If I Were Going...: September 2023

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Alaska: Return to Some Favorites and a New Destination

Off to Alaska again: Silver Salmon Creek and Dutch Harbor

We go to Alaska often and, to some degree, I have been feeling like it's time to give it a little rest and concentrate on other places. But, two factors sent us back in 2023.

First, I had been trying for a couple of years to book a return trip to the Silver Salmon Creek Lodge (SSCL) in Lake Clark National Park for some Bear viewing. We had been in September 2015 and loved it. Finally, back in 2021, a slot opened up for June 2023, a time when there might be some little baby Bears. We booked it.

More on this later

In 2022 we took a spur-of the-moment trip to Alaska focused of Kenai Fjords and Katmai National Parks (first blog in the series covering that trip is here). On a free day, we booked a one-day fly-in Bear viewing with Kenai Backcountry Adventures in case Katmai disappointed (it didn't). They didn't specify where we were going in advance because they base trips on weather and where Bears are being seen. It turns out we landed on the beach right in front of SSCL. And, we saw lots of Bears.

A Brown Bear at Silver Salmon Creek, 2022

So, we were getting pumped for our three-day stay in 2023.

But, three days isn't worth going to Alaska for and one of my major philosophies is, "If we're there, we might as well go somewhere else, too." So (and this is the second factor), I decided that it was time to go to the one major unexplored area I still had in Alaska: the Aleutians.

For some time, I had wanted to visit the chain of islands sprawling out into the Bering Sea almost all the way to Russia. But, I had been having trouble figuring out a cost- and time-effective way to get there. I finally decided to take a birding tour to Dutch Harbor. Now, this is certainly not seeing the whole 1,100-mile-long chain of islands. But, Dutch Harbor is smack dab in the middle and is reachable by plane. It was a great choice, which I will get to later.

Dutch Harbor

When I plan trips to Alaska, I always pad a bit in case there are flight delays or weather issues (Alaska weather is unpredictable), so my trip also included some pre-SSCL time based in Anchorage.

The weather looked iffy coming into Anchorage

And, we had some time between SSCL and Dutch Harbor, which we spent on the Kenai Peninsula.

Harbor Seals in Kenai Fjords National Park

Generally, I like to write and post my blogs fairly quickly after my trip, but here I am in September, writing about June. There are two reasons for that: first, I was traveling a lot and, second, I was deeply embroiled in updating my original two 2014 blog posts on my recommendations for travel to Alaska. Well, as most of my projects do, that one grew. It blossomed into 11 installments (the first one is here).

Writing them took up almost all my spare time in the summer and, because I wrote parts after this trip to Alaska, I scooped myself a little, using photos and anecdotes from my 2023 trips to SSCL and Dutch Harbor. I will attempt to cut as much redundancy as possible, but will have to duplicate some info for clarity here.

So, let's get started.

Anchorage and Up and Down

Our trip required that we fly into Anchorage for our flights to our two target destinations.

I get a window seat on the north side of the plane so I can see this coming into ANC

So, we flew in on a Friday and had the afternoon to explore a little. We started with some yummy fish 'n chips at local favorite, Humpy's.

Left: Scott Stevens; Right: Humpy's

Then, we drove down to Potter's Marsh to look for birds before crashing for the night.

We didn't see many birds; this is a Tree Swallow

When I was planning our trip, I discovered that our arrival would coincide with the Anchorage Market, a summer-time outdoor art/food/craft market that we had visited on past trips. Along with all the junk one sees at a craft fair, we had also found lots of incredible native art. In 2013, we bought a series of prints of drawings by Ken Lisbourne from Pt. Hope that hang in our basement.

We were looking forward to more stuff like this

Scott, who collects Native Alaskan art, was really looking forward to it. I discovered that it had moved from its previous rather sketchy location to the parking lot of the Dimond Center Mall, so I booked a hotel at the Dimond Center (pretty pricey for a basic room) so we wouldn't have to mess with parking.

What a bust! There were hardly any vendors. No real art. And, so-so food.

So, instead of a day immersing ourselves in art shopping, we had to find something else to do. We started out by driving north, planning to go out to the Matanuska Glacier, but after a brief stop at always-beautiful Reflections Lake ...

We always stop here

... a stop at nearby Mirror Lake (a pattern?) ...

It was a perfect day for reflections

... and a few minutes with a mama and baby Alaskan Moose ...

They were fairly skittish and disappeared quickly into the willows

... we changed our minds and turned south.

You just can't go wrong with the beautiful Kenai Peninsula. We didn't do much ...

A glacier near Girdwood

... just stopped at Williwaw to see if any Salmon were running (they weren't) and continued along Turnagain Arm ...

The Williwaw viewing bridge

... admired another mama and baby Moose ...

Right on the highway

... drove by the Exit Glacier ...

This is part of Kenai Fjords National Park

... and made a quick stop in Seward ...

Seward harbor

Then, we ended the day in Anchorage by driving downtown to see what was happening at the Slam'n Salm'n Derby, an annual fishing contest at Ship Creek.

Salmon fishing in the middle of town

It has categories are men, women, military and youth. We happened to catch one of the youth contenders as she weighed her 25 lb. King Salmon.

Little girl, big fish

But we were just killing time before our adventure, which started the next day ...

Next up!

... and starts in the next blog.

Trip date: June 16 - 29, 2023

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Moosecapade 2023

The Moosecapade goal

I have written before about Caty’s and my annual Moosecapade where we go to Rocky Mountain National Park looking for, primarily, mama and baby Moose to photograph.

Traditionally we go to the west side of the Park by Grand Lake because, up until now, Moose have been far more plentiful there. This year, however, we had about equal numbers on the east and west.

West side, east side

That’s probably because of two factors: as the population numbers have grown, Moose have expanded their territory, moving over the continental divide.

And, the Troublesome Creek fire devastated a lot of their food supply on the west side, probably speeding up the easterly expansion.

A bull in the burn area

Our 2023 trip was a bit later than we normally go, mainly driven by when we could get a campsite (and, thus facilitating our Memorial Day trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone). Then, after an exceptionally wet spring, the weather forecast for the weekend we went was so bad that we abandoned camping and rented a cute little house on a muddy road in Grand Lake. That was a good call; we did have rain.

Wet Moose

As far as Moosecapades go, this was a pretty lackluster one. We saw less Moose that usual and only had one really close-up encounter.

Moose calf

It was a good one and it was on the east side!

It was a mother and calf we had seen before but didn’t stop to photograph because they were very close to the road at a narrow part with no shoulders. There were people standing so close that we became “Park Karens” and told a Ranger that there was some bad tourist behavior going on. She rushed over and dispersed the crowd. At that point, we couldn’t very well stop.

The next morning the same Moose were farther back and we were able to get some nice shots.

Calf and cow at Beaver Ponds

The weather was iffy, but not as bad as predicted. But, on the final morning when we had planned to go east and putter around until time to drive back to Caty’s, snow and ice at high elevations closed Trail Ridge Road.

Swainson's Hawk on our way home

Not knowing how long we’d have to wait to cross over, we cut our losses and drove around the long way through Poudre Canyon to Fort Collins. That's 143 miles vs. 89, so it's a big commitment. Pretty, but longer.

It turns out that Trail Ridge Road did open later that afternoon, but we didn't want to risk getting stuck and having to drive back at night.

With the gray skies and bigger crowds where we did see Moose (the east always has more people), it was just kind of blah.

Most of the babies were far, hidden or both

We did see quite a few, but most were just grazing females without calves.

Filling up on spring grass

If we had never seen Moose before, it would have been spectacular. But, we have seen Moose before. Lots of Moose!

Plus, it was a little sparse on birds, as well.

Townsend's Solitaire and Mountain Bluebird

We saw a Cinnamon Teal ...

I hadn't seen one at RMNP before

... and a Bald Eagle near the Park in Grand Lake, but not much else ...

Not a super common sighting at RMNP

.... not even many Elk ...

Bulls, no babies

I guess we are getting blasé about Moose. Next year, we’ll have to decide which side to stay on.

Even though we're jaded, we still love 'em

Trip date: June 2-4, 2023

Friday, September 22, 2023

Yellowstone National Park over Memorial Day

Upper Yellowstone Falls

I mentioned in my last blog that Scott and I went to Grand Teton National Park in May and, although we booked before the road from Teton to Yellowstone opened up for the summer, we lucked out. The road opened the day after we arrived and we were able to spend a little time in Yellowstone.

Then, Caty and I went over the Memorial Day weekend. We anticipated killer holiday weekend crowds, but actually found much of Yellowstone to be virtually empty except mid-day in the geothermal areas (which we avoid because of crowds) and Bear jams.

We suspect the crowds were smaller than we expected because the Park was still waking up from its winter nap. Some lodging and facilities were just opening and the campgrounds were still closed.

When Scott and I went, it was still very snowy ...

Lewis Falls with snow

... and, even over Memorial Day, there was snow and ice ...

Yellowstone Lake still had ice at the edges

We couldn't get lodging in the Park (except a few crazy expensive options), so we decided to try West Yellowstone. Online, people rave about it. We stayed at the City Center Motel, a funky little motel that was nothing to write home about, but fine. We had some delicious pizza at Gusher Pizza & Sandwich Shop, just around the corner.

West Yellowstone was OK, but I felt like the drive to get there took forever. I much prefer to stay outside the Northeast or East entrances if I can't get lodging in the Park.

Both times I went – with Scott and then with Caty – we really wanted to see Grizzly COYs (this year's cubs). We didn't. When Scott and I went, they hadn't come out yet.

Then, we saw lots of postings of COYs. They completely disappeared the week Caty and I were there. Then, they started coming back out the week after we got home. Double arrghhh!

Week before (Bill Little photo); week after (Richard Spratley photo)

But, we did have some pretty good Bear sightings.

As one always does, we returned to spots where we had seen Bears before and checked out places where others had posted about seeing Bears.

Calcite Springs Bears

For Scott and me, it paid off at Calcite Springs, where we had seen a couple of Black Bear moms and tiny cubs in 2022.

Remember this cutie from 2022?

As luck would have it, the same mom and her two cubs were still hanging out in the same spot.

Of course, the cubs were much larger ...

One on a log; one in the same tree

But, they were still under Mom's watchful eye ...

See was watching while she was eating

We were relieved that they had survived the winter. In fact, they were all looking quite healthy.

Chubby with a shiny coat

We asked some wildlife volunteers in they knew what had happened to the other Black bear family we had also seen last year in the Tower falls parking lot.

Bears we saw at Tower in 2022

No one had seen them, but there were rumors that the little cinnamon cub had not made it through the winter. I prefer to believe that it just hadn't appeared yet. But, baby Bears have a pretty high mortality rate, so it is likely the rumors were correct.

Besides these three, Scott and I didn't see much, except a Grizzly napping beside some Bison ...

I guess they can get along

Caty and I had better luck with both Black Bears ...

Dark Cinnamon Black Bear COY, Mammoth Hot Springs

... and Grizzlies ...

Not worthy of much photography

Babies in the Snow

A fun sighting was Bear 864 and her two yearlings high up on a hill in Hayden Valley.

They were a bit far for good photos, but very entertaining

While Mama grazed ...

... her two little cuties ran ...

... and tussled ...

... and rolled around in a big snow patch

Every now and then, Mama grunted and they came running ...

Then, once she was satisfied, they went off to play again

We were confused while shooting these Bears. The cubs seemed too big to be COYs, but too small to be yearlings. It wasn't until we got home and inquired on the Yellowstone Bears Facebook page that we confirmed they were not COYS.

I think they were small plus being wet from the snow made them look even smaller.

Crazy cute; I wish they had been closer

When I took a short break from photographing to go back to my car to get my tripod (a useless trip because the Bears crossed over the top of the hill and disappeared before I got back), I witnessed a pitfall of Yellowstone wildlife viewing.

The law is that you can pull your car off the road and park (except where no parking is posted) as long as all tires are on the other side of the white line and as long as your car is facing the direction of travel. I always comply and am very, very leery of trying to park on steep sides (whether drop-offs or rises). Of course, I prefer pull-outs, but often they are full. I do not park in the middle of a lane (well, I would for a minute for a Mountain Lion, Wolverine or close Wolf, but ...).

Narrow roads make good parking necessary; Photo: Michelin North America

Anyway, just before I left to get the tripod, I heard a clunk that sounded like a car running into another at a very slow speed. When I looked, however, I saw that a driver who had attempted to pull all the way off had not noticed a deep hole between two rocks. When he drove into it, his car rolled over on its side! I appeared to have happened very, very slowly, So, even though the passengers had to crawl out the back, they were not injured. The car looked fine, but I am sure the down side had dents. It was obvious a tow truck or crane would be needed to right it.

I didn't take photos because it seemed rude while the passengers were still extracting themselves (with a Ranger's help). But, it proved that my trepidation with tricky pull-offs is warranted.

Our next encounter wasn't Brown (AKA Grizzly) Bears, but it was cool.

Splish Splash

Caty and I saw a small Bear jam and pulled off to see a medium-sized Black Bear grazing up a hill with her back to us.

Not too exciting, but maybe she had cubs

There were probably 20-30 people watching when, suddenly, a young woman with a heavy southern accent loudly exclaimed, "Oh, sto-op, there's a bear right behind us!"

Stop, indeed! There was a young Black Bear that had just entered a small pond RIGHT BY THE ROAD on the other side to take a soak.

But, he didn't just get wet ...

... he splashed ...

... he twirled ...

... he floated ...

... and generally had a great time ...

Then, he got out, crossed the road and joined the other bear, which we assume was his Mom.

Epic!

Soda Butte Creek Bear

Two days in a row, we went to Soda Butte Creek, where we heard that there had been a couple of Bears hanging around. We didn't see the one with the yearling that had gotten famous for a rough river crossing. The (rather long) video is here. I did not take this.

But, we did see the other Bear that frequents the area. Twice.