alaska part I

Last month, we seized an opportunity to visit our friend, Sarah, and traveled north. Way north. To Alaska.

We landed in Anchorage and spent our first night there. We had great views of the bay from our hotel room.

The next morning, I somehow convinced Steve to go for a short run with me along the coastal trail. Although it was drizzling, it felt great to run at sea level again. Steve did get a little tired of me saying "wow, I run fast here!" over and over again.

Sadly, despite the warning, we did not spot any moose along the trail.

Perhaps it was because they saw my neon orange jacket coming from a mile away.

After we cleaned up from the run, we hopped in our rental car and headed north to Talkeetna. I had read a little bit about Talkeetna, I'm so glad we decided to ditch Anchorage and head there. I love Talkeetna, and would move there if Steve would join me.

After checking in to our B&B, we hit "downtown" Talkeetna in the rain. First stop: Denali Brewing Company for some local beer.

Then we wandered the main drag, which may have only been a couple of blocks but was full of character.

Then it was time to eat. We had a few options, and we had a hard time choosing. 

Something we noticed: Man vs. Food has somehow managed to eat his way around the entire state. Being fans, we decided to take him on his dining recommendation, though we feasted on caribou and crab legs and not a five pound burger like he did.

The next day, we woke up to another rainy morning and made our way north.

                           

We met the bus bound for Camp Denali and departed around 1 p.m.  Camp Denali sits at the end of the 95-mile park road, and the road isn't open to public vehicles. You either take one of the NPS buses, or if you're like us, a bus that operates from one of the wilderness lodges inside the park.

We timed our visit, based on Sarah's recommendations, for the fall colors, and they did not disappoint.

Through the rain, which quickly switched to snow, we spotted two grizzlies, caribou, and dall sheep.  About halfway to camp, we stopped for a picnic dinner. A very wet and snowy picnic dinner.

It snowed almost the entire way in to camp. But it just made the scenery all the more dramatic.

If you are afraid of heights, this drive might bother you a wee bit.

As we approached camp, we caught a fleeting glimpse of a wolf as he ran right past our bus. And then we had a nice, up-close view of two caribou as we drove the final few miles to Camp Denali.

To be continued...

spring in yellowstone

It's hard to believe it's almost late June.  

June is still definitely spring, not summer, here in Montana.  The threat of snow still lingers, even if the temperature crept up to 70 degrees the day before. Spring in Yellowstone means lots of babies--elk calves, bison calves, bear cubs, bighorn lambs, badger kits, etc.  This June we've been lucky enough to share spring with visitors.  Here's a few snapshots from the month:

family fun

On Day 1 we waited till Wendie got off work before heading out to check out the Park. Since AJ had never been here before, we decided he needed the full-on tourist tour. That meant hitting the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Upper and Lower Falls right smack in the middle of the day.

Even with all the people around the Lower Falls did not disappoint

Next we drove back over Dunraven Pass and made our way to the Lamar Valley. A quick stop at Trout Lake proved fruitless for otter viewings but it did provide a lot of wildflower pics.

Our next stop was suppose to be dinner but it turned out the power in both Silver Gate and Cooke City was out ,which meant we had to head back into the Park to get some grub. This proved fortuitous since when we made it back into the valley we ran into this grizzly right along the side of the road

A little further down the road AJ got his first view of wolf, the all-white, alpha-female of the Silver Pack. We could see her through the scope as she didn't even budge when a grizzly walked up beside her and decided to lie down right behind her.

We got up early on Day 2 and headed for Grand Teton National Park. We broke up the journey with some stops here and there.
Down in Hayden Valley we got a quick eye-full of a black wolf before we made our way to Mud Volcano and, next, West Thumb Geyser Basin, where Fishing Cone Geyser was still underwater

while Black Pool looked bottomless in the early morning light.

Cruising into the Tetons we grabbed a tent-site at Signal Mountain and then headed to Taggert Lake to do a hike.

The trail cut over a small cascade and through some pretty alpine meadows

and afforded us some great views of the mountains

We made sure to snap off some family photos for Marilyn


(can you tell which brother doesn't tan well?)

After some wilderness time we hit the big city (relatively) of Jackson, WY. As all first timers must do, we made AJ have a beer while sitting in one of the saddle barstools at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

Our reward for a long day of driving and hiking came in the form of some surprisingly good (and spicy) Thai food.

On our way back to our campsite we stopped off at the Mormon
homestead to try to get the iconic photo of the Tetons with the old barn in the foreground. Sadly, a haze from a fire burning over by Jenny Lake put a blanket over the mountains in the background.

The next day we were again up early. Though we didn't see a moose and missed a bear on Signal Mountain by just a couple minutes, we did have the perfect morning light to snap off some farewell shots of the Tetons.

what big feet you have!

Today was another warm, sunny day in the park. It was also my first official day of work. I visited with park guests all day, agreeing that the weather was beautiful and hearing about multiple grizzly sightings near Gibbon Meadows. The elk have been enjoying the balmy weather too, and can often be found relaxing around Mammoth (here they are at the clinic):

It can be hard to hear about everything that's going on when you can't go outside, but luckily we were able to take advantage of the weather and get outside over the weekend.

Saturday morning, after our customary coconut pancakes, we jumped in the car and headed down the road into Montana so Steve could get a bit of fishing in. Another day, another Montana Whitefish:


In the afternoon we met up with our friend and decide to head out on our first hike of the season. After much debate, we decide to hike the Garnet Hill loop trail,


which is an eight-mile loop near Tower Junction that none of us had done before.

Right after we set off we saw a tiny coyote running across the field,


and found this skull in the grass.


The trail starts off in open sagebrush


and then winds between the mountains and along the Yellowstone River. The trail was still muddy and wet in many places, and there were coyote, badger, bison, elk, and wolf prints on the trail. And a few grizzly prints--for comparison, that's a men's size 11 boot next to the print.


As we rounded a bend in the trail we found the skeletal remains of an elk along the creek; not, as Steve pointed out, a bad place to enjoy one's dinner, if one was a bear.


There were signs of spring on the trail too.


Soon we climbed high enough that we could see the Yellowstone River below--and the boys made plans to come back and fish later in the season.


The trail climbs along the Yellowstone for another mile, and then veers south and up...


and finally flattening out again.


In the midst of all the sagebrush we spotted this Mountain Bluebird,


and then had to take a couple of detours around a herd of bison that decided the best place to rest was in the middle of the trail.


For the mothers' reading this: the grizzly prints weren't fresh and were traveling in the opposite direction that we were. And we were carrying bear spray and making a lot of noise. (I'm sure you'll sleep better knowing this).

We've only seen one bear at a distance, through our binoculars, but they are definitely out and about and more and more sightings are reported daily. We've also heard reports that bison in the Lamar Valley have started having babies, hopefully I'll get out there later in the week on my day off.