relax for most of the ride. We didn't see much wildlife until we were on the way back from Eilson. First, there was a wolf walking next to the road, then a mother bear and cub wrestling and playing, and then there was another wolf along the road. The wolves were especially exciting because I had never seen one before, even at Yellowstone. There are only around 59 wolves in Denali, and I saw two within an hour. They were beautiful animals and I feel lucky to have glimpsed them.

Polychrome Pass

The view at Eilson Visitor Center

Moose skulls exhibited at Eilson. While two moose butt heads, their antlers got stuck and they eventually died.

First wolf

In the brush

A view from the road

Mama griz and cub wrestling

One bear chasing the other

The second wolf

Seeing the two wolves and the bears, along with the fantastic scenery, was the perfect way to end my trip to Denali as well as my time here in Alaska.

Walks and Ranger Talks

Today I went on two short hikes in Denali and also attended two ranger programs. First thing in the morning I took the Savage River shuttle about 12 miles down the park road to the Savage River Trail, a two mile loop hike along the edge of the Savage River. The weather was warm and sunny and the trail led to several interesting rock formations. I spent about two hours hiking in the area, and went off trail a little to get a closer look at a particularly interesting rock formation up in the hills.

Beginning of the hike

Bridge at halfway point

Amazing rock formation

End of the hike

After my hike, I took the shuttle back to the visitor center, where I went through the museum exhibits and then attended a ranger program called "Every Little Thing is Magic." In the program, a ranger discussed some of the small plants and animals in the park that are just as interesting and beautiful as Denali, the mountain most people come here to see. For example, there is a tree frog here that actually freezes solid in the winter and "comes back to life" in the spring. While frozen, it is technically dead, but due to biological processes of converting its body liquids to a sugary substance, it is able to thaw out and without cellular damage from freezing. Another interesting creature in the park is a butterfly that has a coat of fur-like hair to keep warm in this arctic climate.

After the ranger talk, I got some lunch and then took another short hike from the visitor center to the Riley Creek Campground. There were interpretive signs along the pretty wooded trail, identifying the locations of the Morino Homestead and Roadhouse, important to early park history. Later, the trail crossed under an enormous old railroad trestle. It was a fantastic walk and I loved the panels explaining the historical importance of the area.

Interpretive panel along the trail

Old railroad trestle

Railroad trestle

Fall colors starting to come out

At Riley Creek Campground, I found the post office and dropped some postcards in the mail. Then, I found the ampitheatre, where I attended a campfire program by a park ranger called "A Year in the Life of a Moose." The program was extremely interesting and informative. I learned about moose habitat (boreal forest), eating habits (they eat all summer to gain about 500 pounds for winter), antlers (actually help moose hear better by triangulating noise) and much more. It was a great program and I'm so glad I went. It was another great day in Denali, and I'm looking forward to one more beautiful day before I leave Friday morning.

Denali Post Office

Now that's a high zip code!