Big Animals & Short Hike

We planned on a two day adventure in Denali National Park, but having had such a perfect first day, we decided to get in the car and just drive north.  We ended up in Fairbanks (ate Vietnamese Pho) and spent the afternoon at University of Alaska's Large Animal Research Station.

On the drive north of Denali, the landscape flattens out and it's trees and tundra for miles.  It's no wonder most tourists never make it out of the southern part of the state.

The Large Animal Research Station is dedicated to learning about the large animals of the polar regions.

The first....the musk ox.  These animals, with their short stubby legs and long hair are perfectly suited for the cold temperature.

Musk Ox and Child

The other animal studied are reindeer.  Although imported from Europe and Asia, they are also adapted to Alaskan climate.

On the short drive (just under three hours, short is relative in Alaska) back from Fairbanks to Denali, I pulled out the Alaska App on my phone and it told me to stop in the town of Nenana.  So we spent a half hour wandering around.

Here's an interesting historical fact!

Back at Denali, we decided to drive the road to the end of where the public can go without a tour bus, a place called Savage River.  And Onions decided, it's time to go on a hike. So with bear spray in the pack, up we went.

Typical Alaska road....this one on the way back out of Denali, post hike.

And then....this!  For more than five minutes we just hung out with moose and child.

Child and Mother love....it's universal!

Denali

Alaska is a large state without an Interstate freeway, it's all highways, most of them two lanes.  Therefore it took the better part of a day to drive from Homer to the vicinity of Denali National Park.  We stopped for one night in to the town of Talkeetna which is the starting off point for those who want to climb Denali.  Because of the cloud cover, we didn't see the mountain.  But this was a surprise.....

Throughout the interior (an once we had our eyes open to it...all of Alaska) there are Thai restaurants and food trucks all over!

Turns out the owner of Payos (milepost 2 of the Talkeetna Spur Road) is a Broncos fan.

From Talkeetna it's about a three hour drive on the George Parks Highway to get to the one and only entrance into Denali.

Outside the park is the town of Canyon and look at the first item on the menu.  This is more what I expected. Of course it's what I ordered.

The only way to get into the park is to take a bus tour which goes along the Denali Park Road.  The road extends about 92 miles into the park.  We took an afternoon tour that took us to milepost 62 and back.  It was an eight hour trip.

From the entrance, there is no way to see Denali, but as the road goes west into the park, it climbs up into the mountains.

We riders are all part of the animal lookout crew!  If we see something, we yell, STOP and then all rush to look out the window.  Can you spot the three bears?

Crown Peak of the Alaska Range

Round the corner and there it is, Denali.

Now, it's a grand mountain and at 20,000+ feet in elevation, the highest point of the North American continent. But being a Washingtonian, a visit to Mt. Rainier is MUCH more impressive because there, one is basically ON the mountain.  Here's it's a long view.

I found the glacier features more spectacular.  Right there are the kettle lakes, eskers and moraines we studied in Geology class.

The one thing that is hard to convey in photos is how huge the landscape is.  I was telling Onions how this reminded me of Xinjiang in western China.

Channeling my inner caribou!

Caribou right in the middle of the road on the drive back.  Turns out that the animals of Denali have become habituated to the buses and have learned not to fear them.

It's a rule thumb that Denali is only visible one out of three days.  We were lucky to see it on the day we arrived, but here we are at our tour's turnaround spot and the clouds were already moving in.  Animals and Denali, we saw it all, except wolves.

Visiting Shannyn in Little Tutka Bay, AK

The map inset on the left shows the location of the Kenai Peninsula in relation to Anchorage.  Homer Spit is right in the crease of the photo and across Kachemak Bay is Kachemak Bay State Park, which can only be reached by boat or plane.  A friend from when I was at UW in 1989, Shannyn M. was at Seattle U., grew up in Homer and now lives at the mouth of Tutka Bay.  Onions and I visited her.

So, in Alaska when you book a water taxi, you best be on time.  We arrived at 9:06AM for our 9AM boat....it left because it was scheduled to pick someone up across the bay.  We were rescheduled for a 10:30AM taxi.

Low tide.  Turns out right around 10:30AM was just about the lowest tide of the cycle.

Fishermen on Kachemak Bay.

Entering Little Tutka Bay   That's Shannyn's place right there in the center of the picture with the dock out of the water.

With the low tide (-5.5 feet) the boat driver told us he was seeing rocks he had never seen!  We couldn't actually get to the dock but had to disembark onto the rocks themselves.

Shannyn's House.  It's actually the place where her neighbor's former husband built boats.  Shannyn and her partner live there in exchange for lookout for her elderly neighbor.

The tide is starting to rise....the boats are now in the water.

Shannyn!

Gregor, Shannyn's partner on the left, is a boat builder himself and travels the world working for those who want custom boats built.  The man on the right, I forget his name, is the postman for the area.  Turns out Shannyn's house is the post office.  People drop off their outgoing mail in a bag in Shannyn's house, and the postman, twice a week, takes the mail across to Homer and picks up the mail and any packages and brings them back.

There goes the mail!

After a couple hours of catching up and before the high tide, we all took a walk in the mudflats behind Shannyn's house.  You can see that it's overcast.....can you imagine the mountains out on a sunny blue sky day?

At lot tide EVERYTHING is exposed.  I saw this structure and exclaimed, "they built a boat bottom on a house."  Umm, no, it's the other way around.  Clearly, I see the world from a land perspective.

Before the tide got too high, we walked back to Shannyn's.  See how much the water had risen?

Onions trying his hand at fishing!

When the tide was high enough, we went out for a boat ride to see the place where Shannyn and Gregor are building their own house.

We are now in the same body of water as in the picture (three above) with Onions, Shannyn and Gregor.

Their future deck.

I thought this would be the platform for the house, but it's the foundation for Gregor's future work space.  I'm actually taking the photo from where the house will be located.

Getting this house built is a logistical puzzle.  Remember no roads so everything has to be brought in by boat.  And with the tides and the weather (trying to keep things dry) there are only certain times materials can be brought in.  And then there's always the possibility of bears stopping by.....

Time to head back.

More time to fish....Onions the athlete has much better form than I do.

And of course, he is the one who caught a fish in the first 20 minutes of his fishing career!  We let this little guy go.

And then some neighbors dropped by kayak and canoe.  These are summertime residents from Anchorage saying hello.

Never a dull moment!  A dog got their paw stuck in the gap between deck boards....so Gregor had to take apart the deck to free the dog.

HALIBUT for lunch, which turned out to be 5PM.  That's what the long days do....time loses real meaning.

Our taxi arrived at 730PM and this time we embarked using the dock.  What a wonderful day.

On our way back, the taxi dropped off supplies for another customer on another island.  Life in the islands.

On the way back, Onions and I sat on the deck of the boat to watch islands become smaller as we said goodbye to what we both agreed was the highlight of our trip.  Thanks much to Shannyn and Gregor's hospitality!