The Great One

DENALI PARK, AK - - The Mountain, shot from Stoney Dome overlook, on Friday before the clouds dropped lower

Fresh snow

DENALI PARK, AK - - This picture might look like it's black and white, but it isn't. This is an peak (whose name I don't know) as seen from Polychrome Pass rest area in heavy cloud conditions....with fresh snow from last night (Thursday) which brings out the textures of the rock.

More Beary photos

DENALI PARK, AK - - I took a trip on a park bus to Wonder Lake, 85 miles into the park, hoping to see 'The Mountain.' We did see about 50% of it. Anyway, we also saw more bears (11 in all) and most were gorging on berries. In the top 2 shots the Grizzly had the patch to him (or her) self. While above we see three bears stripping the bushes clean.

Hail, yes

DENALI PARK, AK - - The storm hit quickly. One minute it was bright and sunny, but you could see storm clouds moving. The next minute: Bam! Actually it was more like: bing, bing, bing as the hail began to fall. I was able to stand on the small front porch of our cabin and watch it hail and rain at the same time while the sun was shining. And I could look out another direction and see blue sky, fleecy white coulds and a rainbow. Only in Denali, as one person running for cover - - and losing the race to the storm - - hollered out. As the clouds moved over and blotted out the sun, the temperature dropped like a brick. Maybe, as Lydia has mentioned in her blog, we'll be seeing snow on the peaks soon, real soon.

Above: hailstones on a bed of pine needles/pine cones with a nice green shrub thrown for good measure.

Lonely Hiker

DENALI PARK, AK - - Lydia's 'Faithful Sherpa' leads the way down the road at Polychrome Pass as we mosey along waiting for a VTS bus to pick us up and deliver us back to where we started.

The backstory: We had a day off. We drove 15-miles into the park looking for moose (see moose rut info in another blog) while on our way to Savage River to hike. No luck. The small parking lot was full. We drove a half-mile back to an observation point and parked there, then hiked down to Savage River and then decided to hike up the park road. One of the VTS drivers picked us up and that's how we ended up at Polychrome.
so we parked

More signs you won't see in Florida

DENALI PARK, AK - - The above sign denotes a wildlife area. It looks a bit beaten up. Doesn't it?? Actually, it's more like 'eaten up.' It's been gnawed upon by the Grizzly Bears who live in the area or are passing through. Sort of like carving your initials in a picnic table or on a tree. They also use the sign as a back-scratching post.

THERE are plenty of stories one could make up about the sign below...with a plot line of "Nice rack, big boy." The 'moose rut' is where the males strut their stuff and BIG does count - - as in antlers. Big antlers equals big drive so the ladies send out the "ready" signal and in May we have little moosies. Actually, the bull moose goes into a much more involved mating ritual (which is not PG-rated) to prove he's the 'Big Guy' on the block. And after he's ready to rock and roll, the rangers tell us you can smell him (them) a half-mile away.

Bear-y berry good

ON THE PARK ROAD TOWARD KANTISHNA, AK - - This grizzly was berry picking Grizzly Bear-style. He was intent on doing a good job by going from his patch on the left side of the bus (top),
...to crossing the road behind the bus (above) and then going back to 'grazing' (below) on the other side of the bus. We were on an all day ride to the end of the park road of 93 miles ending up at road-end in Kantishna, a former gold, silver, zinc and lead mining town.

The Alaska Pipeline

FAIRBANKS, AK - - There is a viewing site for the Alaska Pipeline near Fairbanks. On our recent trip to Chena Hot Springs we stopped to check it out. The pipeline runs both above and under ground. Double-click on the photo (below) of the info about the pipeline to learn more.

On our trips lately we've paid as low as $2.78 (Fairbanks Safeway Market pumps) and, as a last resort, $3.48 at the Tesoro gas station in Glitter Gulch.

Denali x2

GEORGE PARKS HIGHWAY, AK - - In color or black and white, Denali, "The Great One" is very impressive.

Flattop Mountain

ANCHORAGE, AK - - This week's escape was to Anchorage, 250 miles south on the Parks Highway. On our second day there we did a neat climb to the top of Flattop Mountain (3,510') in Chugach State Park. The park and surrounding trails are supposed to get the most use of any area in the state. Click on the shot to blow it up and you should see in the background Anchorage, Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm and the Alaska Range.
THE real trail is to the right, but we made our own trail up the valley visible from my left shoe. ... a crab-walk kind of climb of about 1,000' elevation gain on a 20% (+ -) slope. I'll let Lydia tell the story...as I was only following orders.

The shot below belongs to the "Signs you'll never in Florida" collection. In the background is a slightly different view of the areas described above.

Photo time at Chena Hot Springs

CHENA HOT SPRINGS, AK - - Here's a sign you won't find in Florida. In a conversation in the restaurant at Chena Hot Springs we found out that CHS is a checkpoint for the Yukon Quest dog sled race. The above sign is on the road leading to the Springs and might allude to the race crossing or is just a warning to drivers that mushers cross the road at this point.
This "Old Goat" apparently didn't like be called an old goat. She kept her eye on us as we shot away at her varied movements.