June 29, 2007 – Mountain View RV Park, Palmer, AK

Our Alaska adventure is coming to a close, or at least we are planning our retreat to the south. Tomorrow our friends Ed and Nancy fly home to Staunton Virginia after sharing six weeks of our journey across Alaska. We will replenish supplies and relax here on Sunday and then hit the road on Monday.

We will be retracing our path to Tok in northeast Alaska on that day. From there we plan to continue northeast to the tiny town of Chicken near the Canadian border. We will stay there at least two nights and probably visit the even more remote community of Eagle on the Yukon River. Then we will cross into the Yukon Territory of Canada. There the town of Dawson City has been very popular with travelers. From there we will turn south to Whitehorse and then follow the Cassiar Highway to Prince George and then east to Jasper in British Columbia.

We are looking forward to moving from Alaska to the Canadian Rockies. The end of June has brought too many tourists and too many mosquitoes to the 50th State. We have enjoyed its spectacular scenery and wildlife for some two full months. It is time to move on!

Our departure from Denali National Park was capped by a sighting of a pair of wolves on the tundra. We watched them for some time before heading on toward the City of Fairbanks. We found this a modern town in a region of extreme climate. We contracted with a high school student as a guide and he found us a fine collection of short-tailed owls and northern hawk owls. We were, however, unable to find a great gray owl. This is a frustratingly difficult bird to find anywhere at any time. The best time and place is mid-winter in northern Minnesota. Perhaps, some day. . .

From Fairbanks we drove southeast to the community of Paxson and explored the Denali Highway, a fabulously scenic road the traverses tundra lands south of the Alaska range. We sought a handsome songbird called Smith’s longspur. It is an uncommon finch whose range extends across relatively inaccessible territory in central and northern Alaska and northwestern Canada. We had seen this bird once, in Churchill, Manitoba. Our friends had never seen it.

We were told to contact a local innkeeper and guide regarding bird activity in the Paxson area. He was not, however, helpful, explaining that as a paid guide he did not wish to share local information on sightings. So, we used the Alaska bird-finding guidebook to locate a local colony of longspurs. As it turned out, our reluctant friend had authored the section on the Denali Highway. The book was, however, some eight years old, and we could not find the bird.

We did encounter the guide with a group along the way. He clearly did not want to share his recent findings. We accepted this, but we did notice to what section of tundra he led his group. After his departure and our lunch, we explored that area and, Walla, there it was. The guide will likely never get our business, nor will we recommend him. Courtesy is an element of good birding.

Another two days of light travel and touring brought us back here to Palmer, now much leafier than upon our first arrival more than a month ago. This time we are camped at the appropriately named Mountain View Campground. Yesterday we drove up to Hatcher Pass to share the Alaskan alpine one last time with our friends. There a juvenile American dipper begged to its mother for food along a boulder strewn stream. Then we went into Anchorage and walked in the downtown area and visited the Federal Lands Visitor Center. Finally we parked at the side of the airport to watch red-necked grebes and seaplanes taking off and landing. Farther away the huge B-747 freighters were rising every few minutes on their way to Asia.

Finally we left our friends at the terminal and returned alone to our little home. We have named our Winnebago Minnie “Harley,” by the way, after the fabulous harlequin ducks that are so regular here.

June 22, 2007 – Teklanika Campground, Denali N.P., AK

We are completing our fourth day in the park. It has been a whirlwind tour with little pause for reflection, but very rewarding. While we are not excited by the operation of the park, we have been awed by its grand landscapes and conspicuous large wildlife. Beyond the first 15 miles of the 89-mile park road, one must take a bus, except that campers at Teklanika campground at mile 29 may drive only to their campsite on the day of arrival and back on the day of their departure. Our camping here gives us an advantage in touring the park.

Whereas many visitors spend one harrowing day on a bus, we used the buses as taxis taking us from place to place along the road during these past three days. Clear weather the first day and on the morning of the second gave us spectacular views of snowy Mt. McKinley, the braided branches of the Toklot River, the multicolored Polychrome and Cathedral Mountains, and high and broad reaches of alpine tundra, scrublands, and valley spruce forests. Today smoke from forest fires to the south clouded our views of the landscape, and we searched for and collected our first views of arctic warblers.

The warbler searching was confused by several factors. The warblers reside in the Igloo River canyon through which the road passes. We asked to be dropped off at the Igloo River campground. That was done, but we were reminded that off-road travel is prohibited there because of the problem wolf activity of a few years ago. The campground was closed, but we could walk there.

We did walk through and found only a long-distance cyclist sleeping bundled up on a picnic table. Our passing woke him and we said good morning but did not mention the wolf issue or that his activity was illegal. He looked cold and mosquito pestered.

Leaving the campground we followed the road through willow thickets that looked like good habitat for our bird. Buses, all outbound in the early morning, passed and dusted us. The road is gravel, but should be paved or oiled. The traffic creates a cloud and pollutes the tundra and walkers near the roadway.

A bus stopped about a hundred yards ahead of us and put on flashers. We noticed but could not see the reason. Then a second bus passed and also stopped. Now we were about fifty yards behind. We looked into the bus through binoculars and noticed that everyone was looking to the left. Then the second bus backed up to us and the driver explained that there was a sow and cub immediately alongside the road. We reversed course and retreated about a hundred yards, decided upon a strategy, and flagged the next bus to reach us. This bus too stopped shortly and we observed the pale brown monster lying in the willows about thirty feet off the road on the far bank of a small tundra pool. The cub played nearby.

When everyone had a view the driver continued and we asked her to stop in about a thousand feet. She explained that she had to take us a half-mile after an animal sighting. So we resumed our birding a few minutes later and shortly heard the melodious warble of our quarry. Anne heard and found the tiny green-backed and olive-breasted bird with a classy eye stripe near the top of a willow. It took a few minutes for all members of our party to locate this bird that looked like a willow leaf among the willow leaves, but the bird was very cooperative and continued singing from its perch the whole time.

Continuing our walk we heard and saw several more birds before again flagging a bus and continuing on to the high alpine at Polychrome Mountain to look for gyrfalcon. There we had found our first “gyr” the day before yesterday wonderfully perched on a razorback ridge. It was not there today, but a pair of golden eagles soared through the smoke above the mountain.

We have seen moose, caribou, and grizzly/brown bears from the bus. Yesterday a sow and two new cubs crossed the road directly in front of the bus and then stayed in the tundra several yards below. The sow rooted while the cubs played, providing photo opportunities galore. We have, so far, missed seeing only wolf in the park. The sightings will remain in our memories forever.