Out of the Wild

As I type this post, I'm sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Anchorage, buzzed on caffeine, waiting for my plane. I'm leaving Alaska after a little more than four months.

I know that my posts from Alaska have been scant-- filled with pictures but containing little substance. I've been busy, and when I wasn't busy, I was lazy. And I was at work quite a bit. And sometimes I was hungover. And there was a period where I didn't have my laptop. And another period where I didn't have my laptop charger. But enough excuses. On my last day here, let's talk about Alaska.

Alaska is a beautiful, beautiful, wild place. I went on several hikes that I will remember for ages. The landscape is vast and harsh, overwhelming and bewitching. I was almost attacked by a moose. I got to pet a particularly curious fox on a drunken night on the way home from the bar. I got within twenty feet of a black bear who was thankfully indifferent to me. I rafted on a glacier fed river. I bathed in a stream miles away from the nearest person. I saw the northern lights dance across the sky. I explored the state capital, inaccessible by road. I wandered the biggest city, Anchorage, and enjoyed a street fair and a baseball game (starting at midnight and utilizing no artificial light) in Fairbanks. I dosed acid and wandered through a music festival, convinced something big was happening. I had an incredible live music experience at the World Famous Denali Salmon Bake with the Stumblebum Brass Band. I cooked a grouse, and ate part of a moose and fresh caught Alaskan salmon. It was four months filled with amazing experiences.

I went there to work at a gift shop, and let's be honest, that was awful. It was the worst job I've ever had. The place was poorly ran, the employers were indifferent to the employees, and the customers were generally rude and haughty. I met several people thee as well-- some I enjoyed and others I delight in never having to see again. I made several assumptions about native Alaskans, seasonal workers, and Alaskan tourists that are negative and irrelevant to this post. I do not regret my time here.

What do I regret? I never made the 9 hour bus trip out to Wonder Lake to photograph Mount McKinley. I never camped overnight in Denali National Park. I never got a good view of a grizzly bear, and never saw a wolf or a bull moose sporting a giant set of antlers. I never made it north of the Arctic Circle. Alas-- there's always next year.

I do not think I will come back to Denali next year, but I think I will return to Alaska. The Kenai peninsula looks inviting. Maybe a short weekend trip up to Denali to do some of the things I missed? We'll see. Right now, though, it's back to New Orleans

Savage River

It was a beautiful day for a hike along Savage River.

a hoary marmot

Polychrome Pass

I took an evening bus trip into Denali to see Polychrome Pass in the westerly light. Simply unbelievable.

caribou, running

mighty Teklanika

caribou keep their heads in the brush to ward off mosquitos

On the Cruise: Harbour Seals

Embrace the cute. Just wrap it up in your arms and make it part of you. You know you can't resist.

On the Cruise: Wildlife

My final day in Juneau I took a day cruise into the Tracy Arm Fjord to view the Sawyer Glacier-- it offered a wide array of stunning scenery and several great wildlife sightings. Aside from the ones below, we also saw bald eagles, humpback whales and harbour seals. The first and the final can be viewed in posts linked to their titles.

a black bear

a sea lion

Raptors!

Golden Eagle

Bald Eagle on Iceberg

Alaskan Rodents

Snowshoe Hare

Squirrel

Snowshoe Hare-- unable to capture a hare with it's white winter coat, I settled instead for several pictures of the brown summer coat.

Ground Squirrel

Raven Dance

This beautiful video of ravens circling in a cloudy sky was taken at the sand cliffs.  

Sand Cliffs

These massive sand cliffs are about an hours hike away from camp-- on the way back the first time we traveled here I saw my first Alaskan bear as we startled it and it fled into the forest.

Camping at Montana Creek

About a mile and a half down the Montana Creek Trail there is a trapper's cabin owned by a friend of our bosses-- we're allowed to camp there.  It's a glorious spot perched above a river and far from anything.  We all went as a group the first time-- later I went out by myself, making it almost to the cabin before stumbling upon an angry moose in the trail.  He refused to yield and threatened to charge.  I, naturally, retreated and went home.  It was exhilarating being harassed by a beast of that size that could have easily killed me with a well placed hoof to the skull.

Tyler at the cabin

There are several of these structures along this trail, as well as other trails in the area.  I assume they are markers for the trail, but the trails all seem well socialized leaving these feeling extraneous.  They could possibly (but unlikely) be emergency shelters, but they seem far to small and haphazard.  They have a creepy Blair Witch feel to them, whatever their purpose.  Aiding the unease, both of these had animal parts (a skin and a wing) suspended from them.

Hoofed Beasts

There are three main hoofed mammals in Denali Park that everyone wants to see: caribou, dall sheep, and moose.  I saw two caribou on my first day getting to camp, but am yet to see any since.  We would see dall sheep almost everyday going to work early in the season-- less so as there are more cars on the road.  And moose?  We see moose all the time.  Looking for the big racks on the moose?  They fall off every season and the moose have to grow them back during the summer.  They haven't gotten to the stereotypical size yet.

Dall Sheep

Pet Moose (took this photo less than 2 minutes from my cabin)

Park Moose

More Park Moose

Alaskan Birds

Willow Ptarmigan (summer plumage)

Red-Footed Sea Birds

Raven on the Cross

Willow Ptarmigan (Winter Plumage)

Woodpecker

Denali National Park Sled Dogs

Denali National Park has a team of sled dogs.  During the winter they are used to aid park rangers in traversing the frozen landscape.  In summer, during peak season, they do shows.  Most of them are quite delightful and domestic, as opposed to the vicious sled dogs of lore.

Ode to Lake Pontchartrain (the Metarie Shores)

Theoretically, I'm supposed to stay in Metarie until November Seventh, three more weeks...

Causeway Boulevard

Pontchartrain

Dead Catfish

Yellow Balloon on Levee

...perhaps we shouldn't count on that.