Denali Day Two - More Bears, Some Ducks, Weather Change

We've been comparing how little snow there was this year compared to last year.  But now that I've checked last year's posts, it's clear.  Yes, last year was a heavy snow year and this year it was lighter and warmer.  But last year we were there May 3 and  May 4  and this year May 17 and 18.
You can go to the links to see the differences.

After Friday's magnificent day, Saturday gave us a contrast.  Clouds started coming in and by the time we were walking back up from the Teklanika bridge, the first drops began.  But even a rainy day in Denali is a treat.  So here are a few more pictures.

After a few caribou driving to Savage River (where the paved road ends) we (and many others) got to watch this bear fairly close to the road.

There were lots more caribou throughout the drive.  Saturday we were pretty much headed for Teklanika.  This is a campground 30 miles into the park with an overview and lots of bathrooms.  It's a stop for the tourist buses, which don't start running until tomorrow.  Well, that turns out to be not completely true.  There were tan guided tour buses that were running pretty frequently.  In any case, the Denali road is normally closed to private cars at Savage River.  But in the spring, as they clear the road of snow and repair any damage from winter, they open the road - up to Teklanika.  So it's a chance to drive in and stop where you want and watch animals, hike, bike, picnic.  Whatever.  Friday we'd hiked the short Savage River trail (one mile each way.)  It's a loose, but we only did the west side because there was a big glaciated spot that blocked the trail on the east side.  We met people who'd climbed around the ice, but we aren't that young any more.  

We did stop at a pullout about mile 25 and I rode the bike a couple of miles, until there were trees on both sides (and it's harder to spot nearby bears.  Though I don't think there's ever been a biker attacked on the road, but I'm not sure.  Very few people - under five I believe - have been killed by bears in Denali.

So after the bike ride we got to the first small pond before the Teklanika campground which had a Northern Shoveler floating around.  (I'm having trouble focusing my Canon Rebel on objects in the distance, so that's why this bird is so small.  If you enlarge it, you'll see how out of focus it is.  I need to work on this problem.  The manual is challenging and I haven't found good sites on this particular problem online yet.)

The next pond, just past the campground, had a bufflehead pair and a pintail duck.

The Teklanika overlook area was packed with cars - so much so people were parking on the road.  And lots of people had their bikes.  And on the hill not far from the bridge (about a mile away) there was a wildlife ranger (Jake) monitoring a bear sow with two cubs that was about 150 yards below the road.  Well, he said, that they try not to intervene with the wildlife, leaving them as free as possible.  Normal distance to be kept between people and bears is minimum of 300 yards, but since the bears were down below in the river bed and they'd been there for several hours, he wasn't concerned.  Though earlier there'd been about 40 people including barking dogs (they can be on the road on a leash) so he had to quiet down the people.

They were digging for roots he said.  The vast majority of their diet is vegetation in the park.

Here you can see the mom digging.

She had her head down and her claws in the earth most of the time.

Jake noted that the cubs were making noises.  Eventually they get hungrier than roots satisfy, and they wanted to nurse.  I wouldn't know that that is what they are doing in this picture if he hadn't told me.  She's lying down and they're on top of her.









As we headed back up the hill to the car, the first drops began to fall.  Here are some contrasts to yesterday's pictures.


Here's from the viewpoint where I took the pictures of Denali.   This was an idea I had 40 years ago after our first several trips to the park - a postcard of what Denali looks like to most tourists.

Here's yesterday's view from the same spot.  You can't even see the foothills.

It wasn't all just a grey mass, mostly we could see more.

And for a contrast with yesterday's ptarmigan picture, here's one whose feathers are still more in the winter than summer phase.

And here's yesterday's ptarmigan picture again.  Much more brown, less white.

Here's one from yesterday.  I didn't put it up because she was mooning me.  But so you can see the contrast I'll post it here.

We only saw one moose yesterday - while I was on the bike and didn't have my camera.  And it was so close to the road I didn't want to dawdle.  And we see moose often enough in Anchorage, even on our street and chewing on the trees in front of our house, that moose are not that big a deal.  In fact, Friday, the first animal we saw on the tip was a moose beside the Glenn Highway still in the Anchorage city limits.

Nevertheless, they're still magnificent animals, and seeing them in more natural settings like this is still a thrill.  And this rain-dulled picture is pretty much what it looked like up on the hill.  There were a couple other moose with it.

We're back home with lots to do

A Brief Post to Share The Wonder Of Denali National Park

It rained as we drove up here, but the sky was blue when we woke up this morning with just puffy white clouds.  Lots of animals, a good hike, a little biking on the park road.

From our hike at Savage River.

Denali peeking through the clouds.

Ptarmigan - Alaska's state bird, mostly switched from (white) winter coloring to summer garb.

North Face of Denali.


It's really true about how nature changes one's body rhythms.  I just feel more alive here.  Even on a rainy day, but particularly on a day like today.  This is a brief stop at the visitor center to share this, I've got a campfire and dinner to take care of now.

SF 2: Beaches, Flowers, A Bridge

Part of yesterday's wanderings included the old Sutro Baths where Geary meets the ocean.  This is actually a National Park Service National Recreation Area with an interesting history that I'll let interested parties check out here.

The walk down to the beach area was filled with blooming flowers, birds, and bees.











This seems to be a coastal bush lupine.  The pollinator appears to be a Bombus vosnesenskii or yellow-faced bumblebee.

Part of what remains of the bath, including the two egrets.  

And here's what it looks like in the ocean - which was at high tide when we were there.  

 

Then we wandered some more and got to a point west of the Golden Gate bridge near Baker's Beach.  

From the National Park Service, again:

"Battery Chamberlin holds the last 6-inch "disappearing gun" of its type on the west coast. Built near Baker Beach in 1904, Battery Chamberlin was constructed to accommodate the lighter, stronger, more powerful coastal defense artillery developed in the late nineteenth century."

The trail from the beach to the Golden Gate bridge had lots of stairs.

It was a short, but wonderful time with the grandkids, and in San Francisco.  But it's raining today, time to get back to better weather in Anchorage.  

A note on the state of affairs.  My son, at age four, did not have the word "homeless" in his vocabulary.  But his four year old son uses that word all the time.

SF1: Clement +

After dropping the kids off at pre-school we wandered (foot and bus) around San Francisco.  Most of these pictures are on Clement, except for two on Geary.

A doorway like this ought to make some sort of impression on the kids that go to school here.

These last two are on Geary.

Flowers And Sky And Friends

We're in Oakland with very long time friends and today we go into San Francisco to gramp for a few days.  Our friend has a Tesla with a tinted glass roof.  (Probably they all do, but I have no idea.)  It made the sun in the clouds quite a show.  I'd note this this is the first new car my friend has every bought, but he did build and drive his own electric car over 30 years ago.

We had a great day and also visited other good friends and saw lots of flowers.

A poppy bud.











Another blooming.

And one that is finished blooming.  

Rhododendron.

















And an iris.  Just a small sampling of yesterday.

I'd note it's only about ten degrees warmer here now than it was in Anchorage when we left.

At Least Republicans Don't Have The Supreme Court As An Excuse To Vote For A Madman In 2020

Trying to find some silver linings and it occurred to me that in 2016 there were lots of reports of conservatives holding their nose to vote for Trump with the excuse that it was about the Supreme Court (more often than not, about abortion.)
Well, with a 5-4 majority, that excuse should be off the table.  But then that assumes some modicum of decency and reason.

That's all.  It's Saturday.  Get off your computer and get some fresh air and make the world a better place.  Try smiling or at least nodding as you pass by a stranger.  Add positive energy to the world.

I Didn't See The Falcated Duck, But A Trip To Potter Marsh Is Always A Good Idea

The ADN cover story today on the unusual* visit of a Falcated Duck to Potter Marsh was enough to get me in the car to go look.  A couple of years ago, the stray emperor goose that visited Loussac Library, stayed around long enough for me to see him.

So I thru a bike into the van - in case the small pullouts along the highway were full and I had to park a long ways off - and rode down.  But there was no trouble parking, and no Falcated Duck. (The link above has a picture.  It's a handsome bird.)

In fact it was very windy and the water was very choppy.

The most common birds were gulls.

And geese.  Though I also saw a grebe and some long pale necks with dark heads poking out of the grasses in the distance.

Way in the back I saw, through the binoculars, a couple of sandhill cranes land and disappear in the grasses.  Too far and too fleeting to get a picture.

And the background of the marsh, the greening hillside, was particularly beautiful in the binoculars.

Missing the falcated duck was a little disappointing, but I tried.  And yesterday I didn't even know the bird existed.  No reason to be upset, and I wasn't.  Sitting in the car, which bobbled in the wind at times, scanning the marsh with the binoculars was a great break all by itself.

*I used the word unusual because one report said first ever seen on the Alaska mainland.  But the ADN story says it more precisely - 'the first confirmed report of a falcated duck on mainland Alaska ever.'

It's Spring

It's definitely spring.  Even with mostly cloudy days, it's warmer and the plants are starting to wake up.   I rode over the the Botanical Garden the other day on my new bike.  I was able to trade in my old bike - the one the physical therapist said wasn't good for my knee - after about 35 years.

The peonies are in various stages from not even poking out yet, to just coming in as these in the left,










to looking like a real plant like the ones below.

And this oxlip primrose was actually blooming already.

Back home I knew we had a tulip bud that was well along.  

But I didn't realize we too had something blooming - there was one bleeding heart flower out.






We also had a visitor.  If you look closely you can see that something has dined on these lilies.  The most likely culprit is a moose.

And yesterday these white scuff marks weren't on the cement at the bottom of our front steps.  I wouldn't have figured moose hooves if it weren't for the lily.  There's still a lot left.  Maybe it didn't taste too good.