Denali- Riley Creek (07-20-14)

Our venture into Denali National Park is divided into two segments.  Our first 4 days we are spending at Riley Creek Campground near the entrance to the park.  None of the campgrounds have hookup so we will be using the generator for the 8 days that we will be here. 

The Tall One, Denali, Mt. McKinley- all these names refer to the same mountain- the tallest peak in North America. Originally named Denali by native Alaskans, it was re-named McKinley in the late 1800s, when it was (re) discovered.

Whatever name you use, this is what people come to Denali for- to see the Tall One.  We haven’t had that opportunity yet.  Standing at over 20,000 feet, Denali is, more often than not, in the clouds.

So, what does one do while one is waiting for Mt. McKinley to make an appearance?  Well, Paul and I hike.  Even if it’s raining, apparently.  Wildlife viewing is also quite popular, if you can find some wildlife to view.  We were lucky, within 10 minutes on our first hike, we came upon a cow moose eating lunch along the road.

She didn’t seem concerned by the audience, and just went about her business.

Our first hike was up to Mt. Healy overlook.  As you can see, it was pretty much straight up. 7 miles roundtrip and 1600 feet of elevation gain.  It took us a while to get to the top, and it started raining steadily when were about 2/3rds of the way there.  We made a mistake and didn’t put on our waterproof pants- the drizzle had sort of snuck up on us and we were wet before we realized.

By the time we reached the top, we were soaked, and it was still raining.  Luckily it wasn’t windy!  We ate our sandwiches standing up in the rain, trying to hunch over to keep them dry.  Fun times!

We stayed at the top for a while and we could see the rain starting to clear away in some areas.

It made for an interesting picture, with the sun shining in one area and rain coming down in another.  I didn’t get too many pictures and I didn’t bring the new camera.

Our second hike meant a bus ride.  There is a free shuttle that travels the first 15 miles of the main road in Denali.  We took it as far as we could so we could hike along Savage River.  This time it was raining pretty heavily when we got off the bus, so we started out with all our rain gear on.

After our hike the previous day, we picked this one because its only 2 miles long.  Partly we just wanted to take the bus ride so we could look for wildlife.  We didn’t see any while on the bus, but we did on the hike.

On our way back to the trailhead we glanced up and saw these two guys. At first glance we thought they were moose but once we got a look at their antlers, we immediately realized that they are Caribou. 

The antlers on this animal are amazing! I don’t know how they keep their heads up!
Anyway, about 15 minutes before the hike was over, the rain stopped for a bit.







One of the things we’ve realized is that the people in Denali, and in fact, the people in Alaska, don’t let the rain stop them from doing what they want. Raincoats are the normal daily wear, and  Its very common to see people wearing waterproof pants- most of them are much nicer than what we have- we just bought a cheap set because we won’t use them all that much. 

If we had not ignored the rain, we wouldn't have seen much of Denali so far.

So, these are the hikes that….didn't happen:

Sunday morning we were signed up to head out on a Ranger led Discovery Hike. Much of Denali is maintained as a wilderness and much of the hiking is “off trail”. The ranger takes a group on an all day off trail hike teaching them about the park.  Sounded like fun. We needed to leave the camper at 7:45 AM.  Unfortunately, it was once again raining and had rained all night- and the temperature outside was 42 degrees. We had already been told we might be crossing a stream deep enough that we could get wet up to our knees. After all that rain, we were picturing having to swim across. So, freezing and soaked again? Um, no thanks.

After bailing on that hike, we got on the shuttle to once again head to Savage River, this time to hike a 4.5 mile up to a peak.  But, when we got on the bus, we were chatting with the driver and she asked us what our plans were. So, we told her. She smiled and said “did you know that the wind is whipping and the last time I drove by, it was snowing up there?” Um, no. 

So, we took the bus all the way out to Savage River and back, about an hour and a half, searching for wildlife along the way.  We did see this bull moose but no bears.

Once we arrived back at the Visitor Center, we hiked a short, 2 mile trail to Horseshoe Lake, where we saw yet another moose.  This was a cow, eating in the lake. Once in a while she would head to shore, then turn around and come back out.

It turns out she was checking on her calf, who was munching away along the shore line.












Tomorrow we move to a different campground, further in the park, and I have been assured that we will have no WI-FI or cell signal while we are there.

On the Lookout (08-01-13)

There are certain things that are fairly easy to find on Newfoundland, that may be more difficult to find in other places.  Those are the things we have been on the lookout for in our travels.  What are they? Whales, icebergs, moose, and Puffin.

Moose

Let’s start with moose.  I mean, seriously, there is one moose for every 6 people here on the island.  How hard can they be to find?  They are so common, some of the highways are equipped with moose sensors, that alert drivers by flashing lights when moose are on the highway. Of course,  they weren’t flashing when we went by (twice).

  Every road we drive on seems to have prime moose habitat along the sides. Don’t the moose know this an excellent place for them to be?

We even drove down some brain-jarring, spine rattling dirt roads, just to increase our chances of finding some of these elusive creatures.

We finally did see a moose- actually a cow and her calf, while on the hike at Western Brook Pond. I couldn’t get a picture of the calf though.










Puffin are birds that look like a cross between a Toucan and a penguin.



 

They are actually easy to find because they hang out at the same places all the time- one of those places is the town of Elliston- so all we had to do is go there and see them. 

They are absolutely adorable when they fly- I expected them to seem out of place in the air, like a penguin would be, but they fly pretty fast. 

Icebergs

Iceberg season is really over at the end of June, so we weren’t sure we’d get to see one. You can take a boat tour out to see whales and Icebergs, but we really didn’t want to do that because we knew that the boats weren’t finding any icebergs anyway.  On the way to Labrador, we stopped at a visitor center, and she told us about an iceberg that was floating around a harbor.

  Lucky for us, it happened to be on our way, so we kept a sharp eye out. 

As far as icebergs go, its not a very big one, but this late in the season, I felt very happy that we were able to see one at all!  As a side note, the people from this area were some of the first to respond when the Titanic sank.

Whales

Last but not least, the whales.

Newfoundland has lots of coastline. More than 10,000 miles of it, I believe, and whales live here all summer long.  Again, you can take a boat tour, but you can also watch the whales from shore, so everywhere we go, we are on the lookout for the telltale “blow”.

We saw whales Friday, but they barely came out of the water at all, and were so far away, we didn’t get any pictures.

Saturday was better, but not by much. These whales were very close to shore, there just happen to be no roads in the vicinity. There was a small pod of whales feeding just offshore. At least I got a picture of the tail!

This picture actually has two whales in it- a fin showing on the left, and another whale blowing thru its blowhole on the right.  Yeah, I’d like to get close enough to get better pictures!

We’ll still keep a sharp eye out to see if we can find more whales, moose and puffin ( the icebergs are a lost cause at this point) but at least we got to see them once!

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (07-16-13)

Figuring out how to visit and tour the island of Cape Breton took a little research.  Most of the population here is along the coastline, and there’s a scenic drive that circles the island.

Many people park their RV in one spot, then day trip along the Cabot Trail, which is what the scenic drive is called.  Others tow their 5th wheel all the way along the trail, stopping along the way to explore.  We made our final decision after talking with someone we met at Peggy’s Cove.  He sat down with us with a map and gave us his opinions.

From Cheticamp on, the Trail gets very steep and windy.  It’s not that we couldn’t tow it- we could, but it would be slow going, and not a lot of fun, plus we wouldn’t have been able to pull over if something caught our interest.

So, we drove as far as the town of Cheticamp, parked in an RV Park, and we have spent the last few days exploring the northern portion of the island.

The first thing I was anxious to do is hike so we headed to one of the most popular trails in Cape Breton Highlands National Park- the Skyline Trail.  It’s about a 5 mile loop out to a scenic lookout.

The trail was fairly easy, without too much elevation gain.  A lot of people don’t make the full loop-they hike out the “left” leg of the loop, which is the shortest and easiest path to the view, and then turn around. 

We wanted to hike the whole thing anyway, and the ranger told us that the more difficult side is where the moose are- so that clinched it.  And, luckily we were rewarded with a close up view of a female moose.

We spent the rest of the afternoon oohing and aaahing over the views along the trail.  











Later in the day the wind was kicking up quite a bit and so were the waves.  With the binoculars, we saw what looked like a small boat that was in trouble. The swells were  big enough that the small Zodiac kept disappearing- and another boat was clearly making a beeline for it.  When it got there though, the Zodiac took off, and we realized they were whale watch boats, stopped to look at whales.



We went down into Pleasant Bay harbor to watch the next boat head out.  I don’t know, we’d have to be pretty desperate to go out on a small boat when the seas are that rough. 

Another day, another hike. This time we hiked the Acadian Trail, which also ends with quite a view, but this time there was about 1000 feet of elevation gain to get to it. 

After our hike we headed to Meat Cove, at the northern end of the island.  There are a couple of small restaurants at the cove, and a beautiful beach.  If I’d had my suit with me I would have gone for a swim. It was just hot enough to make the water look very inviting, especially since the water isn’t that cold. 

Yellowstone- Wildlife Count (07-10-12)

I counted the wildlife for my own purposes, and I was surprised at how much  we actually saw.  Of course, being in Yellowstone for three weeks contributed to the high number, partly because we learned how and where to go to watch them.  Even with these numbers, there were many times we could have stopped to see a bear of a herd of elk but didn’t because of the crowds. The longer we stayed here, the more I felt that we were being given a unique opportunity to see these animals on their own “turf”. They were all just living their lives, trying to ignore the humans that keep encroaching on their territory. For the first week, every time we saw a “new” animal, I got really surprised, excited, and anxious to get a good view.  Later on, I got just as excited, but in a much quieter way.  It’s hard to describe.  I guess I was no longer surprised to see the animals, because I know now that they just live here, but I was happy every time their daily routine brought them close enough to me that I could observe them.
Anyway, each number represents how many times we saw each type of animal.  Sometimes it may have been the same animal on a different day (who knows?)…
Wildlife watching could be addictive, except that there aren’t many other places in this country that we can see this many animals:
Bison- too many to count
Bull Elk-lone- 4
Elk herd with calves- 16-18
Big horn sheep-1
Osprey- 1
herd of wild goats-1
moose-1
moose calf-1
Grizzly bears- 3
Grizzly cubs-1 (there were two at the same time-2nd year cubs- bear cubs stay with their mom for 2 summers)
Black bears-5-6
black bear cubs-3 (there were two cubs each time) black bear sows can have 1-3 cubs at the same time, and all can have different fathers.
howling of a wolf pack-3 (the second time we heard it was just as awesome as the first time)
howling of a coyote pack-1 (difference between wolf and coyote howl- wolf is lower tone, pure howl, coyote is higher pitched with yelping mixed in)
wolves-3
wolf- Alpha female with pups-2(needed a scope to see them, I took someone’s word for it that the blobs of fur were pups)
wolf pack (Canyon Pack) -2
coyotes-4-5
Snowshoe Hare-2
Grouse-1
Pronghorn- 7-9 small groups or single animals
fox-1
Bald Eagle 3-4
Mule deer-1
fawn-3 (the third one was alone and actually could have been a tiny elk- after seeing it, we asked a ranger and both elk and deer leave their young alone in a field with “instructions” not to move- they have very little scent to them so predators pass them by.)
Sand Hill Crane-2

Grizzly and two cubs

Grizzly

black bear

Grizzly Country! (Grand Teton National Park) 06-15-12

    Knowing we were entering bear country, I started reading up on the subject of Grizzly bears VS Black bears, and how to handle ourselves while hiking in Grizzly country.  I found out that bear spray is more effective as a Grizzly deterrent than a bullet.  That’s good to know, since it’s easier to buy the bear spray- which we did.  Apparently, even if your hands don’t shake too much to actually hit the bear with a bullet, it could take 3 shots to bring a Grizzly down.  No thanks.  Of course, your best bet is to not get in a Grizzly’s face to begin with.  People hike with “bear bells” that are supposed to warn the bear that there are people in the area, but experts say the sound doesn’t carry far enough, and some say the Grizzlies just think they sound like the dinner bell.

 

The distance at which a hiker typically encounters a grizzly is when they are a mere 15 feet apart.  Most people do not make enough noise, and they look down at the trail too much, not looking to see what’s around them. As surprised as I would feel, I’d hate to think how surprised the bear would be. A startled Grizzly is a dangerous Grizzly.  Rather than bells, they suggest you hike in groups of 4 or more, the theory being that you will be talking, and your voices will carry enough to send the bear in a different direction.  With that in mind, we took our friends Avril and Dave along as our bear bait.

Along the way we discussed the “rules to live by” of a bear encounter.  Don’t Run is rule #1.  Don’t climb a tree to escape a bear unless a) you climb very quickly, and b) you can climb higher than 31 ft up the tree, because bears can climb 30 feet. Don’t drop your backpack- for two reasons.  First, if the bear does get a chance to swipe at you, the pack will protect your back, and second, if the bear gets it and the pack has food in it, the bear has just learned that if he attacks someone, he will get food. If bear spray doesn’t work as a deterrent ( or if you were silly enough to go hiking without it) laying down flat and playing dead, with your hands on the back of your neck to protect it is your best bet, as long as you don’t move until the bear is long gone, because any movement will be perceived as aggression by the bear.

Using our friends as bait must have worked because we did encounter a Grizzly on one of our hikes.  He was quite far away, so the picture isn’t that good, and we were lucky that Dave happened to look back and see him, because we had already passed him.  Of course, after that, we all spent a lot of time looking over our shoulders.

The hike we were on that day was a trail around Two Ocean Lake, with a side trip up  to “Grand View”.  Turns out we couldn’t go all the way around the lake because the trail was closed (we found out later it was due to nesting Bald Eagles) so we had to turn around and go back the way we came.  All in all it was about 8 miles.  We enjoyed the walk but I liked the hike we had done the day before better. 

Our first hike with Avril and Dave was into to Cascade Canyon, via Observation Point.  To get to the trailhead we took a boat across Jenny Lake. Once we got past the short climb to Observation Point, the number of hikers on the trail thinned out

and the 8 mile hike was really enjoyable.

Although there were quite a few snow patches along the way, the air temperature was perfect and the scenery was great.  With the snow melt from the nearby Tetons, there were plenty of waterfalls.

Just about everywhere we went, the Tetons stood in the background. What makes them different from most mountains is that they have no foothills.  They very abruptly rise up from the relatively flat ground that surrounds them.

I would love to go boating with that backdrop!

Of course, one of our primary interests in the Tetons, in addition to hiking, was the wildlife. We headed to the visitor center to learn about the park, and find out where the best wildlife viewing spots are. I really enjoyed one of the of the exhibits- patches of actual animal fur, so I could feel what wolf and bear fur feel like. Throughout our visit, we did see a fair amount of wildlife-in addition to Pronghorn Antelope and Bison, we saw quite a few moose:





Well, I took that picture before we actually saw real moose:

While driving down Moose Wilson Road, we came across a moose jam.  It seemed like cars were strewn everywhere as their occupants tried to get their own pictures of Bullwinkle.

Along the road to our campground turned out to be the best spot for finding moose, and many times when we drove by, they were in the area: 

Yesterday we took a very long drive down a  dirt road along the river, and managed to spot a Bald Eagle flying above the water,  but I didn’t have much time to get the camera set up, so the picture isn’t the best.  Hopefully we’ll see more in Yellowstone.

Naturally, Dozer wanted to see his share of wildlife. Squirrels, mice and other small creatures were abundant in the campground and it wasn’t long before Dozer had a baby squirrel in his mouth, making a beeline for the trailer.  We did get him to drop it, but he immediately went back on the hunt.   A small mouse managed to get into the trailer one night, and Dozer did his job as a mouser and took care of it for us.

Today we spent gearing up for our 3 week stay in Yellowstone.  We did laundry, bought food, and washed the truck. We ate lunch in the small town of Jackson Hole at an excellent restaurant, and wandered the very expensive shops without buying anything.