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Flower planter
Images, memories of the mind. Flashes of sight that evokes another place where wild things still survive and thrive. Glimpses of good friends, good times.
Eight friends visited Alaska July 4-14, 2001 from Hawaii.
<<Some thoughts on Denali in lo-ku verse by Jim>>
These are only a few of the many pictures Bev and Jim took with two cameras.
Jumping off point for our adventures. Bev and Jim went north to Kotzebue, Kiana and Nome above the Arctic Circle while the rest went cruising for whales, puffins and glaciers westward. But first, a big breakfast at Gwennie's of Anchorage
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Flower planter
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Breakfast at Gwennie's Restaurant, Anchorage
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Da Gang travels on food, for sure
Kotzebue is an Inupiaq village where we were introduced to Eskimo traditions, visited tundra, learned about the flora and fauna and how they're used in daily life for food and medicine. We attended a show at the Nana Cultural Center with displays, dioramas, and native storytelling, dancing and singing.
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Tete a Tete, Polar Bear style
(I did not take this picture; I wish I did. This is a photo of
a photo on display)
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Kotzebue Visitor Center of the Dept of the Interior
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Bev at Kotzebue hotel
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Guide Ed displaying a Wolverine pelt
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Jim checks out the Wolverine
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Jim sitting on a few tons of Jade boulders
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A well dressed Kotzebue kid at the Nana Cultural Center
We flew into Kiana, typical village (population about 200-300) on a 12-seater mail plane. No hotels, three stores and some gravel roads. We were fortunate that only the two of us were on this leg of the tour and Don Smith gave us his full attention. We were able to ask lots of questions on the daily life and customes of this remote village.
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Kiana guide, Don Smith
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Bev in Blankenship Store, Kiana
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Jim and another Wolverine, at Kiana
Nome is a bit of a tourist town. Here the Iditarod Sled Races ends and lots of hotels, shops, restaurants, etc. cater to the annual rush of tourists. As a gold-rush town, Nome still shows the boom / bust nature of transient wealth.
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Sled dogs just before the demonstration of mushing. The sled has
wheels for snow-less running.
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Next generation sled dog looks on. One of a litter of cute white
husky pups.
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Them's real gold flakes. What a pleasant surprise to pan for gold
and actually find some.
Bev and Jim re-joined the group back at Anchorage and took the Alaska Railroad train to Denali National Park. Some six million acres in size, Denali is truly a wilderness, even with it's 90 mile long road.
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Gang de-training at Denali Station
Here, Honolulu is just a whistle-stop en route to Denali.
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Passing Honolulu, Alaska
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Snow capped mountains
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Mt McKinley (aka Denali) is over 20,000 feet in elevation, the
highest moutain on the North American continent. Often shrouded
in clouds, we were fortunate to catch it on a clear afternoon.
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Mountains flanking Denali
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Reflection on Wonder Lake. Wonder Lake several miles long formed
when part of the Muldrow Glacier outflow was cut off and dammed.
A beautiful, icy lake reflecting the Denali range of mountains
on a clear day (but not today).
This is tundra country. Permafrost lays inches to a few feet below the surface and plants typically grow only a few inches tall, dwarfed by the environment and harsh growing conditions.
Not being a plant person, these carry common or whimsical names until I can more positively identify and label them <grin>.
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Dwarf Dogwood about 2 inches high
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Pink Flame about 10 inches high
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LPF (anoymous little pink flower) one inch in diameter
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TPF (Tiny pink flower) pin-head sized
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Hare Bell, quarter inch wide
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Bearberry, dwarf and low
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old mushroom cap, about 4 inches wide
In Denali, humans are the intruders and wildlife are at home. Binoculars and long lenses allow us to view the animals without disturbing and distressing them.
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Ground Squirrel pan-handling humans at the train sataion.
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Marmot pops up from a burrow as we lunch nearby.
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Playful marmot climbs the rock to see us better.
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Porcupine (see them eyes?) un-moving, hoping we would go away.
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Caribou shedding the winter coat, looks a bit ragged.
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Caribou heading home or wherever there's food.
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These caribou take the easy path
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Rackless moose chomps on underwater vegetation
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New Gull rests atop a spruce tree
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Bear in tundra snuffling for berries
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Fox shedding winter coat. Note the summer red fur beginning to
show on his front legs.
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Wolf oblivious to the buses so long as we stay aboard and don't
bother him.
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That's a Snowshoe Hare's hind leg dangling from the mouth as the
wolf finishes his meal
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Let's show a leetle fang there.
Denali has few trails as the tundra allows unobstructed views for miles around. Just pick a ridge or valley and go. We had guides from the North Face Lodge to lead our hikes and interpret the flora and fauna along the way.
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Lunch at the Teklanika River enroute to the lodge.
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Bend at Moose Creek. Note the uplifted metamorphosed sedimentary
rock on the left bank and the little sandy beach on the right.
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Da Gang partway up a ridge.
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Inspecting Dall Sheep horns from a likely kill. We never found
the rest of the bones. That's Nora in red, our guide in yellow
and Jim to the right.
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Lunch with a fabulous view of Denali
We stayed four nights at North Face Lodge, just past Wonder Lake and within the park boundaries. The stay included all meals (excellent gourmet-style meals), daily hikes and excursions with knowledgeable and experienced guides and a comfortable, relaxing ambiance.
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North Face Lodge main room provides a relaxing place to read,
converse or just enjoy the fire.
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Evening relaxation (Lari, Ruth, Nora, Octavia)
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Jim and Bev at dinner time
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Jim and Octavia
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Well dressed hikers with Easter bonnets (mosquito netting). The
mosquitoes are big and slow and number in the uncounted gazillions.
Nets are the only way to maintain your sanity when the breezes
stop blowing and the mozzies swarm.
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This outhouse keeps warm with logs stored on both sides. Actually
a flush toilet facility, it is charmingly built between two log
sheds.
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Cathy checking out a food cache of bygone days.
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Flight of geese carved on a piece of antler by a local craftsman.
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Chester-Bou, a rare adaptation suitable for the annual migration
of the running of the caribous.
Sadness and satisfaction as we return to Anchorage and prepare to return home.
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Newly met firends, Al and Betsy, looking pooped as they disembark
in Anchorage.
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Surprise gift for Jim's birthday at our final dinner
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Caribou dining by Aurora's glow
(I did not take this picture; I wish I did. This is a photo of
a photo on display)
Jim Yuen, July 2001