Caution: Wildlife

When you build a road through the wilderness, it is inevitable that large animals will find their way onto the pavement, creating potentially dangerous situations for both wildlife and drivers. It also creates some amazing wildlife viewing opportunities. Early on our trip I was intrigued by the signs warning drivers to look for everything from moose and caribou to sheep and wolverines on the highways. We ended up seeing many of the species right where predicted. Here is a little series I put together showing the often creative signs and the animals on or near the roadway. I think these photos demonstrate an interesting juxtaposition between wilderness and civilization. Most of these photos were taken in the Northern BC Rockies, and the others on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.

Woodland caribou:

Wood bison:



Stone sheep:

Moose - probably the most common of the bunch, and hence the most often hit. In one town we saw a sign alerting drivers to how many moose have been struck since last July 1 (a whopping 174 in this case!)

And though they didn't often have signs warning you about them, nearly all of our bear encounters came along roadsides as well:

Into Denali

Wilderness is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium ~ Sigurd Olson, conservationist

Denali. The word is Athabascan for "High One" and was given to North America's tallest peak, also known as Mt. McKinley. Yet it has come to mean so much more than that. Say the word aloud. Denali. It evokes pure wilderness.

Today we traveled 66 miles into Denali National Park. Before I go further, I have to say I am extremely impressed with how this park is managed. The National Park Service is succeeding in both preserving wilderness and managing human access to experience it while sending a strong environmental and conservation message. It's really reassuring in a time of so many environmental issues to see something done so right.

As part of the plan to reduce human impacts on park wildlife vehicle access to the park is limited. While anyone can drive the first 15 miles of the only road that eventually leads deep into the park, after that vehicle access is mainly restricted to shuttle and tour buses. We rode one of the shuttle buses which pauses to see wildlife and also makes stops at set points where you are allowed to get out.

Now on to the animals! First of all, grizzly bears. Also known more popularly as brown bears in Alaska, as I had hoped we got to see our first grizzlies of the trip today in Denali. We saw two adults together, and our guide hypothesized that it was a male following a female. The picture above is of the bear that was being followed, presumably the female. The photo below is of the other bear who was lighter colored and potentially the male:

We got amazingly close looks at them and it was cool to see how little heed they paid to us. They just came out of the bushes, tromped along for a little ways, and then disappeared again without giving us so much as a glance.

From one of the largest animals of the day to one of the smallest, we also saw lots of Arctic ground squirrels. These little mammals were abundant, and as cute as they are they are also an important food source for most all of the larger animals that live in the Arctic tundra.

I was very thankful that our driver was also a bird-watcher himself and thus was also looking for birds and, even better, stopping the bus to look at birds! We got a closer look at some willow ptarmigans, a bird I saw for the first time earlier in the trip. Unlike the other ones we saw that were still partially white, the ptarmigans in Denali were already in their full brown summer plumage. Notice how the legs are feathered all the way down to the feet.

In addition to the ptarmigans, we spotted several golden eagles (year bird 197) including a great look at a juvenile perched on the hillside below us. The most exciting bird sighting of the day was a gray morph gyrfalcon (year bird 198, NA life bird 330), another bird I had really hoped to see on this trip. For those of you who aren't familiar with this bird, think peregrine falcon but much larger! This was my tenth lifer of the trip, and we are only halfway through!

Another fantastic sighting was a good look at a mother moose and her two calves. Having two offspring at a time is typical for moose, and as our driver explained, more than half of moose calves are predated upon so for the mama moose it is a good insurance policy in terms of successfully passing on her genes.

Dall's sheep were a common sighting today. We saw several groups including one nursery band of nearly 30 moms and young. This adult male was grazing just below another group of five males that were lounging on the hill above:

Another new mammal for me was the barren ground caribou. Going through the BC Rockies we spotted two woodland caribou, but these are their tundra counterparts. In BC we saw a female and a young male, so I was really hoping to see some adult males with their impressive antlers. My wish was granted as we saw two separate groups of males, including this big guy:

Another cool mammal sighting was a brief look at a hoary marmot! No photos of that one, but if you saw my post featuring yellow-bellied marmots from earlier in the trip they look similar but are blue-gray in color. We also saw a red fox carrying a lemming back to its den. I learned that if a fox is carrying its prey, it probably has kits and is carrying them back food, otherwise it will likely eat right on the spot. The only big mammal we didn't see were the wolves, which are a rare sighting though 70-80 of them are living in the park this year.

The wildlife was of course the highlight for me, but the scenery wasn't too shabby either. It was too cloudy to see Mt. McKinley today, as it is two-thirds of the time, but the painted hills of the Alaska Range were a beautiful landscape to take in all the same. Here are a couple photos to give you the feel of it:

The Northern BC Rockies

No internet yesterday, so for now, here's an update I wrote from yesterday, Tuesday the 25th....

Location: Muncho Lake, British Columbia
Population: 20

Have I mentioned that British Columbia is huge? I know I said so yesterday but it really is hard to believe that we often transit through British Columbia on our whale watching trips out of Friday Harbor and that after four long days of travel we are still in this amazing province. I see on the map where we are, but it is hard to grasp being at 59 degrees latitude, with much further north to go! It does the soul a lot of good to see so much untouched land, and to think that we’re seeing the most developed of it on the only main highway for hundreds of miles around. Over the years we all see and hear a lot about the world’s environmental issues, and I don’t want to belittle them because I worry about them a lot, but today was a perfect example of how there is a lot of raw wilderness left, and that all has not been lost.

They call this region the Serengeti of the North and with good reason. Black bears. Mule deer. Elk. Moose. Woodland caribou. Caribou!! And this isn’t even Alaska yet. I am just awestruck at the sheer beauty of this place. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, since they capture it for me better than words as this point.

For the first part of the day the highway look like this:

Along this stretch of highway we spotted another moose, and this time she stayed long enough for me to take a photo:

Soon we started our climb into the Rocky Mountains, and for a while it seemed like there was wildlife around every corner. Elk - like this mom and her youngster:

We saw five black bears. This was my favorite photo from today:

We saw a couple of woodland caribou. I really didn't expect to see caribou until Alaska if at all, and I didn't know there were two types of caribou (the other type is the barren ground caribou). Here is a young male who was licking the rocks for salt alongside the road:

Whenever there weren't animals that demanded my attention, the scenery was breath-taking. Here is one example of the still mostly frozen Summit Lake, with snow-capped peaks in the background:

Today we covered part of the most remote stretch of the Alaska Highway. There are miles and miles of nothing but road, and when you come to a "town" it's nothing more than a hotel and a gas station, if it is open at all. Our stop-over for the night was the Northern Rockies Lodge on Muncho Lake.

Before leaving Fort St. John this morning, we saw a lake with Bonaparte's gulls and black terns (year bird 176) circling overhead. When we arrived at Muncho Lake, this gray jay (177) met us at our cabin:

Muncho Lake is a beautiful aqua color due to suspended copper oxide left as rock dust by receding glaciers. If you don't want to drive all the way to the lake, you can catch a float plane in from Vancouver, as many fly-fishers do for a weekend getaway. Here was an early evening float plane taking off in front of the beautiful mountains that encircle the lake: