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...

lamar canyon wolves

Last month I hiked Specimen Ridge, an almost 19-mile hike that has been on my Yellowstone wish list for years and years. Steve has always had this hike on his "no" list, so luckily I was able to convince a coworker to join me.

We hit the trail around 8:30 a.m.


And the first thing we saw were wolves! Members of the Lamar Canyon pack. We paused to watch them for a few minutes, and then continued on.


After a couple of miles we reached a river crossing, at the Lamar River.


And from there it was up, up, up. We climbed until we reached the top of the ridge. There isn't exactly a trail per se, and animals are continually knocking over the trail markers by rubbing against them, which makes it hard to stay with the trail in certain places on the hike.


Lots of wide open vistas.


And then gorgeous views of the Lamar Valley below.


After losing the trail briefly a couple of times, we found a sign that confirmed we were on the right trail and finally getting close to the top of Amethyst Mountain.


We ran into a few bighorn sheep, and they had no idea what we were. They don't see people very often, and they just couldn't figure out what we were doing up there.



Another view of the valley.


Finally, reaching the top of Amethyst Mountain.




Looking south, you can see Mt. Washburn in the right corner, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in the middle.


The second half of the hike had wide open views of the whole area.



A piece of petrified wood--the trail doesn't go through the petrified forest, but we did see a ton of petrified wood as we hiked.


We also hiked past too many sets of antlers to count.


It was hard to tell if you were getting close to the end of the hike, because it just looked like it went on forever.


We hiked past three large herds of bison, who couldn't quite figure out what we were either.


As we neared the end of the trail, a curious pronghorn started to approach us, and we had to clang our hiking poles together to get him to move on and away from us. We didn't see another person during the 10 hours that we hiked, and it was clear that the animals were not used to seeing people up there.


We finished the hike around 6:30 p.m., 10 hours total on the trail, just as the sun was starting to set.

lamar

While Steve was out fishing, I was taking a course at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch.

The course was about Coyotes & Ravens, but early morning field trips into the Valley turned up a lot of animals. Our first morning's stop was at Round Prairie, where there was a winter-killed bison. There had been a grizzly feeding here for the past few days (the first one spotted this spring on the Northern Range), but there was nothing on the bison when we pulled up. And then...the Lamar Canyon pack (wolves) showed up and we were able to watch them for several minutes as they fed.





And then, from the trees, they started to howl.


Coyotes,



bighorn sheep,



and bison.


It was a beautiful weekend in the Valley.