Denali Summer Solstice

Wow!  Can't believe how fast June is flying by!  I was lucky enough to spend the summer solstice in truly the Land of the Midnight Sun!  June 21st had 21 hours of direct sunlight in Denali...the other 3 hours its like the sun is just behind a dark cloud.  Work brought me up to Denali on the 21st, and I didn't have to pick a group up until the 24th, so I had 2 1/2 days on my own to explore Denali!  Denali has one 85 mile dirt road into the park, and you have to take their buses, so no private vehicles, which actually is pretty sweet!  I wouldn't want to see private vehicles and RVs driving themselves on their scary exposed one lane dirt roads!

It was great to see the green up of the park and a lot of early summer flowers in bloom, much different than our earlier visit in late May!  The skies were dramatic with sun and clouds, but unfortunately 'The Mountain' did not reveal itself during my 3 days in the park.  That's OK, maybe another time! 

 

 



 

View from camp



Still enjoyed the views, had some great wildlife sightings of a spruce grouse and chick, some caribou with decent racks already, a nice blonde grizzly and one of her two sleeping cubs...don't worry, all from the 'safety' of the road!  Did a few hikes on their few established trails...alot of Denali is pure wilderness, they encourage you to camp and hike off trails as long as its not in a wildlife closure area!  Since I was by myself however, I decided to stick to the trails!

A few more wildlife photos from Denali can be found in 'Alaska Wildlife' at https://picasaweb.google.com/chilipepperphotography

The weather up here has been pretty okay!  It's actually hotter towards Denali, bc your in the interior of the state and not having the maritime climate which keeps things nice and mild, low 50s high 60s!

Since I can only find time to update this once every week or two, evidently you can sign up through this blog to recieve email notifications when a new blog is posted!



A trip out to Sea...

First week of work proved to be successful!  Learning the job, how to get around this big state (what milepost to turn on, etc), getting more comfortable with giving interp in this new area (by the way, glaciers and gold sum Alaska up in 2 words)...it's all coming together!  I had my best wildlife morning as I was deadheading(driving empty) to Denali.  I had camped out along the way, and the next morning it started with a male spruce grouse hanging out in my campsite, and then on the way to the park I had a nice black bear cross the road in front of me, a porcupine waddling down the side of the highway (my first live porcupine up here), and then as I was the first one to the train depot waiting to pick up a group, a cow moose and her 2 calves walked across the parking lot, went underneath the awning for the loading area, and crossed the train tracks!  And I think I was the only one around to see all that!

 

 

 

Had a fantastic Alaskan day yesterday!  A friend from work and I were able to hop on a Kenai Fjord Boat Tour, which leaves out of Seward and the Ressurrection Bay.  It was a 9 hour tour (yikes) but we sure saw a lot!!  We went all the way out to the Northwestern Fjord to see the NW Glacier, which was pretty awesome in itself, but even better because we were the only touring ship out there! Most of the waters were sheltered and calm, but there was a small stretch of open water where I needed to sit and stare at some inanimate object on the floor in order to overcome a little seasickness which was a first for me. 

 

We had some great sightings!  Everything from eagles, murres, horned puffins, tufted puffins, rhinoceros auklets, to the sea otter, harbor seals, sea lions, humpback whales, orca whales, dall porpoises, mountain goats and kids, black bear, waterfalls, glaciers, it was amazing!!

 

 

 

 



Ice fall from calving glacier



 

 

 

For more wildlife pictures from this trip and and elsewhere...please visit the 'Alaska Wildlife' album at
https://picasaweb.google.com/chilipepperphotography

 



 

 

 



Happy June!

Happy June!  Hard to believe May has come and gone, and that 1/4 of my Alaskan season has passed...and I have yet to really start work!!!  After 3 weeks of extensive training (learning how to drive the big rig, obtaining  my CDL, and touring the Kenai Penninsula, Anchorage, and Denali) I have now enjoyed a 9-day stretch of time off before I jump into my first tour!

Spring is finally here!  The trees have all  budded, and the plants and flowers are starting to show their presence, and it's  been amazing to watch it all progress! It;s quite fun to have a bunch of nature geeks as your friends and co-workers, I've really been learning my plants and flowers!  Just saw my first chocolate lilies blooming the other day!

 



Fiddleheads



 







It's been really nice working for a smaller company...the food here has been really yummy!  And for part of our training, all the safari guides and drivers took a 5 day road trip, to visit all the places we'll be stopping at and working with...but that allowed us to camp in Denali for 2 nights and go for a hike where we had fantastic weather and saw all the 'big game' (bear, caribou, dall sheep, wolves, moose)...and all 10 of us went flight seeing out of Talkeetna, flew around Mt Denali and landed on the Ruth Glacier, without a cloud in the sky!  It was one of the more impressionable 2 hours of my life!  Unbelievable!  Can't wait to do it again!



Mt Foraker, Mt Hunter, Mt Denali

               

    

                           

 

After a 9-day stretch of time off, I'm ready to start work tomorrow!  But I sure have had a taste of Alaska this past week...mountain biking, hiking, backpacking, and a raft trip down the 6-Mile River yesterday!

 

For more pictures, I will try to keep my Picassa Web Albums up to date!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/chilipepperphotography