Leaving Alaska and On To Yukon

Here I sit in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Cooling my heals once again. An error in judgement on my part has stranded me here until Monday while I wait for a couple new tires from White Horse. I had one of my two questionable rear tires go soft on me on the way here. I should have replaced them in Fairbanks, but I thought I could squeeze a few more miles out of them. If I had thought about it I would have realized it would be quite a while before I got to another large city.


It could be worse. The place I'm heading, Tombstone Territorial Park, is closed for a couple days. They had a bear go through and tear up a tent or two (depending on who you talk to). Hopefully that situation will be well under control by Monday. Dawson City isn't a bad place to get stranded either. It's an old gold mining town. They still mine gold here, but it's mostly geared toward tourists. This campground isn't too expensive and it has free wifi! More on the town later.

Sorry to say the Rock Ptarmigan eluded me once again. I got a lot of exercise looking for it, they like the higher elevations, and I did get some other photos.



I actually got these shots of Willow Ptarmigan the night before. This is what they normally look like although I think it's a young bird and it isn't quite to adult plumage.


Here's what a Willow Ptarmigan looks like when a magpie gets too close. Pretty scary!



Some more Willow Ptarmigan. Two of them are showing us the white wing feathers that they have year round. Soon the rest of their feathers (except for some in the tail)will turn white to match.


While looking for the elusive ones I took some time to photograph this Arctic Ground Squirrel. They look and act a lot like Prairie Dogs.


On the bus I had more opportunities for Bear photography.

I still have a few opportunities for Rock Ptarmigan in the next couple weeks or so you never know.

So far on this trip I've seen well over 509 different species of birds. Before that I had seen just 483 in my entire life. Over 100 of this year's birds were lifers, they were new to me. In the few years before that I think I've averaged around ten lifers per year. So up to this point I've had an extraordinary year for birds. Judging from that it's easy to think the next dozen or so birds will come just as easily, and I'll break the 600 barrier in no time at all. However, if you look at the birds I have yet to find and compare their ranges with the areas I have yet to cover, you'll see it won't be easy. In order to make 600 before I get home I'll have to find some pretty hard to find birds. Not to be overly pessimistic, you can buy me a 600 bird pin if you want to but you might have to hold on to it for a while.

In case you missed the last time I posted the link to my online checklist here it is: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pJQ2RUBJzY2rh9XKfysIVYg



The add on, Loggerhead Kingbird doesn't automatically add to my list. Anybody know how to fix that?

From Denali NP I went back down the Denali Highway. the weather was wet and cool like the Alaska weather I know and... know. It did make for some interesting photos though.



This is a great time of year for berries in Alaska. These low growing Blueberries where everywhere.





I got quite a few of these close-up "landscapes".




I got quite a few wider landscapes as well. The white growing around the edges of the pond is called Alaska Cotton or Arctic Cotton.



Some wildlife shots too. Eight swans a swimming? These are Tundra Swans.

From there I headed west through Tok again and on up to Chicken. The story goes that they wanted to call it ptarmigan but they couldn't spell it. Whatever. I heard it described as quirky and I guess that's about right.


This is "downtown" Chicken. The rest of the town consists of a couple gift shop/RV park type businesses a post office and an airstrip.


Chicken was a gold mining outpost. This is an old dredge that is gradually falling apart in the river. They also have one that's partially restored. They offer tours of that one.


The road from Chicken to Dawson City is very beautiful. Part of it is known as the "Top of the World Highway". In this shot you can see the US/Canada customs.


I got some more Caribou shots along the way.


To get to Dawson City from the west you need to take this Ferry across the Yukon River. It's pretty convenient and it runs 24/7.


This is a view of town and the Yukon River from Midnight Dome just outside of town.



This is the view from King Solomon's Dome, a bit further out of town. It got it's name from the fact that six of the richest gold bearing rivers in the Yukon start here.



Here's a young Spruce Grouse I found there. Camo is working for this guy.



The real draw in Dawson City right now is the World Gold Panning Championships! Really! There are teams here from all over the world. Yesterday I got some gold panning tips from a couple guys on the South African team. A white guy and a black teenager named Surprise. Pretty interesting.


The panners are each given a bucket of gravely sand with a set number of tiny gold flakes in it. They stand in tubs of water and pan out the gold as quickly as possible. The shortest time wins, but they get five minutes tacked on for each gold flake they miss. Some guys do it in less than a minute.


Here you can see a judge and the fans in the bleachers. One group even did cheers.


They raise their pan when they're done.



Here are some of the panners that aren't competing at the moment. You can see their custom gold pan cases on the ground.

It's Sunday morning now and the finals are this afternoon. It should be pretty exciting.

I found a little Evangelical Free Church in town and that starts in about 20 minutes so I better get going. Thanks for reading and for all your support. Good to hear from some new commenters (if it wasn't a word before, it is now) too. Take care.

Steve

Moose on the Loose, Bear Everywhere and One Big Mountain

I did a lot of resting and relaxing this week, but I ended up with a lot of photos anyway. I stayed around Fairbanks for a day or two. I got the blog updated Looked at some shops and just stalled for a while, waiting for the fall color to catch up with me.

I decided to take the long way to Denali. I went south toward Glen Allen and then took the Denali Highway across to the Parks Highway.

One campground I stopped at didn't look like much, but that evening I heard some splashing out in the lake and I looked out to see what looked like a big rock sticking out of the water. I didn't remember a rock there before. After I figured out it was a moose I started waiting for it to stick it's head up but then I thought I better run for the camera instead.

It turned out that this moose was not too shy. I was able to get some nice photos. I was amazed by how deep it was going and how long it kept it's head under water.

The next day I spent some time in Delta Junction, I was able to locate the Bison Herd in the area, but they were far off on private land. I took a couple "just to say so" shots but nothing great.

On the way south from there I found this Moose. It was working it's way around the edge of a small lake. I went down to a place where I had a good view that wasn't too close to the lake and I just waited. I think it knew I was there, or at least it knew something was there, but it didn't seem bothered.

I got some really close shots. I waited for it to move on and then I left.

I spent that night at what looked like a quiet little campground but it turned out that I camped next to some folks that got a kick out of staying up late, running generators and talking loud. It sounded like they were in the camper with me. They went to bed at about 1:00 and it took another hour or so for me to cool down enough to get to sleep. I usually have trouble sleeping in so I was up way too early. I have to admit I wasn't exactly quiet as I left.

The Denali Highway wasn't as great as it was the last time I went down it. The colors weren't there and the light wasn't great.

I did find this fox though.

It walked back and forth, and up and down the road for quite a while. A couple times it came very close to my truck.

Very close!

I stopped early that afternoon because I was tired. I didn't need to press on for anything. I found a nice quiet, remote campsite and I went to bed early. I felt much better in the morning.

Finally I got to Denali Wednesday at around noon. I went to see what they had available for camping at Wonder Lake. That's near the end of the road, out in wilderness, and with a great view of "The Mountain"... Denali... Mt McKinley. They had one spot left for that night so I grabbed it and I reserved a spot on the next camper bus to the lake. You can't drive out there. It's about a five and a half hour ride, but it's very scenic and they stop when they see wildlife. It's a good way to meet people too. On the way out I met a group of Chinese Students from U of M and a couple from Austria. On the way back I met a couple from Toronto. Hi Mark and Michelle! Some of the nicest people come from Canada.

On the way out we stopped to get this shot of Denali. It was just peaking out of the clouds and we didn't know if it would get clearer or cloudier.

But the view just kept getting better, and it was great for the whole time I was out there. This was one of only a few days that you could see the whole mountain this year. Thanks God!

We also found this grizzly on the way out. It was eating berries. They say that the bears are basically vegetarian in the area.

The bus ride takes you around to the north side of the lake before it brings you back to the campground on the south side. Here you get a nice view of the mountain and an active beaver lodge. Do you see the beaver in the foreground?

Here's a closer view of the beavers.

The park service restored a historic cabin in that area. They did a great job. I think they used a lot of the original furnishings. It looked very authentic.

I heard that they had seen a bear at the campground the day before, but all I saw of it were these tracks.

Between 10:00 and 11:00 that night the mountain took on some color from the setting sun. I was photographing it from a short distance from the campground and I got a surprise.

These two bulls walked up over a little ridge right next to me. I switched lenses and took a few shots.

After a little while they took notice of me. The big one on the right started walking straight toward me. I through my stuff in my bag and got out of there. It wasn't charging me or anything. I don't know what he had in mind, but it didn't want him any closer.

The next morning the campground was covered in fog. You couldn't see the mountain from there, but I went up the road and found that I could get above the fog pretty easily.

A little further up the road I came across some old friends. The two moose from the night before. They went on ahead of me and somewhere along the way they split up and I never saw the smaller one again. The bigger one went up over a small hill and I thought I could get a great photo if only I could get on the sunny side of it. I went around to the other side of the hill and tried to get ahead of it. It seems as though it was traveling faster than I thought it was. I came upon it before I really wanted to.

It did line up nicely with the mountain though.

Then he did a repeat of the night before. He started toward me. I took a few quick steps to the right and looked to see that he was still coming my way. I didn't see anything in the immediate area to duck behind. I thought "It's a bright, sunny, crisp morning, why not go for a jog?". I held onto the camera and tripod, left my camera bag, and ran. You aren't supposed to run from a predator because that can trigger it's instinct to chase. Running works with moose. As soon as I got out of it's sight I ducked down and waited. After I saw that it had moved out of the way, I went back and got my bag. I will have to be more careful in the future.

I walked around some more that morning. I got a few more photos and I got soaked in the heavy dew. I went back to my tent, ate lunch, dried out and packed up for the ride back to park entrance. Next time I come out here I need to stay longer.

On the way back we saw lots of Caribou...

Lots of Snowshoe Hare...

a couple Gyrfalcons and a few other odd critters. I wasn't quite this close on this shot. I had to crop it down quite a bit.

I spent the next couple nights in the campground near the entrance of the park. It ain't cheap but that's the way it is in this area. I spent Saturday doing Saturday things like laundry and a shower.

This morning I went to a church that met at one end of a restaurant. It was part of a ministry called "A Christian Ministry in the National Parks". It was led by a couple of College students. There were about a dozen of us and we sang acapella (I wish I could spell that). It was interesting. The guy who preached has one more year of undergrad to go at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. What a small world.

I plan to take it easy yet this afternoon. It's starting to cloud up and the light is actually pretty good right now but I don't want to buy a bus ticket for just half a day. I have a ticket bought for the first bus to Fish Creek tomorrow. That's near an area that people say is good for Rock Ptarmigan. That's one bird I really want to find before I leave the great white north.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, take care and keep praying.

Steve